Airsoft mentioned in 'Galway Advertiser'

BornToKill

Man pointed fake AK47 at people in city car park, court hears
Galway Advertiser, June 18, 2009.
Sale of replicas has caused problems, says gardai

By Martina Nee

A case in which a man pointed a replica Kalashnikov AK47 rifle out of
a car window to induce fear in a number of people at a shopping centre
car park has been adjourned.

At Galway District Court yesterday Judge Mary Fahy adjourned the case
until July 13 to allow time to fully consider the evidence as it was
the first time such a case had been brought before her. Arturas
Pancerovas (27) with an address at 2c Leitir Burca, Ballymoneen Road,
pleaded guilty to possession of an article with intent to cause fear
in another at Dunnes Stores, Westside, on October 29, 2007.

Inspector Pat McHugh told the court that at 12.49am gardai received a
999 call which reported a person pointing a gun out of the window of a
silver Mercedes which had pulled into the car park of Dunnes Store in
Westside. The car was found in a premises in Furbo and gardai were
then able to track down the defendant at a garage where he works.
Pancerovas brought gardai to his house and he handed over the replica
AK47 machine gun which was then sent for forensic analysis. Inspector
McHugh said that the replica, made of die cast metal, was the “same
weight and design” of a real Kalashnikov AK47 but that it was “not
designed or capable of firing ammunition”.

“If the replica was brought in here you would not know the
difference,” said Inspector McHugh.

The court then heard that during questioning the defendant, a
Lithuanian national, told gardai that he and a friend went to get
drink. Pancerovas said that there had been a number of people in the
car park who had mistaken him for being Polish and he had taken
offence to that and shouted “mother f**kers” at them. He had bought
the replica gun for €150 in a shop in Sligo a number of months before
the incident.

“This is the first time I’ve ever come across this type of charge. It
raises a number of issues. Why did he buy it and why was it in the
car?” asked Judge Fahy.

Defence solicitor Olivia Traynor said that her client had bought the
replica gun because he “thought it was cool”. She added that there was
no intention to use it to commit a crime and the defendant had never
taken it out of the house before. Ms Traynor said that when he and a
friend went to get drink he just put it in the car.

Inspector McHugh then informed the judge that the defendant had two
previous convictions for theft in April 2005, for which he received a
four-month suspended sentence. He also made an application for the
forfeiture of the gun.

During the court case Inspector McHugh commented that a number of
shops have been selling imitation firearms and this has caused a
number of problems in Galway as “nobody knows if it [the gun] is real
or imitation”. These difficulties have not gone unnoticed by the
Minister for Justice, Quality, and Law Reform, Dermot Ahern TD, who
has been strongly pushing for stricter controls for the sale and
importation of realistic imitation fireams (including devices known as
airsoft). According to a Department spokesperson new restrictions and
greater powers to ban the sale of such devices in shops around the
country will be brought through the Dail by July 2 and are expected to
become law by the summer recess.

Eight new sections (9A to 9H) are to be added to the Firearms and
Offensive Weapons Act 1990. These sections will make it an offence for
a person to possess a realistic imitation firearm in a public place. A
“realistic imitation firearm” is defined as a device that appears to
the ordinary observer so realistic as to make it indistinguishable
from a firearm. The use of realistic imitation firearms such as
airsoft devices will also be restricted to certain places which are
authorised by the local Superintendent.

Stone.cold

Jail him, this is the second incident i have heard of this sort of crap in the past few weeks

Dr_Pepper

To me it looks like the garda did right by prossecuting him.
Hope the ruling is fair as it will set a precedent.

In note to the final part, thank god the iaa and gardai pushed to make it illegal to posses in public. It will make these cases open and shut as well as moving the spotlight away from those who obey the law and play the game.

Also, who the hell brings an AK with them in their car to buy beer??

Hivemind187

This piece was removed earlier because it is not airsoft related. The item used is not confirmed to be an airsoft and is likely as not to have been a wall-hanger Kalash (plenty of them were about pre 2006).

