Real or fake: Law enforcement officers concerned about the blurring line between deadly and toy guns

BARSTOW — One Glock is painted pink. An AK-47 has a “Hello Kitty” character stenciled on its pink stock and comes with a matching pink bayonet. One Colt 45 looks plastic, like it shoots rubber darts.

It doesn’t; it shoots bullets.

An officer safety bulletin that circulated around the Barstow station of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department at the end of last month warned deputies and officers about the danger or new breed of guns that are painted to look like toy guns. Sgt. Manny Mendoza said no deputies have faced a situation where a real gun looked fake, but after the station saw the bulletin, it has been a topic of conversation and concern.

“Now we’re at the point where anything that looks like a gun, no matter what color, is considered a firearm, and we will act accordingly to defend ourselves and the public,” Mendoza said. “When we do come across it that is a tough call for the deputy to make.”

Deputies are trained to determine a potential threat before taking action, but the line between real gun and fake gun, he said, has progressively blurred. Deputies main concern used to be over BB and pellet guns that looked real. Then, companies began to manufacture guns that looked and felt real but shot plastic BBs. Those guns, commonly called Airsoft pistols and rifles, are sold with orange tips to distinguish them. Real guns painted to look fake, he said, is the next step.

“Where once the fake gun was looking real, now the real gun is looking fake,” he said.

Creating a deceptive gun, however, is not the intent, said the man who invented the most popular gun-coloring product. Steve Lauer, of Chippewa Falls, Wis., created DuraCoat in 2001 as an anticorrosion product to protect firearms. He said most people coat their guns, sometimes in elaborate color schemes, to protect or personalize them. Law enforcement agencies and the military are some of his largest customers and the most popular color is matte black. Pink, he said, has become a popular color among women recently, which have caused groups to accuse him of making real guns appear fake.

In 2006, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York City successfully banned certain colors of Lauer’s product inside the city. Lauer said Bloomberg thought he was trying to allow criminals the opportunity to paint a real gun to look fake. The difference between a plastic fake gun, Lauer contends, and one coated with his product is staggering. He said only one law enforcement officer has ever approached him concerned about the distinction.

Jim Astle owns Jim’s Gun Supply in Baraboo, Wis. and coats many customers’ guns with Lauer’s product. He said 75 percent of the pink guns he has made for customers have been for wives of law enforcement officers who wanted to shoot with their husbands at the range. He said coating guns with colors or designs does not have a criminal element.

“Legal gun owners are sending us firearms and asking us to paint their gun,” Astle said. “It’s not gang-bangers sending in their guns to make them look like toys.”

Despite the intent, Astle said he noticed that the advent of deceptive guns filtered into police training. He said officers are being trained to be wary of anything that looks like a gun and of some lethal weapons that do not look like a gun, such a pen-guns and zip-guns. Officers are told, he said, that they should not hesitate based on a gun’s color.

Lauer said the public should be more aware of the dangers of confronting officers with guns.

“The bottom line is don’t point a gun at an officer no matter what color it is,” he said. “If it’s a gun, whether it’s a toy or a water shooting gun, you need to lay that down if an officer shows up.”

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