The City of Snohomish has criminalized children playing with Airsoft toys (paintball and plastic pellet guns) as a misdemeanor. Ordinance 2407 was introduced and passed making it a criminal misdemeanor to play with an Airsoft toy in your backyard. I get it, I understand that an Airsoft toy gun can sting, it is an adult toy. It is the language that is troublesome.
This is not a weapon; this is a toy and should be classified as a nuisance and making it a civil infraction. The wording describes “spring-loaded plunger, any pellet, dart, hard-tipped arrow” with a little imagination this would include a NERF rifle, maybe even a slingshot or throwing a rock.
I have no problem with classifying Airsoft toys to be controlled as a nuisance, people need to be able to sit in their backyard and not be seeing or getting hit with plastic pellets. When asked the council had only 1 account that was reported to a council member, no reports to 911 or nuisance calls to Snohomish Police, just one and the council decides to make criminals out of your children to play with toys. Item C of the ordinance tells it all a bit extreme for a toy.
Any person convicted of a violation of the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, in addition to any other punishment imposed by the court, the court will direct that the weapon so used in violation of the these provisions be confiscated and disposed of in accordance with statutes or ordinances governing the disposal of confiscated or found weapons.
John Lorenz
Snohomish
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