For Crimes Committed With Fake Guns, Criminals Face Real Consequences

By Jenn Jacques

According to Journal & Courier archives in Lafayette, IN, three armed robberies in the past two months have been holdups using BB guns.

“We do see that a lot, and these aren’t the BB guns with the orange tip, the Red Riders that we all grew up with,” Lt. Brian Gossard said. “They’re modeled after real firearms, so you put them side by side and, without picking one up, it’s sometimes impossible to tell which one is real and which is fake.”

Arlington police Lt. Christopher Cook said that between March and August, nearly 20 percent of weapons seized by his police force after being used in crimes turned out to be lookalikes.

Cook said so far, police haven’t had to use deadly force, but that could change in an instant.

“There’s no training in the world that we know of where an officer can readily distinguish a real gun from a fake gun,” he said. “That’s not realistic, because officers have to make split-second decisions to ascertain whether it’s a firearm or not.”

Research conducted by the Associated Press found at least 25 deaths involving lookalike guns mistaken by police for actual firearms across the country in the last two decades, dating …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms