Toying with danger

Police are asking parents to make sure their children aren't playing with toy guns that could be mistaken for real weapons - lest they get shot by over-zealous firearms officers.

Armed officers were nearly called to a scene on Tuesday after an off-duty officer spotted two 15 year-olds with what looked like a pistol. On closer inspection it turned out to be a water-pistol painted black to look like a real gun. The boys weren’t charged.

It's ironic that those playing with toy guns should be at risk when on Thursday the Royal Gazette reported that

[Police] are alarmed about the reluctance to call out the armed response unit, even in situations when lives are clearly in danger

Perhaps the real criminals should learn the converse lesson and start disguising their weapons to look more like water pistols. A hot pink Beretta, anyone?

Comments

[write on 21.08.05 at 20:22]

Ummm, we have a gun problem? I did not notice, afterall this is Bermuda.

write

[jake on 22.08.05 at 11:04]

Toy guns should be banned as well. 6 month mandatory for parents or guardians who allow them to play with toy guns.

Let's get real for a moment. There is no way for an officer to determine if it is real or fake. She or he MUST treat it as real.

The same goes for people in shops and banks. Can they tell if a firearm is real or fake when it is flashed before them?

Guns serve no useful purpose in Bermuda. None. We should allow neither the real ones or the faux ones to legally exist on our island. Gun culture is the last thing we need to develop and we are already fighting that battle.

Machete law improvements were a step in the right direction. We should keep the momentum going.

[Bill Cook on 22.08.05 at 11:24]

I think that there was a law passed but I cannot recall the jurisdiction where all toy guns had to be in a shape and color that would prevent any mistakes being made but how successful that could be is questionable.

Shops should be prohibited from selling real looking guns.

People could still make look alike guns but the law could have severe penalties to deal with that.

I do not know the ages of these boys who repainted the toy gun but that should have had a penalty.

By the same token some common sense should apply esp with magistrates discretion whereby one could be in possession of an obselate pellet air gun and face up to 5 yrs in prison.

That some young person could be banned from entry to the US for such an offence and so prevent him from attending college needs revision.

[The Limey on 22.08.05 at 18:00]

Jake

Surely you're not suggesting that water pistols should be banned just because someone might paint it to look like a real gun?

[jake on 22.08.05 at 18:08]

No Phil, I guess that would be overkill with the whole super soaker thing.

I just wish people would think more I guess, but it is hard to legislate thought.

The cops have a hard job already. We make it harder when we add in fact that neither they nor we can tell the difference at 50 paces.

I guess if someone wanted they could make a toy gun out of a block of wood with some paint. Not hard and same impact.

I remember playing with guns and I will NOT be allowing my own children to do so. When they are old enough, they can learn how to use a real firearm in controlled circumstances on a range or in the military if they so choose, but it will never be a toy. Children are just too prone to being...childish.

Adults who use replica guns should be prosecuted.

[Bill Cook on 22.08.05 at 20:53]

Limey,

John Dillinger made up a dummy gun and broke out of prison with it.

I personally would either prohibit any toy gun water pistol or not that resembled a real gun, and why would any law abiding person want to paint a toy gun so that it resembled a real gun anyway ?

How many people have been shot for having something that was not even a look a like gun but a cop in a situation could react in a panic.