Toy Gun

ABC New 5 in Cleveland, Ohio, posted the police camera recording of the police shooting of Zachary Fornash on December 5, 2023.

A police officer was flagged down by the residents of the 900 block of Alan Page Drive regarding a man who brandished a gun during an argument.  That man was 24-year old Zachary.

Zachary Fornash

Channel 5 parsed through the video, noting time and action.  You can find it at:  https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/local-news/oh-stark/canton-body-camera-footage-shows-man-with-pellet-gun-fatally-shot-by-police.

After the shooting, the police recovered a realistic-looking semi-auto that was actually a BB gun.

Is this a fluke?

Sadly, no.  A publication in 1991 from the Bureau of Justice Statistics dealt with this problem.  “Toy Guns: Involvement in Crime" resulted from a nationwide survey of police incidents involving toy guns.

Between 1985 and 1989, almost 8130 assaults were committed with what was later confirmed to be a toy gun.  During this same period, 31,650 toy guns were seized due to a crime or incident.  This problem isn’t new.

I'll let you do your own homework.  The reasonable belief that you are in imminent, unavoidable, deadly danger are the components that justify the use of lethal force.  Being threatened with a gun is a reasonable belief that these conditions exist.

While the Federal Government and local states have attempted to control the sale of replica guns, they haven’t been too successful.  A quick check of Temu (a Chinese marketing site) shows pages of toy guns that look identical to real guns.  The only visual difference I saw was the inside of the muzzle was orange. 

We'll never know why Zachary thought carrying and flashing a toy gun was a good idea.  We damn sure will never know why he didn't follow police instructions.

Many manufacturers put an orange end on the gun barrel to indicate it is a toy.  This is easily removed with a can of black paint. 

Criminals will paint their gun muzzles orange because of the momentary confusion that results from this flash of orange.

You don't believe me, do you?

I saw a gun painted that way, an orange muzzle on an actual weapon.  The man with the gun, not necessarily the owner, was purchasing a high-capacity magazine and wanted to be sure it fit.  I have my own conclusions as to why it was painted that way.

Why carry a toy?

Some of it is the mistaken notion that the toy gun gives you power without invoking sterner punishment should you be caught.  In ‘Raising Arizona,’ the character, played by Nicolas Cage, tells the judge he never carries a loaded gun when he commits a robbery because the penalties are less.

Then too, it's a cost problem.  An airsoft Beretta 92F look alike costs $11 plus shipping.  The actual Beretta 92F runs around $700.  And then there is also the pesky ATF background check.

Many people believe that having a gun makes them important.  It gives them power and makes them supermen.  At least until they run into a real gun.

Perhaps a citizen might feel the need for protection and believe a toy gun will provide a mantle of protection without needing to make the terrible decision of taking a life to protect their own.

Here too, there is a fatal logical flaw.  Criminals have guns pointed at them all the time.  Police do it, their sweethearts do it, other criminals do it, maybe their grandmother does it.  No, they are afraid of the person holding the gun, not the gun.

Do I have any advice about toy guns?  Keep them as toys.  Use them as training aids, but leave them at home. 

But I have one more piece of advice.  If by some brain fart, some hiccup in the synapses, you do carry a toy gun, do precisely what the police tell you.  Don't hesitate, don't didder, don't wonder if they mean you.  Just do it.  Save your argument for court, and maybe you'll live to regret that mistake.