People following me - theoretical scenario

[Thatoneguy]

So basically i am 16 (my dad got me my guns all legally) and these kids around my age followed me and where threatning to follow me to my house my question is of they did and came on to my property would it be legal if i shot them with a 250 - 300fps sidearm if i aimed strictly at there legs if they threatned me. And anyone queationing do i play airsoft yes i do frequantly and by the way non of this happened it was more of a question and i made a story for more reason and to have a situation

 

[Lozart]

Legal or not, all it would do is piss them off and make it more likely you'd get a shoeing.

 

[Guest]

Baseball bat & barbed wire, pew pew isn't going to cut it

 

[Jedi_Master]

No.  If you shoot you gun and the BBs leave your boundary then you are breaking the law.  

Do you actually play airsoft? If yes, do you wear eye protection?  So what makes you think it is acceptable to shoot BBs at anyone not wearing eye pro, regardless of situation; accidents do happen but you would be deliberately shooting at someone and something could go wrong.  As @Lozart mentions, you are more likely to antagonise them, and what happens when they take your gun off you and are not aiming for your legs?

 

[Ninjacabbage]

short answer no

the law is pretty sketchy on using weapons to defend yourself in this country but it's kind of a tit for tat situation. Meaning if they threaten you with a cricket bat/knife you could use equivalent to defend yourself but if you shoot them you are using "excessive" force.

the hobby has gone through some pretty tough hurdles regarding airsoft guns looking like real firearms and if you shoot some other kids it will most likely result in a bad headline and possible repercussions for the rest of the airsofting community regarding their use as threatening deterrents even if owned legally. 

Be sensible, be safe and treat your airsoft guns with the responsibility you would a real firearm and this hobby will last. Ignore these points and we will all loose out

 

[Prisce]

Best thing you can do, is let them follow you home, have the hose out the front ready and a bag of cement, spray them with the cold water and then throw the cement at them and just laugh.  They'll be embarrassed as hell, but what's worse will be the burn they get when it starts to set. Warn them if they wanna come back you'll get something that causes a little bit more pain. 

DONT ACTUALLY DO THIS, just trying to say it's more effective than a BB gun and not actually illegal.

Or or do the sensible/legal/right thing and put up a camera at the front of your house.

Please actually do this one!

 

[Thatoneguy]

Thanks for all the lovely comments i am an airsoft player i play frequantly me and my friend were talking about this and i just wanted to find out the answer

 

[Jedi_Master]

Thanks for all the lovely comments i am an airsoft player i play frequantly me and my friend were talking about this and i just wanted to find out the answer

Using a toy gun (even if realistic) is not suitable for self defence.  We all want to protect the hobby from harm and bad public opinion in the press.

I can appreciate someone feeling threatened and thinking that a BB gun could be a good idea but it is not the answer and can only end badly.

 

[Rogerborg]

The answer to your question is: it depends.  UK self defence law (both English-and-provinces and Scotch) hinges on the question of reasonableness under the circumstances.

Did you genuinely feel threatened?  Did you act without pre-meditation, using a tool that came to hand to defend yourself or your property?  Was that use of force proportionate to the threat?

It's a complete lottery, but you're proposing a pre-meditated scenario where you arm yourself (with a pretty poor weapon) and inflict pain under circumstances where doing so would likely only provoke your attackers.  So no, I don't fancy your chances either against them, or if it attracted the attention of the State.

The real answer is: don't.  Just don't.  If you have some thug's eye out and they do a Daily Mail Sadface story, it'll bring unwanted attention down on airsoft.

Beat them with a hockey stick, I don't care if that gets banned.

 

[ImTriggerHappy]

Nah will just annoy them.

Petrol in a spray bottle and lighter is a better idea. One warning then ignite problem solved.

 

[Tommikka]

Don't plan on the use of anything as a form of weapon, self denfence or otherwise.

if someone follows you or trespasses on your land then that is intimidating but not sufficient for you to attack.

You can however fight if you are in fear, they do not necessarily have to make the first punch (but if they have been following you and doing nothing then that doesn't support your fear to use force as self defence, you could have to prove the accumulative fear)

Airsoft, BB, paintball, and air guns are definately not suitable for self defence.  Unless it's a springer then you have to 'make it ready' with powering up, gassing up etc and loading it.   Unless you are maintaining it at that moment there is no good excuse for having it ready to fire and loaded

There could also be a seperate offence with a £1000 fine.  From 2011 there became the requirement that any air weapon is to be secured if minors could have access to the property. This was brought in because of a number of cases of children being injured from unauthorised use of their parents or families air guns, including at least one accidental death.  The Home Office & police recommend weapons safes, but it is suffcient to lock them away.  It's a stretch to include airsoft, but like paintball there are various parts of firearms legislation that we drop into.

Your parents could conceivably be caught out on this if you get out your airsoft guns to shoot or intimidate someone with you being too irresponsible to be in charge of them at home.  At the very least your followers can just call the police to say you threatened them with a gun, at worst they can not attack you in fear of their lives because you have a gun.  If they know it's just airsoft then they can forget that in the heat of the moment or not have any fear but just beat you up

Tell someone you are being intimidated, consider what you can do to just defend yourself in the moment, if you're a girl or like your looks then pop out your hairspray, perfume, aftershave, antiperspirant, sun spray etc and spray in their face (no need to light it into a flamethrower .... that's no longer reasonable)

Note that reasonable force does not have to be absolutely proportional.  You don't need the right level of weapon to meet the force of the attack, you just need to be reasonable for the fear you were in at the moment and using anything around you to protect you.  Don't use that to mean you can put anything beside your door so that it is to hand

Idealy stop something from happening in the first place.  They are following you to intimidate you, don't be intimidated.

Are they going to attack you or do they just think they are hard because they can intimidate you and because you are responding?