• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

What do you do when someone pranks you?

Hmm...

I don't know if it helps, but I recall a case where someone was making threats backed up by a toy gun.

The gun looked real, and the wielder was booked for demanding money with menaces and carrying an offensive weapon.

At the time, the discussion was that the weapon looked real enough for the threat to seem real, and therefore it was offensive.

The definition from the Act was:

An offensive weapon includes, a dangerous weapon, or something made or adapted for offensive purposes, or something that in the circumstances is used, intended to be used, or threatened to be used for offensive purposes (regardless of whether it's ordinarily used for offensive purposes or capable of causing harm).

I can't comment about how common that kind of definition would be, but from the above, the threat doesn't have to be real...
 
There are variations in legislation and standards, but for the purpose of the self-defense affirmative defense, as I was saying, the standard in the West is pretty much universally whether a reasonable person of average intelligence would have thought they were in imminent danger. It doesn't even matter if YOU should have known better. Even if you have 200 IQ and are an expert on firearms, if the average person would have thought that that airsoft replica pointed at them is a real gun, in the half a second they had to make that call, then that's that. Like, yeah, you could have been Bullet-Tooth Tony and noticed that it says "Replica" on the side of the gun, but that's not a reasonable expectation for an average person.



Standard disclaimer: this is not legal advice.
 
Yes, the "reasonable person" standard. Unfortunately, many people are not reasonable, especially under extreme pressure.
 
Yes, well, that's why there is such a threshold. On one side of it you're in the clear, on the other side you're not.
 
novaphile said:
Unfortunately, I can't give you a link to the original source, but a warning went around work (with many example photographs) about manufacturers deliberately making firearms that look like toys.

NB. Toys that look like firearms is very common, firearms that look like toys are a new trend.

https://www.google.com/search?&q=images+firearms+made+to+look+like+toys
Click to expand...

What a bastard thing to do. We already have enough kids shot because cops are worried their toy is real. Whoever would make one that way on purpose has no soul at all.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom