Fake guns look too real these days
Thursday, May 6th, 2004Soft-air gun replicas are being sold here in Phoenix and for now, it’s limited to one store. That’s going to be changing soon as two other stores are in the works. I’m not thrilled with this. The replicas look like real guns. Sure, they have the colored tips, but those are usually altered by the owner of the replica. In the article I was reading, they mentioned a case in California where a boy was shot in the leg because he had a replica that was mistaken for a real gun. What does that tell you? Sure, they’re low velocity and don’t hurt as much as paintball guns, but do they have to look so real? I just don’t see what good will come of this.
Not that I have to worry about my children buying them because we have a strict family rule that any toy guns must look like toy guns. That means we have brightly colored guns and no lovely army green ones. The terrors know that it’s not open for discussion and they don’t fight it. They just look for the toy guns that don’t look real. It’s a minor thing, but every ounce of protection will keep them out of harm’s way. There are just too many stories of people making a mistake and shooting some kid with a toy. There should be more strict laws governing replicas. It doesn’t make sense to court the devil in this way, but that’s what we’re doing. Ironically, you’d think it would have gotten more attention, but it was near the back pages of Section B where I found the story. If you don’t read thorugh the paper, it would have been missed. Whether this was on purpose or just happen-chance, I’m not sure. I definitely hope that parents think carefully before putting their children in danger in this way. 
