The City of Baltimore has a lot of nicknames, including Bodymore, Murdaland; Harm City and Mobtown. (Not to mention the Crab Cake Capital of the World.) Somehow I don’t think that banning replica guns will do anything to enhance Baltimore’s dubious reputation, or reduce its record-setting murder rate (55 per 100k). Still something must be done! Apparently.

Meanwhile, do you have an replica firearms? Do your kids? I have a couple of [inert] blue guns for training purposes but never understood the appeal of a gun that’s not a gun. Unless it was a BB gun! Or Airsoft! Or NERF! In fact, I wonder if a replica gun ban is a secret plot to undermine American gun culture. Nah, couldn’t be. Could it?

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33 COMMENTS

  1. If it doesn’t put some sort of projectiles down range I don’t own it.

    Would you buy a non-firing “replica” compound bow? I think not. How about an “inert” trebuchet?

    • I have one. Replica of an old Blunderbuss. Hangs on the wall in my office because A: it was cheap (hundred bucks already mounted and stuff). and B: it looked really cool on the wall with some maps I have framed.

      That is the only reason I think replicas are useful. They are simply decoration.

    • Hell yes I’d buy a non-working replica. I’m planning on buying a phaser from the Wand Company.
      No I won’t be vaporizing anyone with it or shooting rocks to heat them up and stay warm, but it is neat as heck!

      • You and I just have differing views on what is and what is not the best way to spend money.

        When there’s a real phaser or blaster pistol I’ll be on board.

        Either way, I’m not interested in an inert trebuchet. I want to be able to fling a grand piano 1200 yards like it’s nothing. (Preferably someone else’s grand piano.)

  2. This is a new level of stupid. It’s obviously fine farming. $250 for owning a toy gun? Actually it’s hardly even enforceable… I don’t even know what they’re trying to accomplish.

    • “I don’t even know what they’re trying to accomplish.”

      Easy. If you make the toy illegal then the parents have no standing to sue the city when a cop makes a mistake and shoots your kid in the street.

  3. “…including Bodymore, Murdaland; Harm City and Motown.”

    I thought Detroit was “Motown”. Or did they have to auction their nickname off as part of their bankruptcy, too?

  4. I did a lot of things with airsoft in college due to being stuck behind enemy lines in the Peoples Republik of New Jersey at the time. It was the only trigger time I could get outside of my reserve obligations and it really helped me keep up with my fundamentals.

    • I played airsoft often in high school. It was great exercise and fun, but being glorified plastic toys, my guns broke often. Once I got into shooting for real, funds for the game ceased outright. I’m blown away by the number of players running around in plate carriers, multicam, and other assorted Tacticool gear; some replica, some very expensive and real. We poor kids played in jeans and tee shirts. Zipped spare mags up in our sweatshirt pockets. The one guy who had a Chicom chest rig off Ebay was considered a god.

  5. If only Baltimurder would ban its replica mayor and all its replica politicians . . . . and all its very real gangs.

  6. So cops can assume all suspect have real guns? If fake guns are banned, no way the criminals will have them.

  7. I hear “replica” and my mind envisions a nice nickled Remington cap-and-ball. Wouldn’t mind a stainless Ruger New Old Army but that’s too contemporary for me to call it a true “replica”.

  9. I have a couple airsoft guns (Glock 18 and P90). I got them for the simple reason of being able to plink indoors. I found a box full of packing peanuts to make a great backstop. Plus, full auto with no tax stamp.

    I actually will admit to having a Nerf gun as well. When a mouse gets into the house and manages to avoid the standard traps (and the cat), I can take it out from a decent distance, without worrying about breaking anything with a miss or ricochet.

  10. The genesis for this inane legislation has been the tragedies involving children who have been killed by police who rightfully defended themselves from what they reasonably perceived as someone pointing a genuine firearm at them. Well, replica firearms are SUPPOSED to look like the real thing – and pointing ANYTHING at a cop which looks exactly like a firearm is a sure way to get yourself wounded or killed. The reasonable solution to that problem is exactly the same as it would be with a REAL firearm – Don’t do it. Keep your replica firearms out of the reach of those who would misuse them. Leave the federally-mandated orange tips ALONE and be mindful that if what you have in your hand LOOKS like a firearm, it will be treated by law enforcement AS a firearm. It ain’t rocket science, folks.

