School Halts Trend Of Air-gun Playing At Break Time
By CT Hj Mahmod

Bandar Seri Begawan - A privately run leading school in the capital yesterday literally shot down a dangerous trend in the classrooms where youths brandished hazardous toy guns, playing dangerous games during the lunch break.

Concerned school authorities stepped in to curb this harmful trend of youngsters bringing air-guns or replicas of the real firearms to school.

“Having fun is something but jeopardising the safety of fellow students and teachers is another matter altogether,” said one of the teachers who blamed the sellers of these offensive toys.

The school’s deputy principal expressed his concern to the Bulletin after a group of students were caught red handed passing around their air-gun during lessons to prepare for a game of shooting during the lunch break.

The air-gun uses plastic pellets as bullets, which could seriously injure a person if a pellet hits him or her.

“Fortunately there has been no report of anyone getting injured by these air-guns,” said the school’s deputy principal.

The school took action by confiscating the air-guns from the students (both from upper primary level and secondary level), and summoned their parents who were also surprised to see their children possessing such threatening toys.

It is learnt that the air-guns are being sold in local departmental stores or bargain shops at an affordable price of B$5 to B$10. A bag of plastic pellets costs just B$1.

The latest air-gun design in the market is the “sniper”.

Not only does this threatening toy could be used to injure someone or damage property, it could also be used for other undesirable activities.

A law enforcement officer, when approached, told the Bulletin, “Air-guns are liable to be seized by the relevant authority, especially if they look like real weapons, for it could be used for other illegal purposes such as robbery, threatening a person or extortion.”

Parents should be more cautious over what their children purchase from local departmental stores or bargain shops, for even though such toys are bought by the youth to have fun they could pose danger to others. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin 

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