Cops......

The TV show "Cops" has been filming police activity in Omaha all summer.

Last evening, one of their film crew was shot and killed while filming the police response to a holdup at a Wendy's fast food place. Apparently it was a police bullet that hit him. The suspect was also shot and killed.

The irony of it is, the suspect was using a pellet gun that happened to look like the real thing. It only fired plastic pellets.

Which brings me to a longtime pet peeve of mine. It would seem there are too many pellet guns and toy guns that look identical to the real thing. Seems to me if someone wants to add more gun laws, it should be mandated that pellet guns and toy guns have a feature, such as a color band, that will readily identify them as not being the real thing.

Does anyone else feel the same way?

Don't they already have that as the toy guns are all orange ? Not with pellet guns though.

I know what your saying, but think about it, once again the object is being blamed for the behavior of the person holding it. I"m only 46, so I"m a lot younger than many of ya"ll, but I know when I was growing up none of my toy guns had any kind of markings to make them look different than the real ones. In fact I had a plastic Uzi that I modified to carry for Halloween by making it look even more like a real one. Nowdays, with the airsoft guns looking and functioning even more like the real ones, some of them even have parts interchangeability when to comes to grips, etc, believe it or not, there is no way they could make them look like toys short of making them more toy like. Even then that is easy to defeat with a can of paint, etc. On the other hands real guns are being made in colors now, as they are trying to appeal to the female market and make them just another accessory for the female shooter. As a result they actually do look like toys in many instances.

On top of that, ad in the fact that nowdays more folks than not have no clue when it comes to guns in general and it makes things even worse as they don"t even have a reference as to what to look for or at to know if a gun is real or not.

So, it really all comes down to one thing, just like it always does, human nature. We never had do worry about what the toy guns looked like because kids weren"t going around shooting at cops, or each other in years past. We never had to worry about what real guns looked like because they "looked like guns" and that"s all that mattered. Where things have gone South is the attitudes of the people (take that as criminals) using them, and the corresponding response of law enforcement to a threat where any gun is involved. That response has, unfortunately, become one of shoot first and ask questions later, regardless of the age of the shooter. Given that kids are killing each other, adults are killing each other, and the gun is just another tool in the chest to do it with, what choice do they have?

In this case the guy could have just as easily been carrying a hard plastic knife. In the eyes of law enforcement he would have posed just as much of a threat as he did with a gun, and the outcome would have more than likely been the same. Unfortunately he pretty much guaranteed himself an outcome by using a gun, and even more so because he was stupid enough to do it with a toy. On that note he was probably using the toy so if he got caught they couldn"t get him for using a real firearm, and making his sentence a little better. Guess that was his own stupidity working against him, and now, thankfully we are down one more criminal that won"t have to e worried about.

As far as the COPS crew member that was killed, my question is how/why would anyone put themselves into a situation like that just to get TV ratings, and a paycheck. It"s bad enough for the officers doing it, but to do what those guys do, for the reasons they do it, is just plain stupid. I feel sorry for him and his family, but as the old saying goes, you play with fire long enough you are bound to get burned.

QUOTE>>>>>>Which brings me to a longtime pet peeve of mine. It would seem there are too many pellet guns and toy guns that look identical to the real thing. Seems to me if someone wants to add more gun laws, it should be mandated that pellet guns and toy guns have a feature, such as a color band, that will readily identify them as not being the real thing.>>>>QUOTE




That's what we need, more gun laws because we know all the criminals strictly obey all the gun laws!!!!!...

I can see it now, you get a knock on your door and the policeman tells you, "Sir we are taking your 5 year old to jail because we saw him playing in your yard with his plastic pistol and the orange band had fallen off. He will be have to spend the night in jail and see a judge in the morning. He may be charged with a felony and upon conviction could be incarcerated for up to five years with a fine of up to ten thousand dollars. He will then have a record and will never be allowed to own a firearm again...Don't worry though, we will give him some milk and cookies before bed time!!!!!!!

a color band? you mean like an orange end like almost all toy guns have?

an orange end that can be spray pained black?

lets not be naive....

A lot of the ones Ive seen have the orange band on the end, but Im sure they can be removed or like was stated painted over.

A year or two ago I remember reading about a shoot out in New York City. Police bullets killed one suspect and wounded 9 bystanders. What happened to "Be aware of what's behind your target before you shoot"?

Hasn't an orange band been required on all "harmless" non-projectile toy guns for the last ten, twenty years now? I though the reason for the band was to reduce the number of little kids being misidentified and shot by police.

Pellet guns and BB guns that fire a projectile probably don't qualify as toys for little kids, or the orange band requirement. The ones I have had age recommendations on the package.

Imagine if an incident occurred in a public or private place. I can only imagine what a cross-fire event that could become.

Wonder if the thugs might start painting real guns orange... Cops would not shoot them, but they could shoot the cops.. Sadly, seems the bad guys win.. Cops' hands are tied.

Seems to me the only people getting hurt with pellet guns are the ones using the pellet guns - except in this case. I wonder if you would have felt better if the perp had a real gun?

Sad the camera man got shot, however, the perp, well, regardless of real or fake, Never should one point a gun at a police officer, nor should one ever say anything but yes sir and no sir to an officer. Anyone dumb enough to point anything at a police officer deserves to be shot, they deserve to be able to protect themself's.

Why are they using pellet guns? I think because we have laws making it harder for "criminals" to buy real guns. Maybe another option is to ban pellet guns lol. Didn't California just pass A law like you are proposing?

Camera man signed a liability release before police would let them film--- city, state, police dept NOT liable, can"t/won"t be sued and Warren not needed. Camera man"s family can sue the felons estate maybe. Toy guns have been "marked" by orange muzzle and sometimes extra bright colors on handle- And the new "Ladysmith" and a older H&R with the pink grips were not allowed to be sold in couple places-L.A, Connecticutt? becuase the pink grips meant it was a blank firing starter pistol as used by school athletic depts, etc. The "toy" markers have been put on real guns- New york City incident the robber open carried the pistol with the lipsticked barrel end into store in right hand, holding 10 year old girlfriend son"s hand in left hand, walked by
"off duty" police officer store security who later got wounded by the gun- Ruger Single 6? ".22 caliber Ruger cowboy gun marked to look like a legal toy". Britain has had some "toy" gun crimes- real gun marked as toy, "Toy" guns- CO2/air rifle types(?) made to shoot harder and the CHAV and Jamaican gangs seem to be doing a lot of it. A Taurus(?) CO2 pistol now banned- it was too simple to change valving to do a full CO2 bottle discharge instead of the 20 shots normally. Normal was a .25 cal pellet wasp waisted about 2/3 gram (=10 grain?) at 500 fps to use a single .25 lead bullet at 3.3 gram (50 grains) at 750/800 fps- about what a .22 long rifle would do from pistol that was styled like a Berreta 92. The .22 CO2 pistol got the same treatment a couple times, used 40 grain .22 bullets and was thought by coroner to have been a silenced pistol used by IRA instead of Jamaican street gang dope dealer. Old High Standard air target .22 has been used a couple times around Boston. The paintball guns have had a couple criminal users, a paintball gun make/model was supposed to have a high powered trank dart compnion- the trank dart came first, the paintballer was cheaper derivative but the compressed airflask release valving was interchangable- a .50 cal lead muzzle loader bullet could be fired full power from airflask single discharge and was traveling about "as fast as a 9mm police bullet" when hit deceased in lower lung/heart area. Other incidents of vandalism/injury were 1/2 inch ball bearings fired instead of paintball gel balls. 7mm airsoft pistols have had nails fired, the nail guns have been modified and used-and plain old ball peen hammer has been used about 20 times in Boston area 2005 to 2010 to kill people, seems to be some kind of "traditional weapon" of Irish? MS13 gang members used Machete a lot- Boston now defines it as a "deadly weapon" instead of "agricultural implement" - meaning get caught with one in the car, in "public way" and you get arrested just for the possession, no threatening display needed for arrest. Tell it to the judge that you"re a gardener- and be able to prove it by machete chopped pointed tomato stakes in use. OLD commandment- don"t do unlawful killing/murder/ shed innocent blood- simple and not tool judgmental, current laws and proposed laws just confusing the issue. Other old laws elaborated on the use of wood or metal tools, known dangerous livestock, situation resulting in death and the blood money to be paid at times. A thief at night housebreaker was advised to be killed instead of allowed to escape by homeowner that caught him- if he was running away outside the walls and homeowner had his bow or spear- shoot or thrust him in the back to kill him so he couldn't rob and kill someone else in the community or come back to kill homeowner, no blood money to be required to be paid by homeowner. That might upset some lawyers now, can't sue homeowner or his insurance company. RN

Bottom line is, its not going to make any difference. If the holder wants to be noticed as holding a real gun, he will make some alterations. Nothing you can do about it, so passing laws for them to be orange not going to help anything. For what its worth, a friend of mine in high school made a fake double barrel shotgun in ag shop. Looked like the real thing. Wood stock, triggers and trigger guards, everything. He took it into the main building and was keeping it in his locker kind of as a joke and would show it to people to be funny. A teacher caught him with it and took it away. We thought it was funny at the time. The poor kid would of been in prison if that would of happened in todays world. Point is, if someone wants a gun to look real, they will get it done.

My son has a few toy guns, each toy gun has an orange band around the end of the barrel to tell a cop that it is a toy. In case a kid aims a toy gun at a cop. If a bad guy or stupid person removes the orange band then it is open season.

You can't regulate/fix stupid.

We have way too many laws now.

The toy gun's let alone the real one's are not the problem.

Do NOT discount the lethal ability of a pellet gun. I have 2 c02 powered units. a pistol and a rifle. BOTH are deadly at close range. .22 caliber on both. It will go thru both sides of a tin can at 50-75 ft. with a fresh co2 tube. I believe the cop was very justified in firing; even if it was a pellet gun!!!!!!!!

People that think criminals obey the law are living in a dream world. And it's no harder for a criminal to get a gun now than it was 20 years ago. It just costs more.

If there is a stupid law passed, you can bet CA is one of the states passing it.

They held up a Wendy's with an airsoft?
How did that go?
"you empty register for me or I make you cheek sting so bad you never recognize momma again!"?

BTW- an airsoft is a pellet gun that fires a hollow plastic ball at low speeds. It really stings for a few minutes if you shoot yourself in the palm. It might take your eye out.