Fake Gun Held by Victim Falls Under Replica Laws

The fake gun held by Anthony Dwain Lee was an exact black rubber copy, the kind allowed on movie and TV sets but illegal to sell or brandish in a threatening manner under local and state laws.

In 1987, Los Angeles became the first major U.S. city to outlaw the manufacture and sale of realistic toy guns after KNBC-TV consumer reporter David Horowitz was held hostage on the air by a man wielding a toy pistol.

Since then, a succession of municipal, state and federal laws have increasingly restricted the sale of realistic fake guns, reserving them for ceremonial and theatrical use. The laws were prompted by the shootings of children and other innocent people by police officers who mistook toys for real weapons.

A study conducted this year by the state Assembly Committee on Public Safety found at least five cases of children or teenagers in California who were shot in such situations by police since 1988. Three died.

Federal and state laws require that toy guns feature brightly colored markings to distinguish them from real weapons.

This year, California lawmakers approved a stricter measure mandating that “imitation firearms” made or sold in the state be entirely bright orange or green. The new law, which will take effect in January, exempts imitation firearms used in theatrical productions.

Although it’s against state law to use a fake gun in a threatening way--such as pointing it at someone--it is not illegal to carry one, an LAPD spokesperson said.

Los Angeles police said Tuesday they were still unsure how Lee obtained the fake gun. A friend, Mitch Hale, said it was a stage prop. But even within the theatrical community, the rental and use of deadly looking fake guns are tightly controlled.

There are only a handful of local companies that rent prop guns, and executives in the industry said people not involved in theatrical production cannot rent them. When the guns are not in use, they are supposed to be kept secured.

Wally Keske, secretary-treasurer of Local 44 of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees, which includes prop masters, said Lee should not have had a prop gun off the set. “It should be controlled by the property master,” he said.

A spokesman for Independent Studio Services in Sun Valley said that all prop gun renters have to show proof that they are working for a production company. “We verify who they are and who their bank is before we turn this stuff over,” said the prop shop owner.

Rental shops usually stock hundreds of guns. Some are real, modified to shoot blanks. Others are replicas, which are metal or plastic. Others are rubber, used mostly for stunt work.

Prop houses get their guns from a variety of sources, including firearm manufacturers and gun dealers, as well as replica gun makers, mostly in Japan and China.

Times staff writers Claudia Eller and Carla Hall contributed to this story.