Over the summer of 09' i had quite a few small skirmishes in the woods behind my house. Technically it is my property and in bounds of the property lines; for some reason two police officers showed up chasing us through the woods... A few of the guys got their guns seized and got very little explanation... Something along the lines of falling under the same category as paintball. There were about 16 of us and most were 17-19 yrs-old.

Is it illegal to be playing airsoft on ones property???

p.s. I've been playing for about 6 years and never had this problem up until the summer... we stopped playing at my house ever since.

While it is your property, you still fall under the lines of brandishing what looks to be a real firearm. You guys are lucky you didn't get shot. And yet ANOTHER reason we on here frown upon play on non-sanctioned fields.

Yeah man, if you haven't yet go to Ground Zero Airsoft in Wolcott or there are a couple fields in New York I can't name off the top of my head that aren't too far away from you. When you go to legitimate fields you will definitely enjoy it more, most regular games at GZA and SP get between 30-60 players if not more.

This is the reason most of us play at places like Wolcott or SP or the Citadel or any of those new places that are popping up. None of us want to be "that guy" who puts airsoft on the front page of the paper. Even if it costs a couple extra bucks to play, it is very much worth the price.

Ok, so brandishing is what i have to try to be careful of. Thank you all.

Brandishing includes transporting from house to car.
Which means you need a gun bag.

Long story short, treat airsoft guns like real firearms.

Is your property exposed? Or can others see into it?

I agree, roast marshmallows with them.

Also, if your town has an ordinance against airguns, you're also screwed. Your property or not. Like everyone else said, treat them as real fire arms and fire them where they're sanctioned.

Roger that.

This thread is full of LUL and stupid.

unless your town has special ordnances against replica weapons or airguns, the police had no right to seize your guns on your property.

there is no such law that says you cant brandish a replica weapon in public, especially since you were on your property even if you were in sight of your neighbors or streets.

the law is that you cant brandish a replica weapon in public during a crime or to insight panic.

but, if you weren't REALLY on your property, then its up to the discretion of the property owner as to what to do with you. be it to have you arrested or let the police do what they want.

if you were on your own property, the cop can only make you stop, not take your guns. in this case, if you were on your own property or one of the properties of the players or on a property you had permission to play on, i would sue the town for the price of the airguns plus more to cover the attorney fees.

my fathers a cop, and every once in a while me and my brothers used to play airsoft in the yard. one of my neighbors complained all the time and because our town didn't have any ordnances against airguns the cops could only make us stop playing, and even then they didn't stop us cause my father is a cop and my father didnt have a problem with it.
i later asked him about the replica brandishing thing in public, he told me that there was no such law, its just what i said above.
but the case is that if you really are in public, like on public property or you're trespassing, its up to the cops to decided if your ensuing panic.

There may be no law regarding replicas.

Brandishing a REALISTIC replica is just purely stupid.

Ask your dad if he comes across somebody brandishing a weapon if he's going to ponder whether it's a replica or real. Doubtful, I'd say he's more going to go on the assumption that it's real, loaded and the brandisher may be willing to use it.

i'm not saying it isn't stupid and i'm not saying that i don't look down on people playing in their yards.

i AM saying that he is not in the wrong.

the case is that his friends got their guns STOLEN from them by the police on his property where they were allowed to play.

however, he may be in the wrong. its all up to his town ordnances.

Ok, so when he gets shot we can blame you. So sit in the corner furry, go back to pounced.org

^that

I don't know what's more disturbing, that site, or the fact that you know about that site.

I got ambushed on 4chan

we all have at one point in time

why are you getting all up in my business? there's a whole gray area here whenever we talk about backyard airsofting, i always feel i have to say that its not against the law in most places. it just sounds like i'm supporting it, which isn't the case. i'm just making sure the guys in question know that what they did wasn't against the law, but i forget to press that it's stupid because i just don't care about that part.

all i'm trying to say here is that the guy should, and probably can, get his guns back or at least money equal to the value of the guns.

I say let the PD keep the guns. The kids were stupid enough to be backyarding it in the first place. Maybe now they'll think twice before doing it again since it hit them in the wallet. Mommy and Daddy will probably be less apt to shell out for new guns too. Unless they're mindless drones like another kiddie team on here.

Besides, I have a feeling there's a whole lot more to the story that the kid isn't telling us. Like the woods is about an acre, near other houses and the neighbor got tired of bb's hitting his home/animals/etc. And this is probably not the first time the kids had issues. I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't put much stock in stories that come from kids. ESPECIALLY on an internet forum.

these guys were 17-19, adults for all intent and purpose. Why the hell would the police need to be chasing them through the woods? If you're doing something stupid like backyarding and someone rolls in (much less a cop!!) why wouldn't you stop the game and go talk to them like an adult??

if handled correctly they could have gotten off with a warning and slap on the wrist and only apologize and not do it again.

I saw feck em, should have taken all the guns

These kids are fucktards, if I were the cops I would've taken the guns too.