The Tangability of the Law
 

I've just discovered that the Law in the United States is not user friendly. At least not in finding out exactly what that law is.

To put you in the scenario, I am a paintball player. My marker is designed to replicate the look and feel of an AK47 Kalashnikov. In doing so, I have added a after-market barrel and stock which makes it very similar to actual firearms. Always being the one to be on top of the law, I decided to make sure that these modifications are legal.

I am aware that Airsoft guns and replica guns have to be marked with blaze orange tips on the barrel. I have no problem following this law; I understand the safety concerns behind it, and if it is the law, I will gladly adjust my market accordingly. (The parts have a muzzle break that can be spray painted blaze orange).

The only problem is this: I like my marker to be as realistic as possible. As I said, I am fully willing to follow state law in this case. The only problem is that it is impossible to know what that law is in the first place!

I can not find any state/local laws on the internet. Only federal laws, which I am not sure if they apply to the state.

I can't find any emails to specifically contact on this issue. Only general emails.

My local police department doesn't even have a telephone number for general issues.

If this is the difficulty in knowing the law, doesn't it make it a tad bit hypocritical to expect that people follow the law? I would gladly be a law-abiding citizen, if they would tell me what they were to begin with!

Real Action Marker? As far as I know federal law is all-encompassing, and cannot be superseded by any state law, so, in-effect, if the law says you must keep the blaze-orange tip on your gun then you must keep it on.

I talked to one of the guys at the local paintball store we have, and he said that if the manufacturer didn't ship it, then most likely it doesn't need it. (If it's federal law, they would most likely need to follow it).

That's usually the easiest thing... ask somebody who is into something that puts them in contact with the issues in question.

Findlaw, at www.findlaw.com, is the best free legal resource that I know of for this sort of thing. It's... okay. The range of coverage is good, but the tools are not terribly user friendly.

Here's a top level link to the USCS.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/toc.html

The federal "orange barrel" law is 15 U.S.C. §5001:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/caseco...on%5F5001.html

The draftsmanship is horrible, but it is pretty clear that it does not apply to paintball guns. I couldn't find any other federal codes that looked like they might be relevant.

And for California (I don't know what state you are in).

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html

Penal Code §20001(g) defines "BB device" in such a way as to include paintball guns.

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...le=12000-12003

Which is relevant because Penal Code §12550-§12556 has some stuff about "BB devices" and "imitation firearms".

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/di...le=12550-12556

It looks pretty safe, though. The only possible danger is §12556. Assuming that paintball is a "certified or regulated sporting event or competition" under (d)(4) you're okay, but I can't find anything to indicate that it is. So if you're in Cali, that's worth looking into, I guess.

Anyway, long story short, you probably don't need to worry about this. Just keep it in the case except in your own home and at the paintball field. Don't go waving it around on the street, or they will slam you with some catch-all disturbing the peace type law.

Drake

But that's my entire point:
I'm in Washington, so I'm not sure what laws might apply. I found something called "Part 1550- Marking of Toy Look-Alike and Imitation firearms", and it specifically states, 'Traditional B-B, paint-ball, or pellet firing...".

That's from the CFR, which is a collection of all the regulations passed by various federal administrative agencies. Sometimes the law gives administrative agencies authority to make their own decisions about the nitty gritty details of laws, and these regulations effectively have the force of law as a result.They can NOT supersede the law, however (unlike in Japan... where they seem to be able to do whatever they damn well please). In other words, if the statute is dispositive on the issue, you can skip the CFR. Here's the bit of the CFR:

http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2...5CFR1150.3.pdf

If you look right at the top, it says "AUTHORITY: Section 4 of the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988, 15 U.S.C. 5001." So these are the regulations corresponding to the statute I mentioned before. Now, if you read the statute, you will see that it does not give them the authority to do anything about paintball guns. So it's not surprising to find...

"§ 1150.1 Applicability... This part does not apply to... (b) Traditional B–B, paint-ball, or pellet-firing air guns that expel a projectile through the force of compressed air, compressed gas or mechanical spring action, or any combination thereof..."

Here's a top level link for the Washington code.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/

I dug around, but I couldn't find anything. You have to bear in mind that if you go around doing stupid things, you will start to invoke areas of the law you didn't think about. For example, you're thinking about this in terms of marking or resemblance to an actual firearm. That appears to be no problem, but if you point the thing at somebody on a street, it could very well become an assault.

Like I said before, just don't do anything stupid, and you'll be fine.

Drake

Very well said, Drake. Couldn't have done so better myself.

I do play airsoft, and I know it's not a smart thing to remove the orange tip and go brandishing it around the neighborhood. I'm sure you heard the one about the kid who got shot and killed by a cop because the kid pointed an airsoft replica at him.

I have to note, though, that airsoft and paintball are shown under different lights in the eyes of the law. Where paintball does not resemble any real weaponry, airsoft is an exact replica of assault weaponry. When I transport my airsoft guns I make sure they are under lock and key in their hard cases, and covered under my gear. I don't think the same would neccessarily apply for paintball since paintball guns more resemble Super Soakers than anything else. Then again, do you remember that incident where a bus-load of teenagers was pulled over, individually searched and treated as hostiles because one was stupid enough to point a paintball gun at passing cars?

(Just to take up space: You do know that you just said "Automatic Kalashnikov 47 Kalashnikov? :p)

My my Cyntrox, not a lot of guys know that. I'm impressed. :p

Yeah, I do realize that. I'll blame it on a bug in OFP, where it shows it as "AM Kalashnikov".

I'm more worried about the legality of carrying one without an orange tip. This is the entire problem; the law is never clear enough whether or not I can *not* have an orange tip. I take it that it's not, but if I find out that *random statute number six billion four* says I have too, I'd rather not get sued.

Not so much a bug as much as just an ususal arrangement. There's the AK-47 with a milled reciever, then there's the stamped, which is known as the AKM. Has a slanted muzzle brake, a ribbed upper reciever, and a stock at a straighter angle. Most of the 7.62 models you see out there [of Russian origin] with stocks are going to generally be AKMs.

But getting back to it, often times people will rearrange an accronymn to describe AK variants. Such as:

AKS-74U or AK-74SU or AKSU-74

or even,

AKS-47 or AK-47S

Cops are very weary of zip-guns, or improvised firearms. Career criminals will often resort to using these due to their inability to purchase a gun legally or even illegally if they don't have access to those resources.

In many situations, anything barrel-looking that comes up to face them is going to be registered as a firearm. They have only a split second to identify a mortal threat and react. It's the same when they point those devices at other people - often times unaware of the context (i.e. kids or adults joking around).

It's just best to handle and transport any kind of weapon responsibly.