Geneva BB Gun Incidents Continue Despite Recent Headlines

Considering the seriousness of recent arrests involving BB guns, air rifles and school lockdowns, it's surprising how many incidents continue to show up in Geneva police reports.

Despite the heightened awareness that followed the Newtown tragedy, young people especially seem to have missed the message that the mischief that might have been taken lightly in the past is cause for genuine concern these days.

Two recent examples, of course, include the Jan. 14 incident in which Oswego and Aurora kids were arrested after a traffic stop that resulted in the lockdown of three Geneva schools, and the Christmas Day case of a young man toting an air rifle near Wheeler Park.

In the Jan. 14 case, it sounds like teens were on a joy ride, shooting an air soft pistol out the window when they were stopped by police. The three teens were arrested on charges of misdemeanor reckless conduct and released after posting bond.

The Christmas Day arrest happened 11 days after Newtown shootings, when a 15-year-old who apparently was visiting Geneva for the holidays made the mistake of walking along Route 31 with an air rifle.

In 2008, National Public Radio broadcast a story about Airsoft guns and how police have fatally shot boys who were out in public after their realistic toy guns were mistaken for actual guns.

All that said, BB gun shootings continue to show up in Geneva police reports. Here are two collected in the past couple weeks:

Criminal Damage to Property—Someone used a BB gun to shoot out the double pane window of Sunrise Dental Care, 502 East State St., sometime between 7 a.m. Jan. 7 and 1:30 p.m. Jan. 10, reports said. The window was destroyed, but it did not fall out of the frame, reports said. The officer found the BB lodged between two panes of glass. The value to replace the window was unknown at the time the report was filed. 

Criminal Damage to Property Under $300—Someone used an unknown object to break a window on the south side of Front Street Cantina, 577 S. Third St., sometime between 11 p.m. Jan 5 and 11 a.m. Jan. 6, reports said. Police observed the outer pane of a double-pane window had been shattered, with an obvious impact mark near the middle of the window. The owner did not have an estimate of the repair cost at the time the report was filed.

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