06 March 2013

Blowgun darts - a new public menace?


The image comes from a Reddit post, with this explanation:
Was walking on the local trail today, going through the forest part. When suddenly I feel a very sharp pain in my arm, like a shot. Look down and there is a long dart, from maybe a blow gun of sorts? I don't know but scared the shit out of me, I looked and could see no one.
A simple Google Image search yields a wide array of photos of this weaponry.  The Reddit thread focuses on potential health consequences (probably minimal other than at the site of entry) and the range (up to about 100 feet, if you want to locate and try to wreak retribution on the malefactor).

4 comments:

  1. If someone is crazy enough to shoot a dart at you, they could be crazy enough to dip it in poison or other biological hazardous stuff.

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  2. As a kid I fought nerf gun wars with my brothers and friends. My brother had the best weapon by far - approximately three feet of PVC pipe with the right internal diameter to use as a blowgun with nerf missiles. He had more range, a faster reload time, and at least as much accuracy as anything else on the field. Blowguns are low mass and short range (compared to a gun), but in the right application they're damn capable weapons.

    (I never could get the hang of it. I blame my wind instrument training.)

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  3. There is a kid (15) in my neighborhood who hunts birds and chipmunks with a dart gun in the summer... sometimes he comes into my yard. Can anyone tell me if dart guns are illegal in the suburbs of Northern Virginia? It upsets me to find dead animals in my yard and I don't really know how to handle the issue, his parents are unapproachable.

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  4. To Anonymous poster, I don't think the guns themselves are illegal. That said, it is illegal for your neighbor to trespass into your yard. It is also illegal for him to hunt small game out of season or without a hunting license or tag for said game.

    To the guy who actually got shot, I would have found this prick and done something to him that would have landed me in jail. It wouldn't have been to hard to find the shooter. All you had to do is remember which direction you were walking and then where you got him and followed the path of trajectory. Those blow guns aren't like actually firearms, the range can't be that long I would be willing to bet.

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