Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is seeking more regulations on toy guns, imitation guns, BB rifles, and BB pistols.
Menendez’s office released a statement from the Senator, in which he said:
These lookalike guns pose an incredible challenge to law enforcement when responding to life and death situations. Updating these regulations is about common sense. It’s about ensuring that everyone can tell the difference between what’s a toy and what’s a deadly weapon. And above all else it’s about saving lives and stopping preventable tragedies.
Menendez, together with Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), sent a letter requesting greater regulation to Acting Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chair Ann Marie Buerkle and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
They complained that the orange tips on toy guns are too easy to remove or “camouflage,” thereby allowing the gun to look real. But they undercut their own concern over orange tips and other markings by highlighting a study that shows law enforcement officials fired nearly every single time they were confronted with a gun, orange tip or not.
They pointed to a 1989 study in which “FBI recruits were confronted by assailants carrying firearms or guns with orange tips. The recruits had two seconds to decide whether to shoot. When faced with unmarked replica pistols or guns with orange tips, officers shot 95 percent of the time.”
Menendez, Markey, and Blumenthal did not address the problem of pointing any gun–toy or otherwise–at police officers.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.