Despite the high level of hostility on the Airsoft Canada forums, players generally are open and friendly. Whenever a newbie approaches me in person or via online communication, I always try to educate them on fundamentals and laws (to my knowledge anyway) as best I can.

When dealing with people I am not familiar with (newbie or veteran), I always take a low key approach and will let them do most of the talking. I find it easier to discuss things if I know where the person stands experience wise.

TTAC3 is a great place for novice players to get some experience but in the last two months, I’ve been rather disturbed by a few people I’ve met there. A couple have blatantly lied about their level of experience, not a big deal but I don’t understand the reasoning behind it. From listening to their stories, it sounds like they could take the entire TTAC3 crowd by themselves, their game play though showed two extremely passive players who hung around the back and made many novice mistakes.

More unsettling was that two claimed to be gun doctors, yet couldn’t diagnose very simple problems (blow fuse, motor height) with their guns. One even goes as far as advertising his gunsmithing abilities in his forum signature! I feel sorry for anyone who gets these guys to do work…

Worst of all however is that three (there are more, one of these n00bs formed a team full of newbies) of these players practice unsafe airsofting! I heard about playing in street alleys and in vacant construction yards! Airsoft is already a grey subject when it comes to the law and the airsoft community has taken it upon themselves to treat these weapons like real guns. It’s extremely easy to mistake an airsoft gun for the real thing, they’re 1:1 replicas after all (airsoft guns are not classified as replica fire arms). All that needs to happen is for airsoft to receive bad press then presto, it’s banned. How would you react if you saw shadowy figures in the dark and assault rifles?

I’ve already informed the offending parties that what they’re doing is dangerous, both for them and the sport. That and to not contact me again, I get enough BS at work and in life, I don’t need any from playing airsoft. Whether they choose to heed the advice though I guess is up to them. I should have also suggested not to try and bluff your way with a veteran player, after 5 minutes in from talking to them, I knew these guys were full of it.