NORTH MANKATO — Opponents of North Mankato's firearms ordinance packed Monday night's City Council meeting, asking the council to repeal or rewrite its city code to prevent another 12-year-old from facing legal action for what they consider harmless kids' play.

The opposition stemmed from Dyllon Johnston's citation for discharging a firearm in public last month after a North Mankato police officer saw the 12-year-old shooting a clear plastic air soft gun.

The guns propel plastic BB-like balls at 100 to 200 feet per second, about a quarter to half the power of the weakest type of BB gun. The most powerful multi-pump BB gun, by contrast, can send BBs and pellets at around 1,000 feet per second.

"The boys were not shooting at anyone, were not shooting at anybody's property. They were having fun," said Mike Johnston, Dyllon's father.

Johnston called it "beyond ridiculous" that the boy was facing the same charge as someone who fired a shotgun in the city limits. And he suggested that the city ordinance was so restrictive that Nerf guns firing soft foam-rubber balls would violate it.

"You're now condemning a 12-year-old child for being a 12-year-old child," he said.

City Attorney Mike Kennedy advised the council not to comment on the case because it is pending in juvenile court and to make any changes to the ordinance as part of its normal annual review of the city code, something that typically takes place in the first months of a new year.

No one spoke in favor of the restriction on the least harmless of the projectile-firing guns typically used by boys. But audience members strongly disagreed about where the line should be drawn.

Johnston said he understood prohibitions on BB guns and paintball guns.

"But plastic pellet guns? Nerf guns?"

Others took a more libertarian view, suggesting that any restrictions on guns targeted toward children were inappropriate.

"I disagree with Mr. Johnston. I don't like any part of this law," said Kim Spears, who spoke against the ordinance when it was passed in 2009 and who is running for a city council seat this year.

Spears said a number of other laws are in place to provide legal repercussions for people who damage property or cause injuries with BB guns. An ordinance prohibiting discharge of a toy gun when the discharge causes no harm is excessive and unnecessary, according to Spears.

Mike Hatfield called the council's actions in passing the ordinance "unjust" and "unspeakable."

"You have no right to pass a law like that," Hatfield said. "... A gun is a gun. A toy is a toy."

Others suggested that the ordinance was particularly unfair because they hadn't heard about its passage.

"If parents don't know, how do we expect a 12-year-old child to know," asked a grandparent of Johnston.

Kennedy noted that council meetings, including the two meetings in January of 2009 when the city code was discussed and amended, were aired on public access television and that a public hearing was held. The Free Press also wrote two stories about the changes, including objections offered by Spears and another North Mankato resident.

The changes were recommended by Police Chief Chris Boyer largely to eliminate ambiguity about what sorts of guns could and couldn't be discharged in the city.

Boyer also noted that it isn't just children packing the guns. He said they were frequently used to shoot at rabbits and squirrels by adults who were trying to discourage the animals from feeding in their yards or gardens, and ricochets were an inevitable result.