How to Let Your Kids Play Airsoft Guns
Your child goes from playing with Transformers and Legos to suddenly wanting a gun akin to a bb gun. These airsoft guns have the potential to make a quarter-sized mark on your child's skin and could potentially do worse to the eyes. So, how do you learn to trust your child with an airsoft gun? Read the following steps.
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Instructions
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Set the rules. Your child sees the airsoft gun as a toy, but you know that it is potentially a weapon. You must get across to your son or daughter that if they do not follow your rules explicitly regarding the airsoft gun, then they will lose all privileges with it. The following steps will outline rules that you should set.
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Turn on the safety switch. The safety should be on at all times when the airsoft gun is not being actively used. Let your child know what the consequences will be if you find the gun without the safety set, whether it's taking the gun away for a day or longer.
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Keep the airsoft gun and airsoft bb's out of reach of smaller children at all times. A toddler or young child could easily hurt themselves with the airsoft gun, or think that the bb's are candy.
*It helps to have a specific location that the airsoft gun will be kept when not being used.
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Make your child wear goggles or sunglasses with good eye coverage. If you see your child playing airsoft guns without eye coverage, then you should take the gun away. Also, if you see that they are fighting against a child who isn't wearing eye coverage, you should seriously consider not allowing your child to play with them until the other child is properly protected as well.
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Consider having your child wear clothes that covers the skin well - like jeans or camo. Again, airsoft gun shots can cause welts, so you'll want your child to be well covered.
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Establish rules about where the airsoft gun can be fired. Your child must be careful not to shoot their gun toward houses, neighbors, animals or cars. There should be serious consequences established if this rule is broken.
*Also, never let your child point the gun at their own face or anyone else's - even if the safety is on and they're wearing eye protection.
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Establish boundaries of how far out they can play with their airsoft guns. Indicate that they must be within earshot or eyeshot of the house, or take them out for a walk that shows them exactly how far they can go out with their gun.
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Don't let them remove the orange marker at the tip of the airsoft gun. This identifies the gun as a toy rather than the real counterpart that airsofts are designed to look like.
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Take a deep breath. It is quite unnerving to let your child play outside without your constant supervision, let alone to let them run around with a toy gun designed to look exactly like an assault rifle, sniper rifle or other serious weapon. Even with rules in place, you will probably never feel completely comfortable with the idea of them with an airsoft gun, so you'll have to decide for yourself if their desire to play with them will outweigh your concerns about it.
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Resources
- Photo Credit Tyler178 on Wikimedia Commons
