Airsoft in the Metro

Rew

There is a picture of the guy who owns Go Tactical and his shop in the Metro today with a brief caption. Ill scan it when I get to the office.

The Master

Also on page 5 of the Herald AM

RC car fanatic

Robster The Lobster wrote: »

Also on page 5 of the Herald AM

lots of attention

kdouglas

No such thing as bad publicity lads

Shiva

Apparently its in The Star too. I haven't read it myself, but the guy who called to let me know said its an inflammatory piece. Who'd have thought The Star would stoop to such a level ? :eek:

feylya

On breakingnews.ie yesterday too:

http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2008/0327/ireland/mhojeyidgbql/

Apparently, they sell weaponry! :eek: :rolleyes:

kdouglas

Shiva wrote: »

Apparently its in The Star too. I haven't read it myself, but the guy who called to let me know said its an inflammatory piece. Who'd have thought The Star would stoop to such a level ? :eek:

Gasp! Shock! Horror!

bullets

The Media keep harping on about someone with bad intentions can just walk into a store
and buy one! But I think it would be good to highlight the fact to the Media that
the same person with the bad intentions could just as easily aquire an airsoft product
by ordering one off the net outside of Ireland.

~B

Utreg

bullets wrote: »

The Media keep harping on about someone with bad intentions can just walk into a store
and buy one! But I think it would be good to highlight the fact to the Media that
the same person with the bad intentions could just as easily aquire an airsoft product
by ordering one off the net outside of Ireland.

~B

In Clara market near Tullamore, they have been selling cheap springers for years...

Rew

Utreg wrote: »

In Clara market near Tullamore, they have been selling cheap springers for years...

Illegally seeing as there only legal recently. They used to get confiscated all the time.

CrazyRabbit

Does anyone have a kitchen knife I can borrow, or a baseball bat, hurley etc? I'm going to be paying a quick visit to my local post office later to make eh, a 'withdrawal'.

kdouglas

bullets wrote: »

The Media keep harping on about someone with bad intentions can just walk into a store
and buy one! But I think it would be good to highlight the fact to the Media that
the same person with the bad intentions could just as easily aquire an airsoft product
by ordering one off the net outside of Ireland.

~B

no need to order online and wait for it to be delivered, go into your local hardware and you'll find plenty of things you could easily use to threaten someone with, what the media seem to forget is the intent is there, regardless of what they use and personally id rather have an airsoft gun pointed at me than be threatened with a knive, baseball bat, syringe, golf club, hurl, any of the other many things that can actually kill.

Just got a copy of the star, will upload a scan of the article in a minute, it's basically word for word what was on breakingnews.ie

Blazher

bullets wrote: »

The Media keep harping on about someone with bad intentions can just walk into a store
and buy one! But I think it would be good to highlight the fact to the Media that
the same person with the bad intentions could just as easily aquire an airsoft product
by ordering one off the net outside of Ireland.

~B

<snip>

That needs to be pointed out

kdouglas

kdouglas

Blazher wrote: »

<snip>

That needs to be pointed out

Let's not be giving people ideas please

Blazher

Whats funny is, because of all this hype the crims are going to know what airsoft is and were to get the AEGs, If they kept this low key


A, less Crims would know what Airsoft was

B. Less Crims would know were to get AEGs


GG Ireland wins again,

feylya

That looks to be identical to the article from BreakingNews.ie

Imitation gun shop opens despite concerns

A shop selling realistic imitation guns ranging from assault rifles to pistols has opened in Co Wicklow despite local concerns about the growing levels of gun crime.

Go Tactical in Bray started trading this week with customers able to buy a range of weaponry and hardware for use in the sport "airsoft".

Similar to paintballing, it involves opponents dressing in camouflage gear and firing 6mm plastic pellets at each other from special guns which are detailed replicas of the real thing.

Owner Peter Sharpe, 30, said business is already brisk, but politicians have expressed concerns.

Co Wicklow Fianna Fáil TD Joe Behan said he would be calling on Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan to tighten the law surrounding the opening of such outlets.

"It is something that local residents have very deep concern about," he said.

"I accept that the owner is trying to operate a commercial enterprise.

