Students may want to rethink dressing up as police officers for Halloween. Members of the University Police Department are expressing concerns regarding the differences between BB guns used as costume accessories and real guns.
Capt. Skip Frost of the University Police Department said the main differences between a real gun and a BB gun are the materials inside the cartridge, the colored tip and the size of the magazine.
Frost said many people who have BB guns as part of their costume remove the colored tip distinguishing the prop from the real thing in an effort to make the accessory appear more legitimate. Frost said this makes it difficult for officers to determine whether someone is carrying an illegal weapon or a toy.
Andy Dallas, owner of Dallas and Company, a local costume shop, said sometimes there are students who paint the tips black to make the guns look real.
“Even if your gun was white, they can paint it black and make it look like a real gun,” he said. “The fact is, as long as they have those marks in them, they are considered toys and police can see them as toys immediately.”
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Federal law requires that “each toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm shall have as an integral part, permanently affixed, a blaze orange plug inserted in the barrel of such toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm.” The only exception is for fake weapons used in theater or movies, in which case, the law allows the Secretary of Commerce to waive the requirement.
Dallas said he encourages students not to take the colored tip off the BB guns.
In past years, the department had to arrest a student who was pointing an air soft gun at another person through an open window in Scott Hall.
“We responded as we should because the report that was made to us is they were pointing this weapon out the window and pointing at people on the sidewalk,” he said.
Sgt. Matt Myrick of the University Police Department said these kind of incidents frustrate him.
“I got a wife and family and just can’t take the chance of whether it’s a real gun or a toy gun,” Myrick said. “This is the real world and real stuff … My intention is to stop the threat.”
Carina can be reached at [email protected].
