Believe it or not, all of the guns in the image below are airsoft guns.  For those of you who may not know what an airsoft gun is, I’ll explain.  Airsoft guns are toy guns that shoot small rubber balls out of the barrel.  The rubber pellets leave the muzzle with a velocity of about 300-500 fps (feet per second) and if hit on uncovered skin you will most likely show a small welt or at higher velocities you might even break the skin.  Airsoft guns have received a lot of attention lately because of how similar they look to actual guns that are carried by soldiers, hunters, bad guys, and cops.  I mean honestly, look a this image below and tell me that these do not look very, very real.

You would be hard pressed to harm or kill an animal with an airsoft gun, but the concern is that these guns often look so real that cops cannot tell if you are  holding a real gun or a toy gun.  This might lead officers to shooting an innocent teen playing shoot-out in the alley with his friends.  This also is a concern for concealed carry permit carriers in the state of Utah as any flack pointed at gun owners can lead to more stringent laws related to gun ownership and conceal carry laws.

I spoke with Mike Steck, a local Utah Concealed Carry Permit Instructor, recently about this issue and he commented “concerns with airsoft guns looking so real can provide ammunition to anti-gun enthusiasts, leading to a potential push for stiffer concealed carry laws.”  He also stressed that fact that “while an airsoft gun cannot kill an animal or human, it’s crucial that everyone treats all guns with respect and it’s crucial that children learn this at a young age even if all they are playing with is a toy.”  He suggested anyone serious about handling guns should always take a Hunter’s Safety or Utah Concealed Carry Class.

So, here is my viral idea.  If you are a concealed carry instructor you could do all kinds of posts related to the look of airsoft guns being so similar to real guns and could show the top 10 airsoft guns that look just like real guns.  You could show the real gun and the airsoft gun right next to each other and have people choose which is real and which is a toy.  Then you could have the answers below for people to see how they did.  Titles could be something like: Real Gun or Fake Gun, You Decide, or Are U.S. Soldiers Carrying Real Guns or Fake Guns, or Top Ten Airsoft Guns That Look Like Real Soldier Guns.  You would have all kinds of PTSD soldiers reading your post and commenting all night long on how they carry real guns and “can show you it” later if you want.  You would also get many moms reading your post and taking away their kids’ airsoft guns…so all and all you would have lots of fans.

Earlier this week while at a scouting event I had a chance to talk to a few young scouts about how they were doing with their personal finance merit badge.  To get the merit badge a scout has to keep a three month record of all their financial transactions including all debits and credits to their checking and savings accounts…that is if they have account as compared to just keeping their money rolled up in a wad in their nightstand drawer.  Well one of the boys pulled out a wallet he had made of duct tape and said…”I’m doing great and I have a $100 right here in my wallet”…yes you heard me correct, a duct tape wallet.  The wallet was completely made out of duct tape and as I tried to grab it to threaten to take his $100 if he wasn’t keeping a history of his transactions part of the wallet tore off.  Oh well, he can just add more tape to fix it he said.

Anyway, he had money in his wallet and in his savings account, but he had not been writing down his transaction history and to get the merit badge you must keep that record.  So here is the idea…for a company that specializes in home budget software or home budgeting software you could show a group of scouts that used your household budgeting software to help them get their personal finance merit badge and title the post something like, 8 Scouts Use “Company Name” Personal Finance Software to Get Their Personal Finance Merit Badge or Get Your Personal Finance Merit Badge by Using Our Home Budget Software for Free if You Are a Boy Scout.

This merit badge is by far one of the most difficult badges for any scout to receive because they have to apply themselves for a period of 90 days to keep that record and in the last 4 years I have only seen 2 scouts do it.  My brother is working to get his Eagle Scout Award right now and before he turns 18 (has 10 months left) and the last merit badge he has to get is, you guessed it, his personal finance badge.

There you have it!