"I would accept that he has no mal-intentions and I would accept that these are replica weapons, but I would share the concerns of residents.

"The reality is that while they themselves are not firearms, somebody can use one to go into a bank or a post office or a house and effectively it would give the impression that they are carrying a firearm."

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Bray Sinn Féin councillor John Brady said there was grave concern in the local area over the new gun shop.

"Gun crime has risen dramatically in all parts of the state. There are some serious consequences here," he said.

"I've listened in great detail to the owner of the shop and he does seem to be running a very professional outfit there. But having said that, someone could walk in off the street there with very bad intentions and purchase one of these."

Under Irish law, it is legal to sell such weapons and Mr Sharpe said only those aged 18 or older will be able to buy in the store.

Since its opening on the Upper Dargle Road on Tuesday business has been good, with the owner saying customers were airsoft enthusiasts.

Mr Sharpe said there has been no adverse reaction from the local community and he plans to officially open the shop next Sunday with a range of military vehicles on show, including gun-trucks.

"Business has been good. A lot of the rifles have been popular," he said.

The sport is regarded as harmless fun by its proponents who claim players suffer less pain if shot than in paintballing.

According to the Irish Airsoft Association (IAA) website it is becoming more popular, but with that growth comes responsibility.

"It is imperative that these devices are handled responsibly and stored, transported and used in such a manner as not to cause alarm to anyone else who may see them."

kdouglas

Yea, but most criminals dont give a damn about airsoft because

A. It's just as easy (easier) to get a real gun if you have the right(wrong ) contacts

B. You can buy more effective things to use as a weapon at your local hardware store

Blazher

kdouglas wrote: »

Let's not be giving people ideas please

LoL Sorry man, Its just my evil Mastermind at work

But its true.

kdouglas

feylya wrote: »

That looks to be identical to the article from BreakingNews.ie

yup, there's no author listed on breakingnews.ie, I wonder is it the same person submitting it to different media or a lazy journalist (if you can call them that) in the star newspaper....

Blazher

[Snip]

kdouglas

true, a drug dealer could use it to make people think he's carrying a real one, but most drug dealers have the contacts to get a real one anyway, plus he'd lose a hell of a lot of "street cred" if his fellow drug dealer mates found out he was acting the hard man with a toy instead of a real gun

Anyway, this is getting a bit off-topic

I have it on good authority that the article in Herald AM is identical to that in The Star and on breakingnews.ie last night, apparently the metro is just a photo, hopefully scans will be coming soon.

N.O.I.P.

kdouglas wrote: »

I have it on good authority that the article in Herald AM is identical to that in The Star and on breakingnews.ie last night, apparently the metro is just a photo, hopefully scans will be coming soon.

I'm sans scanner but the pic in the metro is the same one from the Star.

Tagline reads
"Peter Sharpe owner of the Go Tactical airsoft shop in Bray, Co Wicklow. The shop selling realistic imitation guns has opened despite local concerns about the growning levels of gun crime"

Rew

N.O.I.P. wrote: »

I'm sans scanner but the pic in the metro is the same one from the Star.

Tagline reads
"Peter Sharpe owner of the Go Tactical airsoft shop in Bray, Co Wicklow. The shop selling realistic imitation guns has opened despite local concerns about the growning levels of gun crime"

To put my pedantic hat on its similar but not the same, im just throwing scanner software on my laptop and Ill scan it. Didnt get the Herald AM so no idea whats in that.

kevteljeur

kdouglas wrote: »

yup, there's no author listed on breakingnews.ie, I wonder is it the same person submitting it to different media or a lazy journalist (if you can call them that) in the star newspaper....

For what it's worth (and a little off-topic, I'll admit) I'm subscribed to ireland.com, breakingnews.ie and rte.ie news feeds; I challenge you to pick out the one which tends to have stories which read suspiciously like paraphrased articles from the other two... It could be genuine borderline plagiarism, or else just syndicated news which they re-write to suit. Occasionally different stuff shows up, and these articles tend to be lengthy, but I doubt they have the resources to write original content (which costs money).

Edit: Oops, fast moving thread, I sort of missed the boat - sorry guys! That'll teach me to post through VNC...

