The campaign
Campaign bear |
For several years soft air weapons and other imitation weapons have been available as fashionable toys in the Euro-pean market, and significantly also via internet shops. The main producer of plastic imitation weapons is Japan. Small pellets are shot with these weapons. This poses a danger of injury. Eyes in particular are at risk. Much more serious are the dangers which arise from confusing such weapons. |
The legal ban follows the danger of confusionThe particular problem of soft air weapons is that they are difficult or impossible to differentiate from genuine firearms even by specialists. Incidents from abroad show that direct confrontation with a crime involving soft air weapons may have very serious consequences.Soft air weapons are not toys. So they do not belong in children’s hands. The new weapons law has regulated the handling of soft air and other imitation weapons since 12 December 2008. If imitation weapons are used for threatening purposes, even if the intention is playful, there will quickly be a serious effect. They then basically cause the same reaction as a genuine firearm. In the stressful situation of being threatened a person may not consider the weapon to be harmless after all. The person will therefore react instinctively in the same way as if they had been threatened by a genuine firearm. In terms of the threatening effect, the imitation weap-ons must therefore be considered as identical to a genuine weapon. This is the greatest danger with these weapons. This fact was taken into account with a law change. |