It's beginning to look a lot like...

Christmas crap seems to be coming out of the wood work real early this year. I did go and see that new Harold and Kumar Christmas movie on opening night and it was most definitely a movie about Christmas more than anything else. That isn't exactly bad thing but it did add a sort of cheesiness to the whole film...but then you realize that it is Harold and Kumar and that you actually wanted to see this movie anyway, so you hang your head in shame you learn to appreciate it's absurdity. It was pretty funny and also provided a firm reminder to get you XMAS shopping in gear soon (I saw it a week ago and haven't even flinched since).

Anyway, Christmas is coming so deck the halls you crazy mother fockers.

So that brings me to my next point (not really). The reason I don't own a handgun is because there's a lot of regulation around it. Getting your RPAL on top of your PAL is not even more difficult, but once you actually do decide to pick up a piece then that's where things get tricky.

My memory broken Coles Notes which may probably be incorrect on the whole situation is that in order to even buy a pistol and transport it from the shop to you must first obtain an ATT from your CFO. In order to have an ATT you have to be a member of a legitimate shooting club. So if you want to keep your ATT/pistol you gotta keep dropping cash on that membership (or get a legal job as someone who actually requires a handgun (or something like that). Under most normal circumstances someone can only really transport a handgun from their home to your shooting club, after which you must immediately transport it back to your gun safe .Wielding it under any other circumstances would probably land you in some real deep shit jail.

Since that's more money and trouble than I'm willing to commit to, just so I can pop off a few rounds, I won't even bother. I guess this is where super questionable airsoft guns come into play...

On one hand you have dangerous looking toys and on the other hand you have extremely dangerous looking toys. While they might not be able to blow up a gopher, you better believe that there's more than enough power to put out an eye or hurt like hell. It's pretty much just like a paintball gun, minus the whole mess and gay high-fives.

Metal gas powered airsoft pistols look, feel and even operate just like real guns except that they use compressed gas or propane to fire off little plastic pellets as opposed to murderous lead rounds. Even still, although a dumb little pellet might not kill you it's definitely not fun to get shot with. If a little plastic BB can easily clear both sides of a cardboard box, then you better believe it'll make your ass bleed when someone shoots you in the jeans 15 yards away. Trust me.

What's crazy is that those hard plastic balls will hazardously bounce in all directions all over the place and just like a paintball gun you don't even need a PAL to get your hands on one. Any irresponsible kid over 18 can go to Pacific Mall or crappy tire, pick one up and then terrorize the neighborhood. The law seems to say that:

• If it shoots at > 500 feet per second, it's considered a firearm and needs to be registered like one
• If it looks like a real gun then it should be treated and registered like a real gun

But since they're treated like toys and there really isn't much of a process or control around buying one it's pretty easy to get a hold of.

I'll be honest, other than being really cool to hold and really really cheap to shoot I don't really know what people would do with them (other than get some condescending strange looks at the range for shooting a toy next to a guy shooting a real S&W revolver). I imagine they're used for games just like paintball but if you ever see a drunk high school kid walking around in the public park waving one in the air then you'd probably call the cops because nobody would be able to tell that it's NOT a real gun.

Anyway, play safe and don't fuck it up for the rest of us.



Is it Friday yet?