    • The problem is people, especially kids, with toy guns and no real gun experience just don’t realize that. To them it is just a toy. Oh, you can teach them, but until they have experience with firearms, they will never in their guts believe it.

      • I remember having dart guns at 4 and cap guns by the age of 6.
        I also remember that you don’t point guns at people, and I knew that before I started kindergarten. Yes, we could shoot each other, having agreed to a gunfight, but no, we couldn’t just go out in the front yard and assault pedestrians on the sidewalk.

  11. Consider that may be banning it simply because it looks like a gun. Not the brightest lot running Charm City (glad I left in 2014).

  12. I have a Colt Defender BB gun. Really more for plinking out in the back yard, but I got it while I was in college before I hit 21.

  15. I still have a bunch of Tokyo Marui pistols packed up in the spare room. I collected them back when I was too young to afford and legally purchase the real thing and keep them around just because.

    As far as kids getting shot for playing with them in public, it sounds like a reason not to ban them in my opinion. If someone of any age thinks “I should take this harmless but realistic-looking toy gun and point at someone who’s definitely packing a real one!” and gets shot for it, then I don’t see that as a tragedy; it’s just a little splash of much-needed chlorine in an overly slimy gene pool.

  16. Maybe cops shouldn’t drive right up next to someone they think has a gun? Maybe stop further away where there might be some cover and tell the person in that case 13 year old to put down the object that looks like a gun. Maybe?

    • Of course. And if you are a 911 dispatcher, you need to tell the officers everything you heard the reporting party say.

      But FIRST, don’t point guns at people in the park.

  17. I know Japan has “modelguns”, some of which can be quite good quality with a price to match (though, strictly non-firing of anything more than a cap). That’s primarily because there are many people over there who are fascinated by guns (especially handguns), but can’t legally own them (with some exceptions for sporting purposes).

    Living here in Ohio, I’d rather have something I can actually take to the range.

  18. The truth of collecting is that some items will always be out of financial reach for most people. I don’t feel like shelling out tens of thousands of dollars for a live Mg-42. IMA-USA takes old machine gun parts kits, builds them on dummy receivers, and sells them for quite a lot less than their transferable brethren. I have often toyed with this option, because a dummy ’42 or ’34 hanging on the wall would make an excellent addition to my militaria display.

    Funny story about replicas. An acquaintance of mine works for a gun shop. They often rent a table at gun shows throughout the region. At some point, a younger and usually black man will pick up an $85 pistol clearly marked “REPLICA” on the slide, and ask “How many rounds dis hold?” “Whadda you mean it don’t shoot? What Calibuh is dis?” Entertaining for me, frustrating for him as a clerk.

  19. Nope, everything in the house is either a real gun, or an obvious toy like a Nerf gun.
    I used to have a pot metal replica of a Sharps horse pistol but my kid broke it. Fortunately both of my kids are now old enough to know better.

  20. When I was a kid we had a cop neighbor and we’d “shoot” him with our cap guns when he came home. He’d say “you got me” and we all had a good laugh. I guess things are different now.

  23. Yeah, I do own replica guns. Replica muzzleloaders, because I can use those without worrying too much about scratching them or about letting them get wet and rusty or about so many other things that might happen in the field.

    Yes, I do own one early 19th century gun and yes, it is a bit of a safe queen, considering I’ve only taken it to a range like three times. Thing is, I do want to know that a gun of mine works but I feel little need to abuse a gun that’s almost two centuries old. And it is much easier to replace a replica than it is to replace a century-plus old gun.

    So I do use working replicas. As for non-firing replicas, I have no problem with those. Toys, decorations, whatever. I’m lucky enough to live in a country where people (usually) don’t freak out when they see a toy gun and where most people do have the common sense to realize that banning toys is a stupid idea.

  24. Yes.

    we have replicas airsoft pistols for the real 9 mm pistols we own.

    Air-soft replicas allow my family practice draw, finger discipline, and fire/not fire within our house safely.

    – The replicas are stored completely separately from the real guns.
    – The replicas have duct tape on them to differentiate from real guns
    – Everyone has been trained to safety check every gun (real or airsoft) when they pick up any gun.
    – The 4 rules apply to all guns. no exceptions.

  25. Since Maryland has preemption they can’t make any gun laws so the next best thing for them is to go after replicas since they are not technically real guns.

    Glad I left Maryland.

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