In fact the article pointedly says that the device is not designed to fire ammunition. Had it been capable of doing so (even BB's) it is unlikely it would have been omitted.

BornToKill

Hivemind187 wrote: »

The item used is not confirmed to be an airsoft and is likely as not to have been a wall-hanger Kalash (plenty of them were about pre 2006)

I would ask that you read the article once more. It says the item was bought just a few months before the incident and not back in 2005 or sometime then. Can you name a shop in the Sligo area selling non-firing reproduction AK47s for around €150?

Like it or not, this is almost certainly an airsoft device. It is being called a 'replica' by the Gardaí but bear in mind that is also the description of airsoft devices in the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 - realistic imitation firearm. Nowhere does the Bill mention airsoft by name. It's not your fault or my fault that some idiot bought one and mis-used it but there's no point pretending this is nothing to do with airsoft.

It's muppets like this guy and muppetery like this that has brought airsoft to the attention of the DoJ and the Guards. People ask why do there need to be any controls on airsoft at all? Well, here is a clue in this article. Because eejits buy them 'for fun' and do stupid things.

Masada

I very much doubt its an airsoft, but i do agree the thread should exist here, the outcome of this could shape future dealings with people misusing airsoft equipment.

from reading it, it becomes quite obvious that he fully intended to wave it around in a threatening manor and to imply it was a real gun. he should have the book thrown at him.
cant remember the legislation exactly but i think hes looking at a 5 year maximum term.

Shiva

BornToKill wrote: »

Like it or not, this is almost certainly an airsoft device. It is being called a 'replica' by the Gardaí but bear in mind that is also the description of airsoft devices in the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2009 - realistic imitation firearm. Nowhere does the Bill mention airsoft by name. It's not your fault or my fault that some idiot bought one and mis-used it but there's no point pretending this is nothing to do with airsoft.

I'm sorry, but I would tend to agree.

We're not doing ourselves any favours by trying to twist the words of a reporter (who, by our past experience, generally doesn't have a f**king clue what they're banging on about) and attempting to disassociate ourselves from this gob****e and the item he used.

We all know it was more than likely an airsoft device. We know it, the Gardai know it, and the DOJ know it. But, and this is a very important but....the DOJ and the Gardaí recognise, as evidenced by the recent dealings with them, that no matter how hard we police ourselves, you will always get some stupid ignorant f**kwit who will think "its cool" to have a replica AK47, and will just on a whim decide to put it in his car when he goes shopping so he can wave his dick about if he feels like it.

I know we need to distance ourselves from the muppets out there, but lets be realistic about it - the DOJ, Gardai and the "powers that be" arent stupid. When the spokesperson said it was incaple of firing ammunition, he didnt mean "it cant expel a projectile from a barrel" - he meant "it cant fire bullets".

It was obviosly an airsoft gun, yer man was obviously a stupid f**king moron, and he's obviously going to get exactly what he deserves.

Case closed. Please dont let's turn into the Irish Airsoft version of the NRA.

Masada

from its discription i would say its one of them model guns that are being sold over in stevens green, there was a few people selling them at duncannon too. they look as realistic as airsofts do but they dont fire anything, would support the section where it said they arnt capable of firing ammunition and are made from die cast metal.

BornToKill

Shiva wrote: »

I'm sorry, but I would tend to agree.

Do you need to apologise for agreeing with me Shiva? :)Well, thanks nevertheless.

Shiva

BornToKill wrote: »

Do you need to apologise for agreeing with me Shiva? :)Well, thanks nevertheless.

No, I need to apologise for bucking the trend and accepting that not everyone who buys an airsoft gun does so with the best of intentions.
Trying to twist the facts lowers us to the level of the people who dont understand what we do, why we do it, and how harmless it is.

