Back in the day, we used to play war. All the time. The toy guns looked real. We pointed them at each other and then argued about who shot who first and who should be dead. No one cared or complained. Parents were happy to see us outside. But times have changed.
If you point a broken Nerf ‘Gun’at someone you can get arrested for felony menacing.
In Colorado, yes, Colorado, where
…menacing is a class 5 felony if:
- you use a deadly weapon or any article a person would reasonably believe is a deadly weapon, or
- you represent verbally or otherwise that you are armed with a deadly weapon.
Consequences of Colorado felony menacing can include:
- 1-3 years in prison, and/or
- A fine of $1,000-$100,000.
The Perps and the Weapons
Care of RedState.
The boys had been playing with an orange-tipped toy Nerf gun and an orange Nerf bow and arrow one summer afternoon and decided to point their “weapons” at cars as they passed.
“the toy bow was an orange Nerf bow. It didn’t work. Nothing could shoot out of it. Nothing would come out of it. The weapon, well toy, I had, had an orange tip. It was also broken and couldn’t shoot anything out of it.”
The driver of the truck saw them, reversed his vehicle and hunted them down when they retreated to “his friend’s grandparents’ house.” A heated discussion ended with El Paso County Sheriff’s deputies putting the boys in handcuffs and reading them their rights.
According to the Carpenter family, the boys were “taken to the Colorado Springs Police Department for mugshots and fingerprinting.” …
The Carpenter’s hired a lawyer to see if they could have the record of his arrest expunged. The District Attorney refused to do so. Chris told Fox21, “It was just a hard no, that the District Attorney wasn’t going to throw this out. That is when we moved into the diversion program.”
Can we go back to the “menacing law?”
If “you use a deadly weapon or any article a person would reasonably believe is a deadly weapon...”
Are there any Nerf guns that are not bright yellow, Blue, Orange, or Red? Orange-tip. Nerf Bow. Seriously? Reasonably believe? Felony menacing?
The Real Menace
It’s been a while since then. The boys eventually got their records expunged. And their dad is working on helping them rebuild trust in the police. Do you think?
And how about their trust in the lawmakers who put the police in that situation or the snowflake driving the truck who got bent because some kids pointed Nerf toys at him?
Baltimore Rioters get ‘space to destroy.’ Antifa thugs freely exercise the threat of mob justice to deny free speech in public spaces. US Senators threaten sitting Supreme Court Justices. Campus crybabies shut down planned events by people they are afraid might say words to which they object to other people. But two kids with Nerf toys need to learn how the world works.
Lesson learned? Probably, but it was the wrong lesson. And I don’t mean that “it’s safer” to play inside.
| RedState
The featured image is for reference only. Pictures of the felonious weapons were not available for publication.
