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Recoil from fake guns striking law enforcement officers
By ANNE MARIE APOLLO, [email protected]
March 6, 2005
The weapon in Charlie Mesloh's hands looks and sounds like a submachine gun. The heft and shine of its black metal casing and the clatter as it discharges its rounds seem authentic.
Only its target betrays its real nature.
The gun is loaded with paint balls.
"If you put up a (submachine gun), they really are very close," Mesloh said of the weapon.
As toys and guns both become more sophisticated, the line can blur between the two.
In some cases, law enforcement officers struggle to tell the difference between an imitation and the real thing. Meanwhile, people like Mesloh, an assistant professor of criminology at Florida Gulf Coast University, are putting the ambiguity to good use, scouting out toys and civilian tools that can be put to police use.
Mesloh's gun, which he recently put to the test in a comparison between run-of-the mill paintball guns and those designed for police use, came from China. But realistic weapons are easily available at home, through Web sites or at the nearest toy store.
Plastic versions of the M-4, M-5 and M-16 guns can be had for less than $50. Sniper-style rifles and handguns also are available to just about anyone.
Though the fake guns are by federal law required to have an orange tip, it can be colored or removed, sometimes causing trouble for both their owners and police.
In February, a 15-year-old Naples boy was arrested after deputies said he waved a realistic BB gun at the passengers of a car driving down Bonita Beach Road and threatened to kill them.
He was charged with aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon or device, the same as he would have been had the gun been a lethal weapon.
Lee County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Larry King said while charges are determined on a case-by-case basis, often if the person at whom a gun is pointed fears for his life, the penalty for the suspect will reflect that — even if the weapon is a fake, he said.
Bogus weapons pose a threat to law enforcement officers because at first glance, or even on close inspection, it can be hard to tell the difference between a real gun and a replica, he said.
"They can be extremely realistic," he said of the toys and BB guns. "They really look like a weapon. We can't make that decision in seconds. They have no way of telling if it is real."
Deputies in February's incident reacted as they would have if the gun had been authentic, searching for well longer than an hour to find the weapon and the teen carrying it.
Most people who are carrying the fake guns do so as a novelty, King said.
Deputies are well aware that things aren't always what they seem on the weapon front, he added.
Even as toy guns look real, items that look like household items can in reality be deadly.
It is possible to buy weapons disguised in pens and cellular phones, he said.
Conversely, Mesloh and his students are looking at commonly found objects that can be put to law enforcement use as less than lethal weaponry — items that are used to incapacitate a person police want to subdue, but not kill.
This is the first semester Mesloh is teaching the class, in which students are covering the basics, such as Taser guns and police batons, as well as the unusual.
Paint ball guns already are used by police, Mesloh said, though the technology was originally developed for sport. Paint can be used to mark people during a riot, he said. Or the same guns can be loaded with pepper balls instead of coloring, as a long-distance form of Mace.
The technology is useful because police officers can use it from as far away as 100 feet, well out of the range of a person armed with a knife or similar weapon, Mesloh said.
During a recent test, he evaluated the accuracy of four weapons with both types of ammunition, including the submachine gun wannabe.
Those exploring the area of less-than-lethal weapons are looking at all kinds of avenues, Mesloh said, from high-powered flashlights meant for search and rescue missions that can be used to temporarily blind someone to tennis ball machines that can be used to launch weapons.
"We're just looking at everything that we can to turn it to something for law enforcement use," he said.
They've found solutions in their own research and at Army surplus and outdoors stores, he said.
They even sometimes flip through toy catalogs, he added
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/bonitanews/article/0,2071,NPDN_14894_3599304,00.html
By ANNE MARIE APOLLO, [email protected]
March 6, 2005
The weapon in Charlie Mesloh's hands looks and sounds like a submachine gun. The heft and shine of its black metal casing and the clatter as it discharges its rounds seem authentic.
Only its target betrays its real nature.
The gun is loaded with paint balls.
"If you put up a (submachine gun), they really are very close," Mesloh said of the weapon.
As toys and guns both become more sophisticated, the line can blur between the two.
In some cases, law enforcement officers struggle to tell the difference between an imitation and the real thing. Meanwhile, people like Mesloh, an assistant professor of criminology at Florida Gulf Coast University, are putting the ambiguity to good use, scouting out toys and civilian tools that can be put to police use.
Mesloh's gun, which he recently put to the test in a comparison between run-of-the mill paintball guns and those designed for police use, came from China. But realistic weapons are easily available at home, through Web sites or at the nearest toy store.
Plastic versions of the M-4, M-5 and M-16 guns can be had for less than $50. Sniper-style rifles and handguns also are available to just about anyone.
Though the fake guns are by federal law required to have an orange tip, it can be colored or removed, sometimes causing trouble for both their owners and police.
In February, a 15-year-old Naples boy was arrested after deputies said he waved a realistic BB gun at the passengers of a car driving down Bonita Beach Road and threatened to kill them.
He was charged with aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon or device, the same as he would have been had the gun been a lethal weapon.
Lee County Sheriff's Office Public Information Officer Larry King said while charges are determined on a case-by-case basis, often if the person at whom a gun is pointed fears for his life, the penalty for the suspect will reflect that — even if the weapon is a fake, he said.
Bogus weapons pose a threat to law enforcement officers because at first glance, or even on close inspection, it can be hard to tell the difference between a real gun and a replica, he said.
"They can be extremely realistic," he said of the toys and BB guns. "They really look like a weapon. We can't make that decision in seconds. They have no way of telling if it is real."
Deputies in February's incident reacted as they would have if the gun had been authentic, searching for well longer than an hour to find the weapon and the teen carrying it.
Most people who are carrying the fake guns do so as a novelty, King said.
Deputies are well aware that things aren't always what they seem on the weapon front, he added.
Even as toy guns look real, items that look like household items can in reality be deadly.
It is possible to buy weapons disguised in pens and cellular phones, he said.
Conversely, Mesloh and his students are looking at commonly found objects that can be put to law enforcement use as less than lethal weaponry — items that are used to incapacitate a person police want to subdue, but not kill.
This is the first semester Mesloh is teaching the class, in which students are covering the basics, such as Taser guns and police batons, as well as the unusual.
Paint ball guns already are used by police, Mesloh said, though the technology was originally developed for sport. Paint can be used to mark people during a riot, he said. Or the same guns can be loaded with pepper balls instead of coloring, as a long-distance form of Mace.
The technology is useful because police officers can use it from as far away as 100 feet, well out of the range of a person armed with a knife or similar weapon, Mesloh said.
During a recent test, he evaluated the accuracy of four weapons with both types of ammunition, including the submachine gun wannabe.
Those exploring the area of less-than-lethal weapons are looking at all kinds of avenues, Mesloh said, from high-powered flashlights meant for search and rescue missions that can be used to temporarily blind someone to tennis ball machines that can be used to launch weapons.
"We're just looking at everything that we can to turn it to something for law enforcement use," he said.
They've found solutions in their own research and at Army surplus and outdoors stores, he said.
They even sometimes flip through toy catalogs, he added
http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/bonitanews/article/0,2071,NPDN_14894_3599304,00.html
