Jeff, on another discussion board, the issue of possible bans on realistic toy guns has come up. Opponents have made remarks about being dumb not being able to tell a real gun form a toy. It's not about day-glo super soakers but full size replicas of Uzis and Glocks.
As a police officer, what are your thoughts on this?

 

who's the idiot who thinks it ok to make a real gun look like a toy gun

http://gothamist.com/2008/03/21/custom_bloomber.php

 

In the city I work, there have been alot of robberies committed with toy guys. I've seen toy guns that are the spitting images of the real deal with the exception of weight.

Combine a facsimile weapon, low lighting conditions, large distances, adrenaline, and very, very small time period in which a decision has to be made, and you have a recipe for disaster.

I say a resounding, "HELL YEAH!" to the ban on realistic looking weapons. In my state it is a misdemeanor to sell, carry, or brandish a facsimile firearm.

Personally, if I see anyone carrying what I perceive to be a gun, I will draw down on him. If that person aims the object at me, you can bet I am going home to my family that night. Poll 100 people not involved with law enforcement and I bet 99% will react the same way.

Here is a real life example.

About a year ago, I was walking my beat at around 1am and a person told me the group of four teenagers walking across the street had threatened to shoot him, pointed a gun in his face, and assaulted him. I called for back up, drew my gun, and ordered the group on the floor. As one of the kids layed down I saw him throw a dark object into the bushes. Turns out the "gun" was infact a toy gun. However it did look real. You can see how this call could have gone tragically wrong. Imagine, if the kid pointed his "toy" at me. Imagine, if he took off running (now we have a fleeing armed suspect). Imagine, if while throwing the "toy" into the bushes I thought he was pulling it out to shoot me?

Weather or not a child plays with guns is ultimately the parents decision, however, there is no need for toy manufacturers to make thier products look so real.

 

I SAY BURN ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE A REAL GUN !!! THERE'S TOO MANY PUNKS OUT THERE.

 

Not a problem, if the ONLY thing on the streets were toys.......

I'm not sure about how things arrived from how they were to now. I used to get these really cool cap guns that looked real and you even loaded the cap strip into a clip like a real gun...they were awesome......I you can't have a good toy gun....how are you supported to play "Army" or "cops"?

 

My thoughts exactly. I am not taking any chances as to whether or not it is a real gun or not. Heck, officers in the city over from us had to shoot and kill a guy who drew an airsoft Glock on them last summer.

I have taken more than a few of these airsoft guns off of people and it can be a hairy situation. One of them was in a glove box on a traffic stop so you can imagine my reaction when it was opened and I saw it. What if the guy panicked and grabbed it "to show me it wasn't real"... It could happen.

I have also taken a real Keltec .380 off of a guy on a traffic stop that was painted baby blue. It was similar to the picture bass posted.

When I was a kid, I had a complete arsenal of realistic weapons. It's unfortunate that these are different times and things need to change. There is just no place for imitation weapons as toys anymore and parents should consider them a danger to their children for a variety of reason. Kids need to be more creative or something. Today, sitting in the woods at the end of the street with a fake weapon will have you face down and a real gun pointed at the back of your head very quickly if not worse.

 

Thanks, Jeff. I pretty much thought that's how you'd feel. It is too bad things have gotten where they are. As a kid I had what amounted to a bolt action Springfield pretty close to real size and a full size .45 cal that "shot" a light at a target. With these and others (thank you Mattel). I'd roam my hood and climb an abandoned trestle from a defunt railway and aim at various targets. I'm sure today I'd wind up with a street full of cruisers for that.

 

Yup. It is sad, but true. I used to wear full camoflage including face paint and hide in the woods near my house with a very real looking m-16 rifle, grenades and a 9mm. I pretended I was doing a recon mission.


The kids have more realistic video games to play war and cops/robbers today than we had back then, so it is a wash IMO.

 

Fake nukes?

 

Dude ....I used to have a fake M1911 from the Collectors Armoury
http://www.collectorsarmoury.com/ep5sf/20t...prod221227.html

Chromed!! I sold it some kid and he brought it scholol and got into big trouble!