Gated Community Paranoia Leads to Rights Infringment

An interesting event occured recently on Hilton Head Island, SC. While playing a round of golf on a course in Hilton Head Plantation, a gated community, two golfers noticed a pair of teens walk out onto the fairway with what appeared to be an M16 assualt rifle and a handgun. The golfers retreated without contacting the teens and called security. When security arrived they seized the weapons, which turned out to be no more than airsoft guns which had had their orange tips painted black for use in a school movie project. Security also searched the teens' homes and seized additional weapons of the same type valued at about $500 and issued citations for trespassing and illegal use of firearms. Read the whole story here

These types of replica firearms are most often used in a sport known as airsoft. It is a cousin of paintball, only much more realism oriented, hence the extremley accurate nature of most of the weapons. This is why normally these weapons have a federally mandated quarter-inch orange blaze on the tip of the barrel. However, there is an important fact here that is being overlooked. The wapons were to be used in the production of a movie. Under the United States Code (Title 15, Chapter 76, Section 5001), which governs the color coding of air-powered weapons, the teens were well within the bounds of the law. A replica firearm may have its tip colored black if it is being used in the production of a movie, play, etc. While running onto the fairway was not the brightest of ideas, it should be noted that no firearm law was broken by the teens.

So, other than trespassing, these teens have done nothing wrong. That being the case, it would seem that Hilton Head Plantation security is infact guilty of illegal search and seizure of thier property, a much more grave offence. While I empathize with security for wanting to do something about this given the fatal shooting of a teen with such a weapon at school not too long ago, it is no excuse for infringing on people's rights. This has been an on going problem within gated communities. The regimes governing these areas seem to think that they are not subject to the higher-order governmental structures of this nation (i.e. state and federal constitutions) and often infringe upon residents rights and even go so far as to break their own by-laws whenever they see fit in acts of gross favoritism to the rich(er) and connected. I've heard of a Department of Justice probe into such actives by gated communities. Perhaps it is long past time for them to cast in eye on the Hilton Head Island region.


Sections of this article taken from The Island Packet and Chivey8747