I'd lay odds that not everybody who buys a baseball bat has plans to hit a home run in Yankee Stadium

Gatling

shall be intresting what the judge decides ,happened 2 years ago but you'll have local scare mongering going on with complaints going to anybody that will listen .
fair play to shiva for honesty we all now its happened will proably keeping happening there 1000's of cheapsofts sold over the last few years,
how many court cases have yet to come public

Dread-Lock

Masada wrote: »

from its discription i would say its one of them model guns that are being sold over in stevens green, there was a few people selling them at duncannon too. they look as realistic as airsofts do but they dont fire anything, would support the section where it said they arnt capable of firing ammunition and are made from die cast metal.

Yeah by the sounds of things, I was thinking it was one of those as well. They're sold in wildcat ink (A tattoo and piercing studio). Now it could be an airsoft gun, but you can be 100% that its either from that report.

And even if its not an airsoft gun, we'll probably still get the get the short end of the stick because it looks like one of ours.

ED E

Dread above hit it on the head there. Who gives a f#ck if its airsoft, doesnt make a difference. Its not the fact that our gear spits out a little ball of plastic thats the problem. The problem is with appearance as you all know.

@Masada: I thought armed assault(cause thats what it is) could carry up to ten years?

Fallschirmjager

you know i sat down and looked an an aeg for well over an hour and i know some in Ireland will be very suprised, but it didnt attack anyone, it didnt want to get in my car and scare innocent citizens, didnt want to threaten anyone, didnt seek out thugs for robberies...it just...sat there....

so the only thing i can see has happened...SOMEONE must have taken the aeg and performed an illegal act with it and was caught by the gardai. Bravo i say and well done to them. If we are really really lucky the innocent aeg will be left alone and the muppet who forced it into a car against its will be will be well and truly jailed for it.

the issue at hand here is the illegal act. It is really great to see that the gardai are not caring if its an aeg or a fake wallhanger....that is not the issue, what is illegal is how he used it, not that he owned it. It doesnt matter if it was an aeg or not and fighting against that is pointless. It was an aeg or it wasnt? who cares and we should not, the issue is HOW he used something to threaten someone. If our toys look the same BUT we dont use them that way...there is no issue. Thats the real point.

if we are really lucky this moron will get a large prison term. I would suggest out comments on this is that he threatened citizens and as it happens abused the trust placed in the thousands of players in Ireland who play airsoft weekly. He has nothing to do with us, and his relationship to us is exactly the same as someone who owns a kitchen knife, has with a criminal who threatens someone with a knife. The crime is the threat not the tool.

just my opinion obviously.

ps3man

all it takes is one idiot to ruin it for all of us, make an example of him so we stop hearing these storys and so we dont have to worry about the doj banning our beloved sport

Puding

i've read a few comments with people saying well its not airsoft its something else, will this matter, does this matter ? we are about to be classified as imitation firearms and this is what it says that means;

(2) In this section “imitation firearm” means
anything which is not a firearm but has the appearance
of being a firearm.

this could be a model, this could be deac this could be airsoft, it doers not matter in the end it could be a lump of wood cut to shape and painted, we will all be judged together, people can not put there heads in the sand and hope it will go away

its not if incidents like this happen it is when and im sorry to say this there are a lot of idouts involved at airsoft, we have had to deal with them at cork in the past the kind of people you would not trust with a stick with a cork on it let alone an airsoft device

we will not be judged by the vast majority of people that take care and do things right, we will be judged by the lowest common denominator, the stupid the idiotic the people that make you wise you could institute an IQ test before they where allowed to buy

this is a community issue that requires a community response it needs a culture of responsibility developed which encourage good gun/device safety, to long have i heard the excuse 'there only toys' as someone throws an aeg into the back of a car or into a bin bag, well guys it will not wash in future

Rew

Description is clear to me that its not an Airsoft. Im closing the thread as we can't be taking repsonsibilty for what non-airsofters do with non-airsoft devices but it does seve as as and example of what could happen to a stupid airsofter.

BornToKill infracted for repeatedly ignoring what mods were saying to him by PM and not having the courtesy to wait for replies to PM's before he cracked on posting and reposting.