Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Airsoft Guns - A Unique History

By Anthony Carter

Today one of the most popular forms of recreation is the use of airsoft guns. The market has evolved rather quickly for these neat little toys even though they haven't been around that long. You may be wondering however, just what is an airsoft gun?

The most simple description is that they are near perfect replicas of the real thing. The only difference in these and their counterparts are the ammunition and how it is fired. Compressed gas such as CO2 is the most common means of firing their plastic pellets, but some models use electric motors and spring driven pistons. They also have an amazing muzzle velocity of about 30 to 250 meters per second and the ammunition comes in a standard 6mm size.

Don't let these recreational toys fool you though, in cases where heavy projectiles are used they can and will penetrate the skin causing severe damage. If plastic pellets are used as recommended though, airsoft guns are relatively safe for play. The are recommended for ages 16 and up, but in some select areas you must be 18 to participate in any type of tournament. This is for safety reasons of course and children under 16 should never attempt to use one.

Airsoft guns have an interesting history to go along with them that starts in Japan around the 1970's. You see, during that time it was illegal to have a firearm, but because people were still interested in them these replicas were invented. These earliest version were powered by springs themselves and fired rubber pellets. The standard 6mm to 8mm size we see today came later. They did evolve quickly in to gas powered guns however.

Sometime in the mid 1990's this Japanese creation found it's way over to North America and things here just haven't been the same since. North American's helped to evolved airsoft guns in to what they are today.

Cheap versions of the toy forced the United States to crack down on import regulations of the item and even today each one must be painted with a very bright orange tip before import. This is mainly as a safety precaution because of the similarities to real weapons.

Some airsoft gun models are so life like in fact that there have been a few Japan based companies that have encountered problems with intellectual property laws several times through the years. The United States battles this by restricting certain models from being imported in to the country for sale.

I bet you are thinking about how much fun this all sounds right now, aren't you? Well, it is! Whole families sometimes get involved in this activity and use it as a way to spend family time together. Some people say its a wonderful way to relieve stress as well! If you need a little excitement in your life but don't want anything too dangerous then just maybe you should look in to this one. Fanatics doubt you will be disappointed and you just might become a fanatic yourself.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment