Should BB/pellet guns look like real guns? Should their sale be more regulated?
Last week 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez Jr. was shot and killed by police in his school after an altercation with another student. The police asked the boy if he had a gun. He answered yes. (Read here for the whole story of what happened at the school.)
It was actually a high-powered BB gun that resembled a black Glock semiautomatic. It can be purchased on the internet for $60
His death raises questions about BB and pellet guns that resemble real guns and that are easily purchased online.
“The death has shocked this South Texas border city, but it was only the latest in a series of shootings involving realistic-looking BB guns and pellet guns. In recent years, dozens of police officers in Texas, California, Maryland, Florida and elsewhere have shot children and adults armed with what they believed were handguns but that were determined later to be BB guns or other types of air pistols. In addition, the gun replicas have killed or injured thousands of children around the country in cases in which the victims were accidentally shot by relatives or friends….
“A federal law requires toy firearms and so-called airsoft guns — low-impact weapons used by the police in training and by hobbyists in outdoor games — to have an orange tip at the end of the barrel. But the law does not apply to pellet and BB guns like the one Jaime had. “
Here are figures involving shootings and death from BB guns and pellet guns not including being shot by police:
“In 2007, 2008 and 2009, a total of 124 people, including 23 children and teenagers aged 18 and younger, were killed in Texas from accidents involving BB guns, pellet guns and other types of firearms that do not use gunpowder, according to data supplied by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Those figures do not include deaths stemming from police confrontations with people armed with air pistols. No agency tracks the frequency of those shootings. “
“Nationally, about four children are killed on average each year in episodes involving BB guns or pellet guns, but that number also does not include deaths stemming from police shootings, according to the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
(On a personal note: My brother was shot in the hand by a neighbor with a BB gun when he was around 12. The kids were all checking out the BB gun and somebody pulled the trigger. So I know how easily it can happen. He had to have surgery to have the BB removed from his hand.)
This Texas case makes me so sad. I can understand that the young man was upset and had an altercation with another student. He was agitated. But what would have happened if he didn’t have access to a BB gun that looked like a Glock?
Hard to know for certain but I bet he probably just be suspended from school for hitting a kid and not dead.
Should makers of BB and pellet guns regulate themselves and not allow them to look like real guns? Should the government step in and legislate a change? Should their sale be more closely regulated? Should they be sold online? Or should they be sold following the rules for regular gun sales?
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38 comments Add your comment
guy
January 9th, 2012
7:38 am
how about, “what would’ve happened if the kid had just complied when cops were pointing guns at him and telling him to drop the weapon?”
the whole situation sucks, but the cops were just trying to protect the other kids at the school. I don’t really see how his death is the result of anything by his own actions.
catlady
January 9th, 2012
7:49 am
I’m against toy guns at all. Why not toy killer viruses and bacteria? Let’s play “Death.”
☺☻Have A Smile!
January 9th, 2012
8:43 am
“Why not toy killer viruses and bacteria? Let’s play “Death.””
That makes no sense.
K's mom
January 9th, 2012
8:51 am
I agree with @guy on this one. If he had just complied with what police said there would be a very different ending to this.
Bottom line, this was the student’s fault and only he is responsible. Until we start holding children responsible for their actions and stop blaming stuff like this on undeveloped frontal lobes, stuff like this will continue to happen.
jarvis
January 9th, 2012
8:56 am
You better outlaw brown spray paint while you’re at it. If the kid wanted the other child to believe the gun was real, it’s not very hard to alter an orange gun.
@catlady, your point was obtuse at best. How exactly would one replicate micro-biology?
Becky
January 9th, 2012
9:04 am
Guy is right, if the kid had of listened and put the “gun” down, this would not of happened..He was plenty old enough to know what he was doing..
I am 50 and I had a BB/pellet pistol when I was 13 that looked like a real gun..I know things have changed since then, but I would of been so afraid of my Mother’s wrath, that I would of never have done anything like this..I think that’s a lot of what is wrong with kids nowadays..The parents have no control of them, because you can’t punish kids for fear of DEFACS…Just my opinion…
K's mom
January 9th, 2012
9:10 am
Becky, it is not just fear of DFACS that has the inmates running the asylum. It is simply that many parents never want to see a frown on their child’s face and therefore do nothing but create “positive experiences” for their kids. Kids no longer have a healthy fear of the wrath of their parents. Parents fear the wrath of their kids more.
JOD
January 9th, 2012
9:18 am
Guy and Becky have it right. Also, I thought that ‘toy’ guns were all supposed to have orange muzzle tips? Maybe I’m remembering that wrong, but regardless, as Jarvis said, kids can (and do) just paint them anyway if they really want.