N.O.I.P.

Rew wrote: »

To put my pedantic hat on its similar but not the same, im just throwing scanner software on my laptop and Ill scan it. Didnt get the Herald AM so no idea whats in that.

So they are, I only glanced at the scan of the Star article.

*Hangs head in shame*

Stercus Accidit

The scan on the previous page, such a worrying article, super dangerous replicas, the crims will now have toys as well as their real guns to threaten us with, think of the.... HEY LOOK BANANA PHONE!

ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phooone!

Tommyboy71

Has no politician ever heard of contacting someone in the DoJ to find out what they think of it. If they did maybe they would get a few facts right. After all the IAA have had talks with them and the DoJ are quite happy with the regulations that are in place. This is all knee jerk reactions from people who cannot be ar*ed to research the sport themselves.

Everyone of them are looking for tougher regulations which will, if they are allowed, choke the sport into oblivion.

Spetzcong

kevteljeur wrote: »

For what it's worth (and a little off-topic, I'll admit) I'm subscribed to ireland.com, breakingnews.ie and rte.ie news feeds; I challenge you to pick out the one which tends to have stories which read suspiciously like paraphrased articles from the other two... It could be genuine borderline plagiarism, or else just syndicated news which they re-write to suit. Occasionally different stuff shows up, and these articles tend to be lengthy, but I doubt they have the resources to write original content (which costs money).

Edit: Oops, fast moving thread, I sort of missed the boat - sorry guys! That'll teach me to post through VNC...

Probably all owned by the Tony O'Reilly news syndicate, hence they would most likely have a general bank of news stories which they would circulate amongst the various publications, probably all written by the same journalist originally, and then sub-edited where necessary by people within each individual publication, this is more or less standard practice across the world where there are several publications owned by a single newsgroup, I wouldn't go as far as to call it lazy journalism, basically all a newspaper is looking to do is to fill the space in between the adverts with enough information to keep it's readership happy, if you can fill up some space in a number of different newspapers with the same article then it'll work out cheaper than getting several articles written up on the same subject.

As far as the 'Somebody think of the children' brigade goes, I'm not going to be shedding any tears if a criminal gets himself shot by the ERU for acting the muppet with an airsoft gun, in fact, if it means that a few criminals are going to get themselves airsoft guns rather than real ones then I think it'd be a good thing, just so long as they realise that the penalties for commiting a crime with an airsoft gun are exactly the same as if it were a real gun, up to and including being shot to death by the gardai.

kevteljeur

Spetzcong wrote: »

Probably all owned by the Tony O'Reilly news syndicate, hence they would most likely have a general bank of news stories which they would circulate amongst the various publications, probably all written by the same journalist originally, and then sub-edited where necessary by people within each individual publication, this is more or less standard practice across the world where there are several publications owned by a single newsgroup, I wouldn't go as far as to call it lazy journalism, basically all a newspaper is looking to do is to fill the space in between the adverts with enough information to keep it's readership happy, if you can fill up some space in a number of different newspapers with the same article then it'll work out cheaper than getting several articles written up on the same subject.

I should research it more, it's been bothering me a little (partly because it would be one less feed to keep up with). It's not the Irish Independent (to my knowledge, they still haven't put RSS on their site, and... don't get me started about their idea of Good Writing), and their stories usually appear within minutes of the Ireland.com stories, with a similar title, similar content, just organised differently.

But back on topic:

Spetzcong wrote: »

As far as the 'Somebody think of the children' brigade goes, I'm not going to be shedding any tears if a criminal gets himself shot by the ERU for acting the muppet with an airsoft gun, in fact, if it means that a few criminals are going to get themselves airsoft guns rather than real ones then I think it'd be a good thing, just so long as they realise that the penalties for commiting a crime with an airsoft gun are exactly the same as if it were a real gun, up to and including being shot to death by the gardai.

