“Salisbury [Maryland] officials are considering a ban on toys and BB guns that look like real firearms in an attempt to prevent the type of shootings that have taken place across the country,” usatoday.com reports. “‘We’re seeing kids around the country getting killed because police think they have real guns,’ said City Councilman Muir Boda. ‘They don’t have time to figure out if they’re a real gun or not.'” Who the kids? Or the cops? Too soon? Anyway . . .
If Salisbury enacts legislation to ban replica firearms, the town that calls itself “The Comfortable Side of Coastal” will do so despite the fact that the Maryland legislature spiked a similar bill. Salisbury would then join other liberal strongholds with replica gun restrictions, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and California.
I reckon a lot of these guns are bought by adults, who know that cops are understandably skittish around guns and gun-like objects. And it’s up to parents to decide whether or not their child can understand replica guns’ inherent dangers. To teach their children common sense police shooting control. Agreed?
[sarcasm]You don’t need any personal responsibility if you can solve every problem with a law.[/sarcasm]
O2
Washington…which one? I’d expect to see that in DC, but I hope my state doesn’t have a stupid law like that.
If it doesn’t now, I’m sure there’s an initiative coming soon.
I’m curious about that as well.
It is not the fault of the police or armed citizen when they shoot someone presenting a replica firearm as a real one. Under the law threatening someone with fake gun is the same as if it were real. The burden of proof is on the holder of the replica and not the defender.
Pro tip to all you wannabe thugs out there. If you want to commit a crime then you might as well use the real thing because if threaten someone who has a real gun with your fake then you’re going to die. If you cannot afford a real gun I suggest you find other work.
I couldn’t agree more. “Little thug, little thug, fly away home. Your @$$ is on fire because a cop, (or lawfully armed citizen) ‘lit you up’ for being stupid”. Thus endeth the lesson.
do you actually think “thugs” come to websites like this?
Not the ones who use replicas. /save
Some people are so literal.
I support this law because kids getting shot by cops is a real problem.
Sorry, I left my laptop in the Whole Foods bulk aisle for a minute.
The reason sounds good, but it ignores practicality and legality.
Maybe they should join LAPD and teach them how to run away in a zig-zag pattern if they see a kid with an air soft gat…
“Salisbury would then join other liberal strongholds with replica gun restrictions, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington and California.”
… and Wisconsin. (Don’t ask me why.)
Like nobody have ever been shot by the cops for holding a wallet, hairbrush, cell phone, keys, toy truck, glasses or nothing at all.
I’d think the police would hate a ban like this as the presence of “replica firearms” gives them a measure of plausibility when they blow away a kid in his yard playing with a plastic shovel and bucket.
Good point! I saw a video once of a crazy woman who jumped out of her car and pulled out a cell phone case and pointed it at the cops like a gun. Based on what I saw, if I had been there she would’ve been shot.
Those officers had great restraint.
While we’re at it, let’s ban pictures of guns! Cuz a little kit could waive the picture at a cop, who would then have to shoot him, because as well all know, COMMON SENSE HAS NO PLACE ANYMORE.
I don’t have children, and I know parents really value advice and tips from those of us who do not have children…
But if I did have children, any toy guns they had would be very obviously toys. Wacky colors and appearances that do not match any bonafide firearm.
I was unaware that children with fake guns are being shot by police. Sure it has happened and that sucks. I would honestly think more adults are being shot while presenting fake guns.
Interesting they will consider BB guns as toys. I wonder if that also means pellet guns as well? I don’t know that I’d consider BB/pellet guns as toys- they are a cheap alternative to practicing the fundamentals and shooting at targets, vs an actual firearm. I know I’ve killed snakes and a squirrel or two with them as well…
I was like you didn’t think it happened a lot, but about 2 hours before this was posted on here, I ran across this, 13 yo in Columbus Ohio used a fake pistol to rob someone. It ended his criminal career at the age of 13.
http://bearingarms.com/bob-o/2016/09/15/13-year-old-tyree-king-deserve-shot-probably-heres/
I’m not saying it never happens. I’m saying other than a few high profile incidents, how often does this happen? I don’t know personally, could be it happens more than I think it does. But not enough to pass a law that bans look alikes.
Another famous name from Ohio, Tamir Rice. Remember him? Fake gun, shot dead.
My perspective of all this is from a retailers point of view: I absolutely hate airsoft guns. They are one of the most stolen items targeted by shoplifters I have to deal with. Moreover, the ones legitimately purchased end up being returned later because they aren’t worth a crap.
I see and understand the value of them for training and entertainment by adults, but lets get real: if a parent is buying one of these for their inner-city dwelling sweetheart to play with unsupervised outside, that person is a terrible parent, period, full stop.
Again, I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. Tamir Rice is the poster child for this sort of thing. But other than a high profile shooting with racial undertones, exploited by the media, how often do you hear about cops shooting kids for having realistic toy guns?