The kid was clearly messed up and wanted the ’suicide by cop’ out – he was old enough to know what would happen if he pointed that gun at police and repeatedly ignored their orders. His parents need to get real; it’s awful, but the cops did the right thing and protected the others at the school. I feel badly for the police who had to shoot him, not for him.
george
January 9th, 2012
10:17 am
A toy gun is just that, a toy, it doesn’t discharge a leathel round, that’s why the muzzle is painted orange. A pellet gun can be leathel or harmful. It would be stupid to mark/paint them to identify them as anything else. They are not toys.How about the people in charge of these children, cowboy up TEACH their children about gun safety, and/or require parent supervision when handling weapons.
As far as the officers involved, I’m sorry you were put in that situation, having to make a very difficult choice but no the less the correct one. Our prayers go out to all families involved.
DB
January 9th, 2012
10:26 am
A pellet gun can do some serious damage. About 25 years ago, when we lived in another city that was considered a high tourist destination, I was driving a rental car at night (my car was in the shop for a few days), and it was a few days after Christmas. Suddenly, the passenger side window of my car exploded, I heard a “rattle-rattle-pop” and my arm was bleeding from the flying glass. The police came and decided it was probably some kid with a new BB or pellet gun, and found a pellet in the floor of the car. The glass absorbed most of the impact — but if I had had the windows down . . .
Imagine the consternation of the customers at the rental car office when I walked in, blood on my arm, and said, “I have to exchange my car — the window on mine was shot out” . . . :-)
Having said that — I don’t think you can regulate stupidity. No matter how hard you make it to buy a BB or pellet gun, those who have an affinity for such things will buy them and give them to kids, who will, in turn, sometimes make bad decisions with them. Most kids don’t. But in this case, sadly, some do.
I guess his mama, never told him...
January 9th, 2012
10:41 am
…that he could shoot his eye out…
Figment
January 9th, 2012
11:21 am
@catlady – they actually make do “toy” bacteria & viruses already.
NE Ga Girl
January 9th, 2012
12:13 pm
This has nothing to do with whether pellet guns should be regulated. The kid didn’t obey the police and paid for his actions with his life. What if the gun had been real and he’d done a repeat of Columbine? Then it would’ve been the fault of the police for not stopping him. A lot of children now aren’t afraid of anybody–their parents, the police, or even God. We’re on about the 3rd generation of permissive parenting and it shows.
NotYou
January 9th, 2012
12:46 pm
@catlady – Funny, my aunt was the same way. Ban all toy guns for her son in an effort to remove violence from play. Now grown, my cousin is a great, hard-working guy but has an above normal attraction to guns. I was banned from playing with toy guns, cops and robbers, “army”, or anything else like that. Am I gun owner now? Yes, that I use for target shooting. And no, I haven’t killed anyone or anything. Might want to be careful what you “ban” or try to protect people from…they naturally want more of it!
NotYou
January 9th, 2012
12:47 pm
Sorry…I WAS NOT banned.
Responsibility
January 9th, 2012
12:49 pm
BB guns ARE real guns. Kids shouldn’t play with them, they can cause serious injury or death just like a large caliber gun. Don’t be naive when it comes to anything that shoots a projectile.
I’m pretty sure you have to be 18 to buy one anyway, the company that sold the gun may be liable.
Don’t forget that air soft and paint ball guns look real too, as do many toy guns. My brothers would always break the orange tips off of theirs.
You can’t protect your kid from everything, but parents are responsible for teaching them to protect themselves.
Denise
January 9th, 2012
12:52 pm
In this case, of course, the police had to respond the way they did. They had to protect everyone in the area. Suicide by cop is a real possibility since the little boy clearly heard and refused to comply with the police’s directions. It’s unfortunate for everybody involved.
Looking outside of the “well, it’s his fault” of this situation, I do think these “toy” guns should be made to look like toys, not real guns. Even when the kids are playing around with them in their yards someone may think they are playing with real guns and can either call the police on them or, worse, pull a real gun on them to protect themselves from a fake threat.
BB and pellet guns can cause real damage and aren’t real toys. The purchase of them should be more regulated but that probably won’t do any good. You can’t regulate or legislate stupid.
Rob
January 9th, 2012
12:53 pm
This is a parenting issue, not a realistic BB gun or toy gun issue. If this kid had been raised to know better than to take a BB gun to school (that he took to instill the fear that a real gun would use), and also raised to listen to the police or any authority figure when told what to do, then this would not have happened. I had BB guns, play guns, and real guns when I was a kid and it never crossed my mind to bring any of them to school for ANY reason. But it easy to blame everyone except the actual person that committed the crime.
