Toy guns and schools, a dangerous combination

By CONSTANCE SEE

Whitefish Pilot

Toy guns are becoming a serious risk for police officers around the country, including Whitefish, according to school officials and local police.

Teenagers with Airsoft-brand pistols have been involved in several incidents in Whitefish over the past two months. A bus driver observed a teenager waving a gun in the Whitefish High School parking lot. Another incident took place at a high school basketball game.

In the third incident, a teenager in a car waved his toy gun at a man shoveling snow. The frightened man reported he dove to the ground thinking it was a real gun.

Acting police chief Mike Ferda and school resource officer George Kimerly know guns, but both agree that when a toy Airsoft Beretta without its identifying orange tip is lying next to a real Beretta, even a trained police officer can't tell the difference at first glance.

And in some situations, a glance is all the time a police officer has to react.

Known for their realistic appearance, Airsoft guns have been used in movies. An Airsoft that resembles a Beretta M93R was used in "Robocop."

Spring-, gas- or electric-powered Airsoft toys fire round 8 mm or 6 mm plastic pellets. A small orange tip identifies the toy from the original, but children often break off the tip or use a black marker to color over the orange tip.

School District 44 policy states that any student who uses, possesses, controls or transfers a firearm or any object that reasonably looks like a firearm shall be expelled for at least one calendar year.

On a case-by-case basis, however, the school board can modify the expulsion period. The building administrator is also directed to notify the authorities, who can bring charges against the juvenile offenders.

"This is Whitefish, but in bigger cities, police officers have killed young kids with toy guns," Ferda said. "All it takes for a tragedy is one bone-headed kid with a toy gun in a realistic situation."

Ferda also noted the danger of teenagers with toy guns in their cars and how they can become involved in road rage incidents.

"Bringing a gun to school, even a toy gun, post the Columbine shooting, is a pretty big thing," Ferda said. "I don't want to sound like the sky is falling, but we need to use common sense with toy guns. Parents need to be involved and know what toys their kids have."

Kimerly and Ferda said their own children own Airsoft guns, but they are taught to understand how to carefully handle them in public.

Kimerly agrees that toy guns can lead to dangerous situations. About a year ago, he and several other officers were in a park when they saw a group of teenagers with a gun. As the officers safely approached the group and asked about the weapon, one of the boys said he had an Airsoft pistol in the car.

"We had them step back and not reach for the gun, and explained why," Kimerly said. "If you see somebody get out of a car and tuck this thing under their belt and pull their shirt over it, do you know it's a toy?"

In 1990, a man who had run away from a mental institution came across a border patrol agent in heavy timber north of Eureka near the Port of Roosville. The runaway waved a toy gun. In the semi-darkness, the agent fired. A death resulted.

Ferda said Whitefish police officers have charged fewer than a dozen youths in the past for discharging a firearm, including BB guns, but Airsoft guns are a more challenging issue. He said Whitefish police typically charge the teenagers with misdemeanor disorderly conduct, but other towns and cities have enacted ordinances specific to toy guns.

In 2006, the city council in Palo Alto, Calif., enacted a municipal code classifying all weapon replicas as "firearms," including air rifles, air-guns, BB guns and pellet guns.

Last month, the city council in St. Paul, Minn., approved an ordinance to ban toy guns within city limits unless they are painted a bright color to allow police and the public to identify them.

"That doesn't make sense to me," Kimerly said. "The next thing you know, the town's bad guys will be painting their real guns pink."

The danger of real guns on school grounds continues to make headlines. On March 7, two shootings at two different high schools left two dead, one in Michigan and one in Texas.

Montana schools continue to be one of the safest locations for children, said Cathy Kendall, administrator of the Health Enhancement and Safety Division of the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

During the 2005-06 school year, only 3.64 percent of the 439 school districts in the state reported any weapon violations. Superintendents expelled four students for a full year because of weapon incidents in schools.