BB Guns home > BB Guns
News Center > Gun's Realistic Look Drawing Fire
Gun's Realistic Look Drawing Fire
Click
here to see our selection of BB Guns.
 By
Ken Little
Staff Writer
ken.little@starnewsonline.com
A pellet gun with the look and feel of a real handgun nearly spelled
tragedy for a youth in Wilmington recently.
Police want everyone to know it is no toy.
The gun closely resembles service weapons carried by Wilmington
officers and is becoming popular among some youths.
When two teens riding on a scooter without helmets were stopped
recently, the investigating officer approached. At the last moment,
he saw one of the juveniles reach toward his waistband for what
appeared to be a gun.
The officer "was so close he didn't have time to draw, and
he knocked it out of (the teen's) waistband," Community Relations
Officer Linda Rawley said. "If he was in a different stance,
he could have drawn and killed that juvenile."
One of the boys is 14 years old; the other is 12. Older teens and
even adults also are carrying the Walther airsoft replica guns around
town, Rawley said.
"They look very real. They look very much like a police weapon
or another weapon," she said.
The pellet gun is made by Crosman and models like it are available
online for $19.99 and up.
Each one comes from the manufacturer with a bright orange tip at
the end to show it is not a real sidearm.
"Normally, there's an orange marking on the tip that identifies
them as a pellet gun. A lot of the kids are knocking them off or
spray-painting the marking," Rawley said. "We're just
pleading with parents if their kids play with these kinds of guns,
do not take them out of the home."
The guns also are sold in many local sporting goods stores. Dick's
Sporting Goods on South College Road in Wilmington sells Walther
pellet guns.
Manager Nancy Williams said customers must be 18 or older and show
ID or be with a parent or guardian to purchase the pellet gun.
The guns create a prompt at the register when employees ring them
up, asking the buyer for ID, much like cashiers at grocery stores
are alerted for alcohol sales, she said.
If an employee gets the feeling that the gun could be passed on
to someone other than the person buying it, they'll turn down the
sale, Williams said.
"We have turned down a lot of legal sales," she said.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060815/NEWS/608150391
|
