The Nerf war is back

After a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic, students from Cloquet, Esko and Carlton high schools are holding another “Nerf war” — so don’t be surprised to see kids chasing each other with brightly colored Nerf guns in the name of fun and fortune.

Although not unique to northern Carlton County, this rite of spring is a big deal. Each spring, some 200 kids or so form teams, pay their entry fees, dig out their Nerf guns and prepare for battle.

While it makes many adults uncomfortable in a world where public shootings happen far too often with real guns, the kids say it’s fun, and much of the money raised goes to charity, specifically the REACH Mentoring program, which has gotten thousands of dollars from the Nerf war over the past few years.

It’s a game with lots of rules, designed to keep kids safe and keep things from devolving into petty squabbles.

Cloquet police chief Derek Randall — who has worked with past Nerf war commissioners on rules of the game — said his goal is to make sure the kids balance safety and fun.

He didn’t like it when kids could creep into someone’s house unannounced — they can’t anymore — or when kids would shoot out of moving cars, which is actually illegal. (It’s also now against the rules of the Nerf war.) He worries most about kids getting excited and driving recklessly.

“I’m on the side of dealing with things appropriately. We don’t want to see what happened in Lakeville,” Randall told the Pine Knot previously, referring to a fatal accident during a Nerf war several years ago. “I also don’t want someone at gunpoint in a bush at night because neighbors called the cops about someone prowling around and the officer doesn’t know what’s going on.”