Western Airsoft Japan
9 February 2023 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dime_novel_heroAs a nation that disallows the private ownership of firearms, Japan has nonetheless developed a vibrant gun culture based on airsoft; hyper-realistic firearms that fire small plastic pellets with compressed air. There is also, apparently, a faction that has latched onto the American western.
I would so love to hang with these guys. They seem to be having so much more fun that I see amongst the Cowboy Action Shooters and reenactors I deal with here in the states. Everything I see them doing could be done here in the states for a lot lower cost than the actual firearms we use. But America is America and CAS is a rich white man’s sport, both functionally and culturally. And I sure that kids getting murdered by cops for carrying toy guns (or cell phones mistaken for guns, or their empty hands being mistaken for guns) also factors into airsoft sports not catching on here.
That having been said, I own several airsoft. Relevant to this, I have a Tanaka Single Action Army that I got in 2010. That model was discontinued but I learned that they are apparently releasing a new model and, to my eyes, looks identical to the one I have from over a decade ago.
I am also on the lookout for a Marushin Winchester M1887 Shotgun (Long Version) but of the limited numbers of airsoft that do make it to the states, the western guns are the rarest and, if they are even to found on a website inventory, they are always sold out.
I would so love to hang with these guys. They seem to be having so much more fun that I see amongst the Cowboy Action Shooters and reenactors I deal with here in the states. Everything I see them doing could be done here in the states for a lot lower cost than the actual firearms we use. But America is America and CAS is a rich white man’s sport, both functionally and culturally. And I sure that kids getting murdered by cops for carrying toy guns (or cell phones mistaken for guns, or their empty hands being mistaken for guns) also factors into airsoft sports not catching on here.
That having been said, I own several airsoft. Relevant to this, I have a Tanaka Single Action Army that I got in 2010. That model was discontinued but I learned that they are apparently releasing a new model and, to my eyes, looks identical to the one I have from over a decade ago.
I am also on the lookout for a Marushin Winchester M1887 Shotgun (Long Version) but of the limited numbers of airsoft that do make it to the states, the western guns are the rarest and, if they are even to found on a website inventory, they are always sold out.
