Despite years of enforcement stings, many New York stores still aren't complying with state rules banning the sale of toy guns that could be confused with the real thing, state officials said Tuesday.
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office has sent letters to more than 100 retailers ordering them to halt sales of look-a-likes that violate the ban.
State law requires toy guns to either be made from materials that couldn't possibly be confused with an actual weapon, or carry colorful markings including a big orange stripe.
Inspectors with Cuomo's office said they conducted spot checks and found plenty of toys on sale that didn't follow those rules.
In most cases, the toys only complied with a less-strict federal rule requiring them to have an orange plug in the barrel. ...
Article here. The silliness of these rules defies logic. Not only do they not prevent criminals from obtaining real guns, but what's to stop a criminal from obtaining one of these toys and painting over the orange markings? Are we going to regulate cans of paint as well? "Sorry sir, but here in New York City we can only sell you fluorescent orange paint, unless you get fingerprinted and pass the background check."
An even more devious criminal might decide to paint one of his real guns to look like a toy, thus giving him a precious advantage when confronted by a cop (or armed citizen, although that's extremely unlikely in NYC), who might hesitate thinking that the real (painted) gun is a toy. Such hesitation could well prove deadly. And once that happens, cops and armed citizens will have to assume (as they should anyway) that anything that looks like a gun, with or without the nanny-state mandated "colorful markings", is real until proven otherwise. Which defeats the whole stated reason for marking toy guns, now doesn't it?
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