RSS Feed
Print Story
E-mail Story
Gun play: Thrill seekers have a bang-up time at airsoft gun complex
| Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 4:41 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 2 2008 4:40 PM
A hostage is being held at gunpoint in a windowless room. Do you kick the door down? Do you go in shooting, hoping you’ll hit the bad guy before he gets you or his captive? Remember that the game ends if the hostage dies.
BAKERSFIELD.COM HOT TOPICS:
Loading Stories
Advertisement
What: Bakersfield Airsoft CQB
Where: 5441-A Aldrin Court
Hours: 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday through Friday; noon to 8 p.m. Saturday; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Closed: Monday and Tuesday — but play is possible by appointment.
Fees per person:
• $15 if you bring your own equipment, BBs and gas.
• $25 for rental of gun, 1,000 BBs and gas, plus gloves and paintball mask.
• Additional gas and BBs may be purchased at the on-site retail store.
Minimum age limit: 12 or 13; but 9- to 10-year-olds may be allowed to play if they are accompanied by a parent and not shooting at each other.
Information: 396-7959 or www.bakersfieldairsoftcqb.com.
Photos:
Francis Mayer leads the way as fellow KRAB radio DJ Jarad “Meathead” Mann follows close behind at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Jarad “Meathead” Mann from KRAB radio enjoys firing an automatic air rifle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Jarad “Meathead” Mann from KRAB radio enjoying firing an automatic air rifle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
KRAB morning DJ Francis Mayer moves cautiously through an urban setting during a battle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Jarad “Meathead” Mann waits for the signal to begin battle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Smoke adds to the effect of a battle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Jarad “Meathead” Mann is a two-fisted warrior ready for battle at Bakersfield Airsoft and CQB.
Carl Watkins, owner Bakersfield Airsoft CQB
Decisions, decisions.
And, ohhhh, dude, the adrenaline rush!
Scenarios such as this, enhanced by disorienting laser beams, strobe lights, smoke machines, booming music and other special effects, are enacted five days a week in the spirit of good, safe fun at Bakersfield Airsoft CQB (for “close-quarter battle”), a 4,200 square-foot converted warehouse in the southwest made to look like an urban combat zone. “I’m trying to create a place where people come and respect the gun and have a safe place to play,” said owner Carl Watkins.
Similar in size and weight to real guns, airsoft guns use motorized gear boxes with pressurized springs to shoot BBs. The models allowed at Watkins’ venue shoot pellets at no more than 350 feet per second.
Watkins claims the game is safer than paintball. “If you’re looking for injuries, it has a very low injury rate,” he said.
“Airsoft BBs are like an extension of your hand. It’s like playing tag.”
Albeit with a welt-raising punch: Goggles are a must and gloves are optional but highly advisable, as are vests.
Even Jarad “Meathead” Mann, the host of the “KRAB Morning Show” on 106.1 FM KRAB Radio, who wears a size 15 shoe, stands 6 feet 5 and weighs “370 on a good day” — “I’m a whole lot of man,” he likes to say — had an anthill-sized bump on his impressive belly after his first round of airsoft antics recently.
The stinging mishap, par for the course for both beginning and more experienced players, did not deter him: “I live three miles down the road, down in Silver Creek, so I’ll be here a lot,” he said.
GAME AS AGENT OF SOCIALIZATION?
Some might wonder whether those — especially kids — who play airsoft and other war-inspired games are being socialized to be violent.
“It’s not my place to say it’s right or wrong but there would be competing arguments,” said CSUB sociology professor Rhonda Dugan.
“People on one side would say that this is socializing kids to solve problems through violent means instead of talking.”
The other side, she said, might say these games teach such positive values as respect for weapons, patriotism and competition — as well as teamwork, as games usually consist of teams fighting each other. A pellet hits you and you’re out.
Dugan said kids are exposed to various “agents of socialization”: family, school, peers, the mass media and other influences like video games or reality scenario re-enactments.
Ultimately, families that allow their children to participate in battle games should teach them that they are just games, she said. Which is why the idea of having kids shoot pellets at one another did not cause Dugan as much concern as the re-enactment of a hostage-taking. That made her “a little uncomfortable,” she said.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Watkins, 56, a Bakersfield native who grew up in Arvin, learned — with great respect — to handle a gun at age 5.
“We always treated them like they were loaded,” he said. “We grew up that way. That’s how we were taught. We never messed around when our parents weren’t around.”
He used to run a local paintball field called Target Zone, he said, but closed it down about three years ago.
He opened his airsoft playground at the beginning of the year because he wanted to have “a controlled environment” where kids and other enthusiasts of simulated battle games could come and vent some energy, hone their skills or just plain have fun.
“Usually most of my customers are probably in their late teens up to 50,” he said.
One such customer is Donny Breedlove, 41. He’s been at Bakersfield Airsoft a few times, he said.
“Everyone really, really thinks about what it would be like to be on a SWAT team or police,” he said. “You get to play army like when we were kids. Everyone comes out laughing and saying how much fun we had.”
Dugan said reality games can create what sociologists call a “hyperreality.”
“It’s as real as you can get but it’s even better than reality because there is no risk involved.”
Breedlove had his 13-year-old daughter, Kaytlin, a Fairfax Middle School student, with him the same day “Meathead” Mann was there.
Kaytlin had not yet played airsoft. Her dad was just showing her the place.
“I would not let her go in by herself unless I went,” her father said. Watkins wouldn’t have it any other way when younger teens are involved.
ALL HAIL THE KING OF GUN TECHNICIANS
“If they come with their own equipment, it costs about $15 for the day to play,” Watkins said about standard fees charged for all players. “If they rent equipment from us, it costs about $25 for the day.”
Tony Campuzano, 29, who works for Watkins, said the $25 equipment fee includes the airgun rental, as well as 1,000 rounds of BBs, gloves and a paintball mask.
“They can play for as long as they want,” he said. “Games usually last 10 to 15 minutes.”
Campuzano, who used to spend a lot of his time riding all-terrain vehicles, discovered airsoft about a year ago and loves it.
The gun technician knows his way in and around airguns so well that he can fix one in 30 minutes flat.
He called out the part names of a gear box — the mechanism that makes a gun shoot — as he worked with it: “Cylinder. Piston. Piston head. Your guide. Your motor. Your wiring harness that sets off the trigger. These are your springs. This is where you get all your power here.
“You want a sniper rifle? I can make your gun shoot like a sniper rifle. You want speed? I can get you speed. I can do replicas of any guns that you want.”
He can do custom paint jobs on guns as well: little skulls to make them look scary or, “You want little flowers for your female friend? I can make it happen.”
But like many other fans of airsoft, Campuzano does not own a real gun, just an airsoft rifle: a $400 model from KWA Corporation, he said.
'FAMILY-ORIENTED FUN'
Watkins said he would like to have more clients from law enforcement agencies use his facility.
“Just set up and let them do their own training,” he said. “It’s a safe and inexpensive way for law enforcement to train” using SWAT-like realistic scenarios.
As to whether some groups in society with violent tendencies use Bakersfield Airsoft, Watkins said, “I have yet to get any gangbangers that I know. I don’t know of any white supremacist groups either. I wouldn’t be interested in them.”
And he’s not at all concerned that the war game experiences he sells might inspire real-life violence in the minds of his clients, either. He said he caters to “upstanding members of the community.”
“I want to have moms or dads, or both, bring their kids to come to a place where they’ll be safe and enjoy “family-oriented fun.”