What was the crime?
I’m still a little in the dark about a couple of stories you wrote concerning teens and guns over the last weekend.
In both papers there is references to the possibility of charges being filed and criminal prosecutions, but nowhere is there mention of any laws that were actually
broken. In my limited knowledge of the law, I could envision that pointing a gun at another person could be cause for a charge of reckless endangerment, but other than that, I am in the dark.
Your paper did mention that some federal law makes it illegal to remove markings that discern a pellet gun from a “real” gun, but other than that, what is there? In my estima-
tion, a pellet gun has always been a “real” gun, but I guess reality is in the eye of the beholder.
Growing up in Aspen, we used to sometimes take up an entire Saturday playing “cops and robbers” or “cowboys and indians,” using all manner of guns that you might expect to turn up when 15 or 20 kids were “in the game.” With that many kids playing, we used to take up a four- or five-block area in the West End. As I recall, no one got hurt, at least from the guns, but there were some serious scrapes and bruises from time to time.
Anyway, I’m sure there are others who would appreciate knowing just exactly what criminal violations were involved in this incident, rather than the generalities that we seem to have received from the first two articles.
Tony Vagneur
Unincorporated Eagle County,
near Basalt

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Public art up against the wall in Aspen’s civic space
An inspirational piece of 20th century artist Herbert Bayer is being installed on the staircase next to Aspen City Hall by his granddaughter, Koko.