POLICE FED UP WITH REPLICA GUNS IT'S NOT A GAME FOR THE OFFICER WHEN A YOUTH

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992                   TAG: 9201230243
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
POLICE FED UP WITH REPLICA GUNS IT'S NOT A GAME FOR THE OFFICER WHEN A YOUTH
One Roanoke Valley police chief is through playing around with toy guns.
Rick Foutz wants the Virginia General Assembly to ban the sale of toy guns that are precise replicas of the real thing.
Within the past week, Vinton police have confronted at least three youngsters with firearm look-alikes. One teen-ager had even painted over orange markers that toy manufacturers put on replicas so they won't be mistaken for authentic guns.
"It would be a cop's worst nightmare to shoot a kid with a toy gun," Vinton Police Chief Foutz said. "I don't think that you would ever recover from that."
Foutz is not alone in his concern. In the past year, Roanoke police have reported at least four incidents in which look-alikes were used in confronta- tions with police. "I think the legislature needs to take a good look at
it," Foutz said. "It needs to do something."
The Vinton incidents show that problems with toy replicas of guns are not a phenomenon of high crime areas of Roanoke.
Vinton Cpl. Mike St. Clair learned that lesson Tuesday when he was called to a residence where children were fighting during a football game.
Witnesses told police that a 15-year-old boy, angered after a smaller boy hit him with some wood, went into his house and got a pistol.
"I'm going to blow your a-- in half," the boy told the other youngster, who ran for safety.
At first, the 15-year-old told St. Clair that he had no pistol. The boy later led the officer to a pellet gun stuffed inside a couch.
The metal gun was all black, crafted by the manufacturer to look like a semi-automatic pistol.
"I can't comprehend this," St. Clair said. "When I was growing up, I never had a replica of a real gun."
The choice is simple for Sgt. Andy Corbin, who encountered two youngsters with toy pistols 10 days ago after receiving a complaint from a pizza deliverer.
"If someone draws down on me with a weapon, I am going to respond like it is an actual weapon," he said. "I can only assume my life is in jeopardy. I want to go home safe at the end of my shift."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB