Can you be Anti-Gun and Pro-Airsoft?

It seems like a contradiction, support of firearms naturally means support of replica firearms and vice-versa right?

Maybe not.

While designed to replicate firearms in the extreme, airsoft guns are radically different from the conventional firearms they are made to replicate. Each year, airsoft manufactures strive to make airsoft guns as realistic as possible to the firearm they mimic without ever having the intent of duplicating the firearm.

Airsofters want all the action, function, recoil, sound, and appearance of the firearm without it's key purpose: destruction.

Believe it or not, they do not want that destructive power, because then they couldn't use it for airsoft games. There in lies the key distinction between the two, no matter what DVD is released recommending them as training tools, what company changes their products from airsoft to training devices, or what some politician elected on a water reform platform might lead you to believe.

So, with this distinction can you be anti-gun or pro gun control and pro airsoft? I believe that you can.

If you separate airsoft and firearms based on function, destruction of whatever is in front of you vs. key component of a game, the distinction is obvious.

Even if airsoft guns are used as analogues to firearms, they are fundamentally different. While airsoft guns are used as cosmetic substitutes for firearms, they are never meant to protect, deter, or kill the way firearms do.

In terms of the gun debate and the airsoft debate there are essentially 4 potential positions:

Pro Gun, Pro Airsoft

The individual is both pro gun and pro airsoft. More than likely, they support the ownership and use of firearms for self defense or recreational purposes, and any training devices or analogies for firearms. The individual believes they have a right to firearms and that airsoft is an extension of that same right.

Pro Gun Anti Airsoft

An individual can easily support firearm ownership and fight airsoft. Airsoft guns are viewed as toys, with no regard to firearm safety or etiquette, giving real firearms a bad image and developing dangerous bad habits. Firearms are not toys and should be given the respect they deserve due to their lethality.

Anti Gun Pro Airsoft

Would make a great blog post, this individual would see airsoft as part of a game, a toy, and firearms as a inherently destructive device that is only meant to kill. Airsoft is not dangerous but firearms are and should be removed for public safety.

Anti Gun Anti Airsoft

Here the individual believes firearms and anything similar is dangerous. Firearms are meant to kill and while airsoft does not, they are similar enough to be abused or lead to dangerous situations. Even if firearms were eliminated from the general public, they can exist on the street. And if they do, then airsoft guns can be mistaken for them.

The pro-gun anti-gun debate still rages on, and has picked up airsoft due to the fundamental nature of airsoft design. Opinions vary along a wide spectrum of stances, this post attempts to illustrate that rather than take sides.