OXNARD : Shoppers Take Parting Shots at Toy Gun Sales

In Oxnard’s Centerpoint Mall, Terry Griffin, 12, lifted a toy plastic rifle off the shelf in the Kay-Bee toy store, pointed it at his friend and fired away.

Such play will be much rarer in local toy stores following last week’s announcement by corporate officials from the Toys R Us and Kay-Bee chains that their stores would stop selling realistic-looking toy guns.

A series of recent tragedies nationwide in which police officers have shot children carrying toy guns contributed to the companies’ decisions.

The announcement notwithstanding, at the Centerpoint Mall Kay-Bee store on Saturday, shelves were still laden with plastic Supershot Rifles and Electronic M-16 Intruders, the cardboard packages inviting customers to “Try me! Pull trigger.”

Terry, who was testing out guns, said he opposed taking them all off the shelves.

“Kids like playing guns. You can run and hide,” he said.

His friend and toy gun target, Patrick Gear, said some toy guns look so much like real ones that they pose a threat to the children using them. “If you’re a cop driving by you wouldn’t know,” Patrick said.

A store manager said the toy guns would be taken off the shelves as soon as possible. Corporate officials said the guns will be destroyed.

At Toys R Us, the guns will remain in the stores until they are sold out, but they will not be reordered, corporate officials said.

A manager at the Thousand Oaks branch of Toys R Us said there had been no rush by customers to buy the remaining guns Saturday. “All they’re really looking for is Halloween costumes,” he said.

At the Oxnard Wal-Mart on Rose Avenue, most of the parents browsing in the toy department had heard the news about the decision by the two toy store chains.

“I think it’s a great idea and more (stores) should do it, like maybe Wal-Mart,” Cathy Manclus of Santa Barbara said, warily eyeing the wall of weapons in front of her.

Other parents were less concerned about the dangers of the toys. Robert Valdivia of Ventura said he had no problem with his 4-year-old son playing with a plastic six-shooter in the back yard or his bedroom. Straying farther afield is strictly forbidden, however.

“If your kid is going around unsupervised, roaming the streets with a realistic-looking gun, of course he’s going to get in trouble,” Valdivia said.