TallMom
January 9th, 2012
1:09 pm
Rob and Guy are both correct. I don’t understand why this has become a “dangerous toy gun” issue at all. Fake gun, real gun, knife, taser, giant booger…he was ordered to put down his WEAPON and not only did he not comply, he AIMED IT AT THE OFFICERS. Sad that a young man died, but it’s no one’s fault but his own.
Being 15 yrs old and still in 8th grade (most 15 yo would be sophomores in high school) and assaulting another student for no reason speaks to the fact there were obviously underlying issues…BIG ones.
I feel bad for the officers who were forced to make the decision to shoot that child…but they did what was right. Had they not and that boy had a real gun and shot another student…we’d all be screaming at the cops for not “doing their job”.
Jessica
January 9th, 2012
1:19 pm
@cat lady, I can understand your opposition to toy guns, but I don’t think banning them would stop kids, especially boys, from playing at combat/killing. My son has no exposure to guns and watches no violent TV/movies, yet he builds guns out of Legos, uses empty wrapping paper rolls as swords, etc. His little friends all do the same.
catlady
January 9th, 2012
8:12 pm
Let’s have other toy instruments of death and fear, then. I guess the viruses and microbes was a bit obtuse. Maybe we should celebrate other ways of death, and make them “fun” for kids.
There has been a howl in the local weekly paper. A person wrote a letter to the editor bemoaning all the photos published of young people and their animal “kill” in the paper. This unleased a firestorm of howls and letters from the pro-hunting crowd. I don’t think it is appropriate to celebrate the killing of anything, even harmless animals, unless your safety is threatened. My opinion completely.
My kids were not allowed to play with toy guns or knives, nor watch the violent stuff. My choice, also. There is enough killing not to indoctrinate kids with it. Fortunately for my family, we don’t have to kill in order to protect ourselves or eat.
How about making toy weapons pink flowered? Might make it easy to distinguish, and less often played-with.
lol
January 9th, 2012
10:10 pm
Regulate… Regulate. People can be retarded.
Roll Tide
January 9th, 2012
10:12 pm
“Fortunately for my family, we don’t have to kill in order to protect ourselves or eat.”
Hey catlady: I can understand that for food (I don’t kill for food either, I buy it. But I know how to hunt if the need ever arises). Anyway I sincerely hope you never get your home broken into and your family put in a life and death situation by an intruder armed with a knife, or worse, gun, and you have no means to defend yourself other than calling 911 and waiting. I really do.
Ben
January 9th, 2012
10:15 pm
Those weapons can’t be regulated any further than they are now and literally speaking it wasn’t a question of the student being in possession of the pellet gun, it was a question of him not obeying the orders of the police officer to drop the weapon. Period.
“My kids were not allowed to play with toy guns or knives, nor watch the violent stuff. My choice, also. There is enough killing not to indoctrinate kids with it”.
Just because you didn’t let your male children play with guns doesn’t mean that they’re not going to like and use them later on when they’re not around you. Understand this; males are hard wired to guns. My family tried to repress my love and use of guns; as a result I was pushed into becoming a Lifetime member of the NRA when I was 23.
Conversely to you I do celebrate and love the use of weapons every hunting season. As a matter of fact I’m very easy to Christmas and birthday shop for: a box of 30′06 cartridges is all I ever ask for as a gift.
Dee
January 9th, 2012
10:21 pm
Outlaw all hand guns.
Ben
January 9th, 2012
10:28 pm
I wouldn’t say outlaw them but I would be an advocate of open carry by everyone if they felt compelled to carry. Honestly I don’t like handguns but if you’re gonna carry one, carry it openly.
Curzen
January 9th, 2012
10:40 pm
Raise your kid properly and explain why it is a very bad idea to take a bb gun to school. Otherwise Darwin might take care of it.
Alan
January 9th, 2012
11:25 pm
Catlady, my mom did the exact hippy bull on me. No violent video games, no weapons, no violent TV. The one thing that was different was that she said I had to be trained and disciplined. She sent me to the Boy Scouts I got my Life Badge (i never got Eagle), and a health triple dose of shotgun/rifle training. I am now a crack shot and the proud owner of an Romanian WARS 10/63 (AK-47). But i was trained to do so and to respect guns, honor the constitution, protect the innocent, and defend my family.
Alan
January 9th, 2012
11:26 pm
*WASR not WARS (oops)
DB
January 9th, 2012
11:27 pm
@catlady: Are you vegetarian? Just curious — if you aren’t, then your comment that you don’t have to kill your food is a bit ingenuous, because if you eat any kind of meat, SOMEONE had to kill it. The fact that you didn’t do it directly doesn’t necessarily keep your hands “clean”. As a cheerful consumer of meat in a wide variety of forms (beef, fowl, fish, etc.) I figure there are advantages of being at the top of the food chain. :-)
I’m with you on the violence on TV and the media — too much, unnecessary and not allowed when my kids were growing up, either in video games or for viewing. But the guns never bothered me, perhaps because I grew up knowing how to use a gun. Both of my kids have been taught how to handle a gun, for target and skeet shooting, and they both have a healthy respect for them. Not fear — but respect.