As a father of five, here’s my take on it: if there’s a kid out there with a replica/airsoft firearm that looks like the real thing, and they’re doing dumbass stuff that could potentially get them shot by a cop or armed citizen… that’s less an issue that needs a law passed to prevent it, and more a demonstration of shitty parenting.
Know where your kids are, who they’re with, and what they’re doing. It goes a long way in helping them avoid stupid people in stupid places doing stupid things. I’m not saying “be a helicopter parent,” or “be an overprotective parent,” I’m saying be involved in your kid’s life. Know enough about your kids and their friends that you can step in long before they get the idea in their head that walking around in a park with a toy gun and “just playing,” (giving a huge benefit of the doubt there) is somehow a good idea.
There’s no socioeconomic limitations on being involved with your kids and knowing what they’re up to.
If juveniles are getting shot trying to pass off a replica gun as a real one to commit a crime, that is called Darwinism and it is working as intended.
Yeah, let’s ban toys that millions of kids use for recreation (airsoft, paintball, etc.) because of stupid criminals.
Are we going to ban everything criminals use to commit crimes? No cars, cellphones, etc.
Long story, but a kid with a black rifle, attached hundred round magazine came around a truck that had just emptied out with a work crew from the house, next door. Took me a few seconds to recognize he was 1.) a kid, 2.) the gun was a toy, and 3) he wasn’t with the work crew. He was just walking from his house to a friend’s, and they were gonna play with that toy gun.
But, before the light bulb went off, I did think we were going to die. Then, I thought I’d like to find his mother, and slap enough sense into her, for not driving her son to the play date. Or, just allowing him to walk the neighborhood with that toy.
Very hard to tell the difference between plastic and polymer.
Plastic is a polymer.
Look, there’s an obvious, easy, common-sense approach that will solve all of this.
While the statists are statistly demanding that kids be indoctrinated in government education camps (“schools”, for those of you who haven’t figured it out) we should add just one bit to their early elementary education. Every schoolkid should be forced (hey, they’re statists, remember?) to watch this video at least once per year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8
It’s only four minutes, out of an entire school year. Do it for the children!TM
It’s been remarked on TTAG how attempts at banning firearms are doomed to failure, because guns just aren’t that hard to build. Bans on things that merely look like guns take the same mistaken idea to a whole new level of absurdity.
When a ‘kid’ decides to try and pass off a fake gun as a real one, he shouldn’t be surprised when people treat it as if it were real.
But if you ban the bb guns, only the criminals will have bb guns.
Far more lives would be saved by banning high fructose corn syrup and candy….
But that doesn’t mean we should ban those things either…
Does not anyone, especially our dim-bulb politicians, remember Dillinger’s famed fake .32 carved out of soap and shoe polish used by him 80 years ago in a prison escape? No toy guns allowed?? Sure–our kids will now just carve them out of soap–or even use Play-doh for a more lethal effect !!!! Deplorable DMD
Ban children. Problem solved.
I wish some would take this a bit more seriously. Also The term “kid?” A 15 year old stick up artist is no longer a kid. This Ban is a axe where you need a surgeons’ scalpel. The fact is crooks are using cheap airsoft guns to do crime. Easier to obtain, work just as well, skips the need to do a straw buy for a real one.
In PA I’m fairly certain BB guns are considered firearms, or some kind of weapon by law. So the whole “it was just a toy” thing doesn’t really work here.
(Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, just someone who tries to understand the convoluted mess that are our gun laws.)
How about we ban stupidity instead?
But in all seriousness, when are people going to understand that they cannot ban their way to safety?
Back in the 80’s my teenage friends and I had a few of these replica guns that looked completely real from more than 3 feet away. The non-firing ones were steel. The blank firing ones were plastic, but with an impeccable finish that made them look like nickel-plated steel. They would fire blanks and eject shell casings from a cycling slide.
We were in the parking garage at Tyson’s mall at night one summer, making one of our many VHS-recorded action films. We had these guns in our hands and waistbands and a stack of fake cocaine bricks (flour) on the hood of a car, all dressed like what we thought Miami drug lords looked like.
Then a Fairfax County cop rolled up. We all put the guns down. Our friend filming us with the video camera and big portable VHS recorder hanging from his shoulder might have tipped off the cop that this was not what it looked like. That and the fact that we were a bunch of teenage white kids at a suburban mall. The cop never drew his gun, remained calm, asked what we were doing. We told him, and showed him the guns were fake, and the ‘coke’. He asked if we had the mall’s permission to film there. We said no and he told us we needed to relocate. He seemed amused by the whole thing and left without any fuss afterwards. I wonder how the same scenario would go down these days.
We used to buy the fake guns from a place called Collector’s Armoury that had a store in the Alexandria area back then. I think this website may be the same company:
http://www.collectorsarmoury.com/
Banning toy guns is like “zero tolerance policy”, a lazy, emotional, and unthinking response that makes a good sound bite but does nothing to actually solve a problem.
Changing police culture and imposing real consequences for going into every situation muzzle first would have a real effect, but would require admitting error and real effort, and force the politicians to break their cozy relationship with the police.
They should lop the forefinger off every newborn, just to be safe.
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