THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 19, 1994 TAG: 9410190007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Ending the sale of real-looking toy guns may save some lives and peace of mind. Realistic fakes have caused harm to a many - people traumatized when threatened by what they believed to be the real thing and people killed or wounded when brandishing the look-alikes.
A toy gun is believed to have been used in an attempted rape of a Norfolk woman in May. In 1991, a young man was shot and killed by Norfolk police when he pulled a look-alike gun as police pursued him.
Two of the nation's largest toy-store chains, Kay-Bee Toy Stores and Toys R Us, have announced they will stop selling the look-alikes. Good for them. Kay-Bee said it will destroy all in its inventory. Toys R Us plans to sell what's in stock before ending such sales.
The decision followed the shooting death of a 13-year-old boy by a Brooklyn, N.Y., housing-authority policeman who mistook an 18-inch toy rifle for a real weapon.
Other outlets, including Bradlee's and Kmart, have removed or agreed to stop buying the toy guns. Sears, Roebuck and Target stores halted toy-gun sales years ago.
According to the Toy Manufacturers Association, toy guns - about half of them water guns - account for about $250 million yearly in U.S. wholesale business. Willingness to forfeit profit on such a large chunk of business underscores the conviction of toy-sales leaders that, even if they are meant to be toys, the guns are on occasion hazardous to users and others.
The Toys R Us chief executive officer, Michael Goldstein, says he will seek an industrywide ban on realistic toy guns. If stores refuse to stop stocking them, parents can take the course already available to them: Refuse to buy the look-alikes.
Federal law requires makers of realistic toy guns to equip them with a cap or cork at the muzzle or an orange mark identifying them as toys. However, the caps can be removed and the guns painted to look more real, more threatening.
No one should fault the Brooklyn police officer for shooting the teenager who, it turned out, was armed with a toy. Whether it's a police officer or a citizen out for a walk, people confronted with guns must assume that they're real and protect themselves.
Cowboys and Indians was an innocent game. The violence nowadays is for real. Retailers who choose to yank potentially menacing toy guns are making a responsible choice.
KEYWORDS: GUNS TOYS
by CNB