Kid's toy gun scares Pomona motorist (also attracted 6+ sheriff's cars)

[alp227]

Pomona, Los Angeles County --

A toy gun being waved by a child in the back of a minivan near Chino was mistaken for a real weapon, drawing more than a half dozen sheriff's vehicles in response.

The Los Angeles Times says a concerned motorist called authorities Friday afternoon and deputies pulled the vehicle over at about 3:45 p.m. on State Route 71.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/12/BAKO1LUA2A.DTL

[gejohnston]

1. well, glad it was a toy

and the cops will have a cool war story. Other than that, what can I say?

[ileus]

2. Toy guns kill people to.

[Remmah2]

12. not since barrel shrouds were banned. nt

nt

[Lurks Often]

3. It's the NRA's fault

we can't have kids wandering around with a couple of toy guns sticking out everywhere or else there will be blood on the streets.

[spin]

4. Obviously we need to BAN toy guns ...

so they will not scare foolish adults.

[rrneck]

6. Ban minivans while you're at it. i hate those things. nt

[spin]

7. Good idea. (n/t)

[Hangingon]

8. Toys R Us should do background checks.

Make the kid fill out a 4473 jr. with a blue crayon.

[ileus]

9. we bought one when we had our first kid...kept it 3 years.

then decided minivans are super-uncool...

[TheWraith]

10. Sadly, New York City did exactly that.

There's a ban on the sale of toy guns in New York City, and now they've got idiot councilpeople (mostly the same ones who helped Bloomberg buy his newest term) saying we need to make the ban more severe "to protect the children." Funny how they never consider just telling the cops not to shoot little kids.

[iverglas]

11. "Funny how they never consider just telling the cops not to shoot little kids."

Happens often does it?


I've posted this here before:

Cops try to tell the difference between fake and real under simulated conditions.

Watch the video and test yourself.

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2009/the_trouble_with_fake_guns/main.html

The exercise starts at 10:00, and then there's another segment of it at 16:45.

A realistic-looking fake gun can endanger the person holding it. Including a kid.


And we must never forget Pellet-Gun Bill

In early September, a 13-year-old boy was shot in the leg by police Capt. James Brady after the teenager refused to drop what appeared to be a real gun. The weapon was actually a toy "Air Soft" gun that shoots rubber pellets.

[ileus]

5. future rude toter...

[Remmah2]

13. Seems like an over reaction by motorist.

Could their negative over-reaction be the result of having viewed years of TV violence or watching misleading news stories?

I'd like to see a picture of the "toy".

[SteveM]

14. Sometimes traffic "conflicts" result in false "He's gotta gun!" complaints...

When delivering recyclables, I was stopped behind someone at a red light in Austin. The light changed green, but the motorist ahead didn't respond; his head was bowed down. I tooted the horn, he looks up, gets into gear, and drives ahead, then resumes looking down. I pass him and he speeds up to my bumper and stays there for several blocks, turns when I turn and passes me at the recycle center, never once lowering the cell phone. Thirty seconds later, I'm looking down the barrel of an AR 15, held by a cop. He tells me that he had a report I was waving a gun at him. I told the officer that I didn't even have a gun on me or in the van, and even told him the make/model of the car that was tailing me. He apologized, and said that "it was a real problem in Austin." I asked, "you mean folks using a cell phone and disrupting traffic?" He said: "No, guys like him who get miffed that someone tooted at him, and report that a gun was waved at him."

Punks.

[iverglas]

15. yes, and ... ?

Obviously that's what happened in this case, I guess.

It couldn't have been a situation in which a person who was well aware of how commonly children get hold of their parents' handguns was actually concerned that this could be the case.

One might think that parents would consider it wise not to let their children "wave" guns around in the car in such a way that a reasonable stranger might wonder.

Of course, reasonable parents might not teach children to wave guns around at all.

[SteveM]

16. Talking to someone else, but I've got a great deer chilli recipe! nt

[iverglas]

17. got that PM function?

Use it.

[Remmah2]

18. Maybe it was a burnt french fry.

After all, kids have been expelled for pointing french fries in school.