[url]http://www.ohio.com/bj/local/docs/018833.htm[/url]

Akron mayor proposes ordinance making it illegal to sell look-alike firearms
Police detective fooled by lighter

Two weeks ago, an Akron police officer came ``within a heartbeat'' of shooting a 14-year-old boy brandishing what appeared to be a 9 mm pistol -- but which turned out to be a cigarette lighter.

Now, city officials are looking to ban toy guns that look real.

Under an ordinance proposed by Mayor Don Plusquellic yesterday, it would be illegal to sell look-alike firearms in the city or to brandish such replicas ``in a rude, angry or threatening manner.''


The law would apply to movie props, starter pistols, air guns and hobby models -- even if they're not fully assembled. It would not apply to guns that are obviously not real, like Super Soaker squirt guns.

The mayor's proposal was inspired by a June 13 incident in which a 14-year-old Perkins Middle School student brandished what looked like a 9 mm handgun -- but what was actually a cigarette lighter -- in front of a Copley Road drive-through.

Jack Gilbride, the police detective who responded to the call, ordered the student to drop the gun five times. He didn't.

``Thankfully, he did not move it. Had he, I would have shot him,'' Gilbride said yesterday.

Finally, the student -- identified only as David -- dropped the gun and was arrested for menacing.

``David did not really understand the consequences of his actions,'' Gilbride said. ``To this day, I don't think he knows how close he came.''

The lighter so closely resembled an Israeli-made military pistol that it uses the same slide action and uses reloadable clips of butane.


Police believe David bought the lighter at one of any number of inner-city carryouts that sold the model. Police said most stores have since pulled the lighter from their shelves.

Plusquellic calls the manufacturers of such toy guns ``totally irresponsible.''

``Bic and Scripto made millions of dollars selling lighters that look like lighters,'' he said.

The toy gun ordinance will be introduced in Akron City Council on Monday.

It's unclear what practical effect the law would have.

Laws already on the books prohibit using a fake gun to threaten someone.

The city ordinance would not apply to toy guns sold outside the city limits.

And a federal law in effect since 1992 already requires toy guns made or imported into the United States to be clearly identifiable as toys -- usually through a bright orange plug at the end of the barrel, said Diane Cardinale, a spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association in Washington, D.C.

But many look-alike guns are sold each year that aren't toys.

In Akron alone, police say they confiscate between 12 and 15 BB guns a week. Many look like real guns.


Canton police Detective John C. Miller placed a pellet gun alongside a $500 9 mm Taurus PT 92 semiautomatic handgun at Canton police headquarters yesterday and defied anyone to tell them apart.

Miller had gotten the pellet gun from his Lake Mohawk neighbor, David Schauer, whose college-aged son brought home two of them.

``I had no idea it looked that real,'' said Bryan Schauer, who bought the guns for target practice with his 14-year-old brother. ``I'm really surprised by this. In fact, it kind of scares me. If you had this beside you in a car when a cop pulled up and you pulled it out, you'd be dead.''

I just dont Know.

Whatever it was, that little twirp "brandished" it at the police. Dumbass.

Um, what?