Andrew's airsoft gun IS A TOY

As the gift giver in this blog post, I would like to clarify a couple of things...

"An air soft pellet gun has the capability to shoot someones eye out." - I have never heard of this happening. If anyone has, please let me know. I've heard many stories of children poking eyes out with sticks.

"After making plans to get together for a game of 'Cowboys and Indians,'..." - As I recall, I said, "Let's go out and shoot them some time."

"...it is a weapon..." - Um, no. It's a toy. It's not a toy for all ages. We haven't decided at what age we will let our daughters handle such a toy, but since my oldest is only 3 we have at least a few years to think about it.

Here are a few reasons why it is considered a toy:
1 - It's made of almost all plastic (except for some springs) and shoots out little plastic balls. Plastic == toy.
2 - My wife shot me with mine (at my request) and it did not break skin == toy.
3 - My mother-in-law has one and loves to play with it. Play thing == toy. (as a side note, she gave me a great tip: a box, like a FedEx box is great for shooting, since the BBs go through only one layer of cardboard and end up inside the box.)

I just don't understand some people's irrational fear of toys. They shouldn't let their hoplophobia be extended to include suction-cup guns, airsoft guns, cap guns or other similar toys. What is going to be the response when your child picks up a stick and starts pretending it's a gun or a sword. (I guarantee that any son of Andrew will do this!)

I know this will put most to sleep, but here's a quick comparison of the actual energy of such projectiles. For the record I have no good feel for what a Joule of energy is (other than it's equal to one newton-meter) This is just an easy way to compare the amount of energy each projectile has.

airsoft
275 feet per second (which is the fastest pistol I could find when purchasing said gift)
6 mm diameter
0.12 grams
= 0.8 joules (not even enough to puncture a soda can)

bb/pellet
1000 feet per second
4.5 mm diameter
8.2 grams
= 31.9 joules

.22 long
1,750 feet per second
3.9 grams
= 1110 joules