Anyone here read 'Freakonomics'? The Irish analogy to one of the topics in that book would be the sheer energy put into serious gun crime (and a follow-on effect, the hysteria on news of a new Airsoft retail outlet), while the actual statistics are probably going to show that road-related deaths far outstrip violent crime-related deaths in this country but it's not something that lends itself to the same type of media and political hysteria... Even when a robber using a replica gun rather than a real gun would actually be a lot safer for everyone involved, as perverse as that might sound.

kdouglas

Article from today's Herald AM:

http://irishairsoft.ie/media/printed/HeraldAm280308.jpg

Thanks to Dr Pepper for getting it

N.O.I.P.

kdouglas wrote: »

Article from today's Herald AM:

http://irishairsoft.ie/media/printed/HeraldAm280308.jpg

Thanks to Dr Pepper for getting it

My what a realistic looking cap gun they used

o1s1n

'Co. Wicklow Fianna Fail TD Joe Behan said....'

He was one of my primary school teachers. I remember him screaming at me in the yard once for helping someone pick up the Pogs they'd spilled. He thought I was stealing them

Evolute

Haha they were too expensive for them to buy one to get a picture:p

I would be interested to see if the Bray people has a piece on them next week

N.O.I.P.

o1s1n wrote: »

'Co. Wicklow Fianna Fail TD Joe Behan said....'

He was one of my primary school teachers. I remember him screaming at me in the yard once for helping someone pick up the Pogs they'd spilled. He thought I was stealing them

In his defense you are dodgy looking

kdouglas

N.O.I.P. wrote: »

My what a realistic looking cap gun they used

Well spotted, didnt even see that myself

SniperSight

;

N.O.I.P. wrote: »

My what a realistic looking cap gun they used

Wow, that makes me realise just how much these people know about airsoft. Bumbkiss!!!!Zilch!!!!! Nada!!!!! F..All!!!!!

Although I alwasys had my doubts about their knowledge in the first place.;)

Hivemind187

I just have to say one thing;

"Local Sinn Fein councillor John Brady said there was grave concern ..." *

Sinn Fein? SINN FEIN?

Folks, thats the end. Satire is dead, reality has officially become funnier than the parody.


*From the Herald AM.

Boston

Afraid there may be a drop in business with people buy these fake guns as opposed to the real ones?

Hivemind187

Boston wrote: »

Afraid there may be a drop in business with people buy these fake guns as opposed to the real ones?

ROFL.

zero19

Well according to RTE the drug dealers get proper guns FREE with drug shipments as a thank you, why the hell would they go spend money on airsoft if they can get the RS free?

Boston

The sad truth is I could rent a real hand gun for around 100 euro or least far more conveniently then buying an airsoft gun.

CrazyRabbit

Hivemind187 wrote: »

I just have to say one thing;

"Local Sinn Fein councillor John Brady said there was grave concern ..." *

Sinn Fein? SINN FEIN?

Folks, thats the end. Satire is dead, reality has officially become funnier than the parody.


*From the Herald AM.

I was thinking precisely the same thing. The political wing of a terrorist group expressing its fears over toy guns. I swear you couldn't come up with something this funny if you tried.

Fallschirmjager

bawhahaha...excellent....

free cookies to crazy and hive.....

jeasus..only in ireland could a guy say that without blinking....the bertie skills are spreading all over the place it seems.

if they dug up all the guns hidden ireland, for christ sake we would be below sea level.....

Spetzcong

Hivemind187 wrote: »

I just have to say one thing;

"Local Sinn Fein councillor John Brady said there was grave concern ..." *

Sinn Fein? SINN FEIN?

Folks, thats the end. Satire is dead, reality has officially become funnier than the parody.


*From the Herald AM.

Ha ha ha, nice one, yeah I remember reading that quote and thinking how ironic it was, that's one thing you've gotta love about this country, the stupidity, here ladies and gentlemen, we have a spokesman from a political party which represents people who spent most of the last 30 years importing REAL guns into the country and using them on people, complaining about the opening of a shop that sells toy guns. Jesus wept.

CrazyRabbit

Spetzcong wrote: »

Ha ha ha, nice one, yeah I remember reading that quote and thinking how ironic it was, that's one thing you've gotta love about this country, the stupidity, here ladies and gentlemen, we have a spokesman from a political party which represents people who spent most of the last 30 years importing REAL guns into the country and using them on people, complaining about the opening of a shop that sells toy guns. Jesus wept.

You're too late for cookies.