RGB
January 10th, 2012
12:08 am
Pretty soon the libs will be against Justice Department operations designed to pass guns to Mexican drug cartels. Oh wait, if they did that they’d be opposing their (very little “m”) messiah.
Whibble
January 10th, 2012
12:10 am
It’s refreshing to see all the logical, open minded comments here. I read through a lot of other website’s comments and some of the stuff is just terrible.
Bottom line, it’s really not the cop’s faults. They had no way of knowing, and were just trying to protect a school full of children. I actually feel pretty bad for them, because they probably feel guilty for shooting a 15 year old.
If anything, it’s the parents faults. I’ve always had BB guns and weapons of the sort, but my dad taught me at a very young age not to play around with that kind of stuff seriously. It’s something to take out back and shoot for fun, not something to take around with you, show off, and mess around with. I’ve never hurt myself, nor anybody else with any of my rifles, and I’ve been using them for over a decade now. No excuse for these parents.
Mike
January 10th, 2012
12:50 am
Sure Dee, outlaw all handguns. That will fix the problem. Spit in the face of the Constitution and declare our rights to be null and void. See even if those of us who own handguns were to turn them in do you really think for even one second that the criminals and the gangs would turn in theirs? Sorry to sound cliche but when you criminalize guns only the criminals will have them.
Lib in Cobb
January 10th, 2012
5:18 am
All guns should be highly regulated in all states. The patchwork of current laws across the US is nothing more than ineffective. The one year anniversary of the Tucson massacre was just noted. In that massacre 6 were murdered and 13 wounded. The second amendment was not written so that mass murders or singular murders could be made possible. To those who are gun enthusiasts, please don’t respond with the tired, worn out argument that cars also kill. Cars were not developed for the expressed purpose of killing, nor were baseball bats or pencils or nine irons. Too many gun enthusiasts wrap themselves up in the second amendment as if it were a cloak of personal rights no matter how many innocent people die. The authors of the second did not have the ability to see that guns would someday be used to kill children on the streets or students in classrooms or peaceful people who are attending a meeting held by their political representative. There is an epidemic of death in this country and it revolves around guns. Right now in GA, legal gun carrying on college campuses is being discussed by our politicians. Have you all lost your minds?
Mike
January 10th, 2012
11:31 am
Lib, I am sorry to tell you this but firearm ownership is a personal right, recognized by the Supreme Court. Just like the right to free speech. If you don’t like it you really have two options, amend the Constitution, or move to a country where it is not a right. What happened here is that a troubled kid decided to commit suicide by cop. He could have done the same thing with a knife. Should we ban all knives as well?
OTOH
January 10th, 2012
11:50 pm
Lib in Cobb: The authors of the Bill of Rights did indeed know that guns would be used to murder people. It had already happened many times by then. Kids and politicians included.
Jim
January 11th, 2012
8:49 am
I had a BB gun as a kid, as did most of my friends, and none of us was ever harmed in the slightest by them. Perhaps that is because my father exposed us all to guns, and their safe use. We can argue forever about what should be, but what IS is that there are guns available to kids many places, and given that, it seems reckless to me to fail to teach kids how to safely handle them, and that they are dangerous if improperly used. Some kids will do stupid things with guns, of course, but as this world isn’t perfect, and never will be, better to prepare kids, than to close our eyes and hope they never run into one. One of the cardinal rules I was taught is that ALL guns are ALWAYS loaded, that is, they are to be treated as loaded at all times, even if you’ve just unloaded the gun, sa this is a good habit to get into. Heaven help the kid who finds a gun, and hasn’t been taught anything about them.
And ‘killer viruses and bacteria”? You can do better than that.
Nathan
January 13th, 2012
12:21 am
Figured that this article needed a refreshing dose from somebody who currently owns one. I am 15 years old, and currently own 4 airsoft guns. I grew up in a family which neither prohibited nor accepted guns. At the age of 13, I got my first airsoft gun. I treated it like a real gun, always practicing the gun safety that I had taught myself through internet articles and common since. I have never had an accident with any of them. And yes, I do have an airsoft gun which has a black tip. I never have wars with it around my house, I always carry it in a gun bag, and only use it for target shooting and at designated fields. My point here is that airsoft guns have a place. They teach a kid responsibility with a gun without giving them real firearms, and only through proper supervision and parenting can they be responsible with these. So, all you parents that are worried that “billy will shoot his eye out”, supervise and teach “billy” gun safety, and that will never happen. Teach responsible use to prevent incidents like this.