January 31, 2011: A 10-year-old boy in Burbank was arrested for knocking on a woman's door and pointing a (toy) gun at her in retaliation for her grandson beating up his friend at school.
January 17, 2012: The January 4 fatal shooting of a Texas middle school student carrying a BB gun has reopened Californias's debate on how to regulate imitation guns and guns that don't shoot bullets.
Susan Ferriss of the Center for Public Integrity writes on the state's failure to pass legislation distinguishing imitation guns and "airsoft" guns (pellet, BB) from real firearms (and therefore, be subject to police reaction under perceived threats). Ferriss reports that in school year 2010-11, 1,330 California students were suspended for bringing imitation firearms to school, and 70 were expelled.
The California legislative struggle was rooted in a December 2010 shooting in Los Angeles, in which a 13-year-old was shot and paralyzed by an LAPD police officer while, during an investigation of a burglary, officers came across three youths playing with dark-colored pellet guns in a street at twilight.
The paralyzed boy was playing with an imitation Beretta that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck later said closely resembled his own service revolver (see the fake and real Berettas above). The gun did have an orange marking on the tip of the barrel, as required by California law for imitation guns, but the officer didn't see it. As a result of this incident, Beck came out in support of action to increase bright color markings to distinguish between firearms and pellet guns, and state Senator Kevin de Leon (Los Angeles), in response,
...sponsored SB 748 ...requiring that pellet guns be manufactured only with transparent bodies or in certain neon colors, a mandate similar to the state’s color requirement for toys.
Vigorously opposed by the National Rifle Association, the bill passed the Senate but failed in the Assembly’s public safety committee....
[De Leon chief of staff Dan] Reeves said Chief Beck made a personal, powerful appeal to legislators at the state Capitol last year, and that, in wake of the Brownsville death, Senator De Leon would like to reintroduce the restrictive legislation. "This is a growing trend," Reeves said, "and as these guns get more popular, kids are getting shot because of them.”
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