Mock guns look too real, cops say

Some fear popular models might prompt shootings.

The closest Washoe County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Gaston ever came to killing a person happened on a summer night a few months ago.

Callers had reported two people walking the streets in Cold Springs with a gun.

Gaston found the pair near Nancy Gomes Elementary School and flipped on his lights. He told them to turn around. An 18-year-old wearing a trench coat and a green bandana turned and started pulling a handgun from his pants.

"By that time, I was already drawing my own weapon," Gaston remembers. "I was already easing down on the trigger."

The man dropped the gun and Gaston, his own weapon drawn, ordered the two to the ground.

Then he kicked the gun away from the man into the curb. It shattered, spilling tiny plastic pellets onto the street.

"All my training kicked in," Gaston said. "I was about ready to fire at him. I wasn't going to wait for him to fire at me."

But the incident scared Gaston.

"It was like, wow, I almost killed this kid over a toy," he said.

The toy was one of the popular Airsoft guns, realistic scale models of firearms that fire pellets that don't break glass or make a mess like paintballs. Airsoft guns are usually equipped with an orange tip, but many users remove them or paint them black, police said.

The problem is that from a distance or at night, law enforcement can't tell the difference between an Airsoft gun and a genuine firearm.

"We're just lucky so far in the area we haven't had a shooting," Gaston said.

Reno police closed downtown streets Oct. 19 when somebody reported seeing a rooftop sniper who was actually just somebody playing target practice with a pellet gun.

Bank robbers have used the realistic but non-lethal guns to rob Reno and Carson City banks.

But Airsoft enthusiasts said they are safe gun owners and one local dealer said he talks parents out of buying the guns if he thinks their child isn't ready.

"If you point anything at law enforcement that looks like a weapon, you'll be shot," said Steve Hinkle, the owner of Steve's Army Surplus on Moana Lane in Reno .

Steve's Army Surplus sells Airsoft and paintball guns, supplies and other military items. Customers must be over 18 to buy an Airsoft gun.

"Even when the parents buy (Airsoft guns), we tell them if (the kids) walk the streets with the gun, they will be killed," Hinkle said.

Hinkle said the fake guns should be treated as weapons and when used responsibly, they are good training tools.

"We don't want the kids to call them toys," Hinkle said. "I get a lot of kids in here who the first thing they do is turn around and point it at their little brother and say, 'Now, I'm going to get you!'"

Hinkle said he talks those parents out of buying the gun.

Dave White of Carson City grudgingly allowed his 16-year-old son, Matt, to invest in Airsoft after making the boy take a gun safety class.

On Wednesday, White and his son tested out a $150 grenade launcher for Matt's semi-automatic rifle at the shooting range in the back of Hinkle's store.

Matt wore the required eye protection to test out the launcher, which shoots 150 pellets at once. He'll use the launcher when he plays combat games out in the desert on BLM land, he said.

"I don't run around pointing it at people," said Matt, a junior at Carson High as he safely pointed the gun down range.

There are rules for Matt to own the Airsoft rifle and handgun, White said.

"He won't be allowed to use it or take it anywhere without an orange tip," White said. "We don't shoot at the neighbor's cat. We don't shoot at the dog."

The pellets won't break glass, won't break a person's skin and won't kill an animal. Airsoft users wear protective goggles because the pellets can injure their eyes. Three main types of Airsoft guns -- spring-powered, gas-powered and electric -- are available in stores ranging from Wal-Mart and Kmart to most sporting goods stores. High-end Airsoft guns are available online. Guns range in price from as low as $20 to as much as $1,200.

Reno 's 1st Airsoft Division plays war games on Saturday, if weather permits. Matt is trying to get a group of Carson teens together for the same purpose.

"You can go up in the middle of nowhere and do it," Matt said. "It's a recreational sport and it's fun to do."

Hinkle gives every customer a safety lecture about how to handle the guns.

"You can't flash them, you can't brandish them," he said. "You don't have it sitting in the car with you. They basically need to be treated like a weapon."