My initial reaction is that when government officials ban toy guns,
they don't have enough to do. There's a huge difference between a
plastic toy and a non-firing replica, primarily in the weight.
Picture a seven-year-old with a light plastic 1911 or SAA in his hand
pointing it around, compared to the 2.5 lb. genuine article, and if a
cop can't tell the difference at a glance he's not a very observant cop.

Besides that, how do they intend to enforce it? "Lady, we have a
search warrant because we have a reliable report from the neighbors
that your eight-year-old has a cap pistol." And the shame of
conviction. What about the ubiquitous Daisy? What IS a prohibited
toy gun, anyway? Just how MUCH like the genuine article does it have
to be to land the kid in juvenile court, the parents in the hoosegow,
etc.? For example, if it looks like a cross between a 1911 and, say,
a Glock, but even at a glance is obviously neither one, is it also
prohibited? What does it need to be a banned toy gun? Is it
sufficient if it has a barrel and a handle? So on and so forth.

Funny thing is, prior to 1986 you could order a surplus Government
Model through the mail and all you had to do was check the block that
said "I am over 21 years old." The murder rate was lower, per
capita, than it is now.



On Aug 8, 2006, at 4:54 PM, Brandon.Chase@... wrote:

> That's a tough one. I had a toy Colt SAA when I was a kid as well, but
> those were different days. Back then if a kid had what looked like a
> gun, it was almost certainly a toy. These days....
>
> Seems like I'm always hearing stories about kids bringing guns to
> school, shooting other kids, etc.....so that does raise the
> question of
> what a cop should do if confronted with a kid holding what looks
> like a gun.
>
> In a perfect world, people would take responsibility for teaching
> their
> kids about firearms (and what can happen if you point a fake one at a
> cop), but this ain't a perfect world, and there's a whole lotta stupid
> people (and kids) out there.
>
> Hard to say. I'm still not decided.
>
> Brandon
>