"Careful you'll shoot your eye out"

I'm confused with the article. Was it an airsoft gun or BB gun? It makes a big difference one is meant to shoot at people and the other could kill someone. Even if it was an airsoft gun you shouldn't shoot someone unless your playing a game but, they clearly weren't. "The suspect, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment." Firearm definition - a weapon from which a shot is discharged by gunpowder Since when did airsoft guns use gunpowder? [rolleyes]
 
Let us not forget, there are portions of MA law (and apparently CT law) which define "firearm" so broadly that BB, pellet, airsoft and paintball guns are all considered firearms.
 
Let us not forget, there are portions of MA law (and apparently CT law) which define "firearm" so broadly that BB, pellet, airsoft and paintball guns are all considered firearms.

Yup, school zones definition in MA is that broad. I think a straw and a spit ball can fall under that one.
 
He'll probably have charges dismissed. While criminal court instructions on what a firearm is are vague:

FIREARM

A "firearm" is any sawed-off shotgun, machine gun, rifle, shotgun, pistol, revolver or other weapon, whether loaded or unloaded from which a shot may be discharged. You must find that the firearm was operable at the time of the offense.

Source: General Statutes § 53a-3 (19) (applies to Penal Code).

Commentary: The phrase "from which a shot may be discharged" in the definition of "firearm" has been interpreted as requiring that the firearm is operable. The operability of the firearm is a factual finding for the jury. State v. Belanger, 55 Conn. App. 2, 7, cert. denied, 251 Conn. 921, cert. denied, 530 U.S. 1205, 120 S.Ct. 2200, 147 L.Ed.2d 235 (1999).

Note: The definition of "deadly weapon" in § 53a-3 (6) and the definition of "firearm" in § 53a-3 (19) have overlapping definitions. A deadly weapon is, in part, any weapon, whether loaded or unloaded, from which a shot may be discharged. A firearm is any of 6 enumerated weapons, plus "any other weapon," whether loaded or unloaded, from which a shot may be discharged. I.e., all firearms would fit the definition of a deadly weapon, and some deadly weapons would fit the definition of a firearm. Whether a particular weapon would reasonably come within one of these definitions is to be made on a case-by-case basis. See State v. Grant, 294 Conn. 151, 159-61 (2009) (BB gun could come within definition of firearm); State v. Hart, 118 Conn. App. 763, 776 (2009), cert. denied, 295 Conn. 908 (2010) (pellet gun could be a deadly weapon, a dangerous instrument, or a firearm).


See a complete list of jury terms/instructions here


The DPS definitions of firearms are not vague at all and regulated to those which must be sold retail by an FFL to someone 18 years or older.

If he's charged with discharging a firearm he must also be charged with illegal possession and the person who sold it to him would have to be charged with a slew of federal charges.

He'll get off, the cops were just looking to grand stand on this one rather than just charging assault.
 
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