Authorities Act Against Real Danger of Replica Guns

On a lazy afternoon last August, four teenage boys headed to a school within sight of a children’s day camp. With them, their weapons of choice: an AK-47, a Colt .45 pistol and an HK-33A2 assault rifle.

A passerby, who noticed the boys getting out of a car, dialed 911. What the responding La Palma police officer didn’t know was that the weapons weren’t the high-powered guns they were designed to resemble, but pellet guns that shoot relatively harmless plastic pellets.

When Sgt. Eric Nunez pulled up to the school, three of the 15- and 16-year-olds took off running. Nunez yelled at the fourth to drop to his knees and put his hands up. Instead, the youth reached to lift his T-shirt to show he had no weapons, and Nunez raised his rifle, taking aim at the teen’s chest. Had Nunez not hesitated, he said, he might have killed the youth.

“I felt tremendously upset, because I have a 14-year-old son,” Nunez said. “I thought, ‘I could have killed this kid.’ I would have had to live with the fact that I killed a kid with no real weapon.”

Police said the popularity of the replica pellet guns had prompted a flurry of incidents in which officers had initially mistaken the replicas for more dangerous weapons. From Irvine to Hemet to Lakewood, police have reported incidents -- usually involving youths -- in which imitation firearms have led to confrontations.

In February, a 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg after sheriff’s deputies in Lakewood mistook an Airsoft pellet handgun in his waistband for the real thing. A Rancho Cucamonga boy was killed in a 1987 incident in which officials thought his replica gun was a deadly weapon.

Hearing about such incidents -- and seeing how shaken Nunez was -- La Palma Police Chief Vince Giampa campaigned for legislation to ban the air guns from being displayed in public.

State Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) wrote such a bill. SB 1858 passed the Assembly Public Safety Committee on June 22 with no opposition. It next goes to the Committee on Appropriations.

Representatives of the air gun industry, who helped craft the legislation, say they support it.

At the same time, cities across Southern California and the nation have moved to restrict the use, presence and possession of the guns. Newport Beach and Irvine have adopted ordinances that prohibit the firing of pellet guns. In Los Angeles, brandishing imitation firearms is illegal. With a few exceptions, the guns are banned in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Anchorage. In Baltimore, no one younger than 18 may buy or possess air guns.

Airsoft is the fastest-growing producer of the replica pellet guns, which have become popular with participants in organized war games similar to the contests waged by paint-ball aficionados. The plastic pellets shot by the air guns are relatively harmless, but can cause a stinging or pinching sensation and at close range -- five feet or closer -- can pierce the skin.

The pellet guns styled after the AK-47 and the Colt .45 look like the real weapons, police say. Airsoft’s 9-millimeter pistol, styled after a Smith & Wesson, has a serial number, a similar grip, a hammer and the Smith & Wesson name stamped on it. Silencers are available.

Dozens of companies make the realistic-looking guns. Many have websites that warn of the danger of brandishing the guns in public.

The guns, ranging in cost from $20 to $3,000, are available at retail outlets such as Wal-Mart and Big 5 Sporting Goods. Although 18 is the minimum age for buying air guns in California, there is no minimum age for possessing them.

Giampa created a video re-enacting the La Palma incident to convince legislators of the dangers. He keeps several of the fake weapons in his office and routinely asks visitors whether they are real -- a test he says most people fail.

The problem, Giampa and others say, is that kids treat the guns like toys.

“Kids know they’re not real. But the problem is, police officers and the public don’t.”

The National Airsoft Sport Industry Assn. “volunteered to put advisories on the packaging to make sure parents are aware of these potential situations, because they are not toys,” said Chuck Michel, general counsel for the association.

“There’s a place for shooting air guns, and I think every air gun company would agree with that,” said Marianne McBeth, general counsel for Arkansas-based Daisy Outdoor Products, which manufactures air guns.

“You don’t walk into a public park with a butcher knife, but you can certainly use it in the kitchen. There’s a place and a time for these products,” McBeth said.

Some say legislation is the wrong approach.

“Children act irresponsibly. Obviously, you want to do things to keep them from harming themselves or other people -- that’s called parenting,” said Mitch Barrie, president of Mesa Tactical, a Costa Mesa business that sells firearms accessories.

Under a state law that went into effect Jan. 1, air guns are no longer categorized as toys.

Giampa and the attorney general’s office say the goal of the legislation is not to ban the guns, but to avoid putting police in dangerous situations.

“Because people believe in most cases [the guns are] not as dangerous, parents aren’t being as careful to make sure [their children] play with them in a way that doesn’t put them at jeopardy,” said Michel of the industry association.