|
Recently, a sixteen-year-old girl was in the area of a Maryland restaurant located just outside of Washington, D.C. The local police were called to the area to investigate a possible robbery in progress. The police saw the girl holding what appeared to be a handgun. Fearing for their safety, they fired their weapons and bullets struck the teenager. She died from the wounds received. Police recovered a handgun, a plastic replica of a semi-automatic pistol, from the dead girl.
During the Fall 2001 semester at Salisbury University, there have been three incidents involving fake or replica handguns. In the first incident, following a disturbance involving numerous people in the area of the Quad, a witness saw what he believed to be a handgun in the waistband of the pants of one of the people leaving the disturbance. In the second incident, a resident student observed a resident of another hall flashing a handgun in the hallway of her building. She was very frightened because she thought it was a real gun. In the third situation, on a side street close to the University, a student allegedly pointed a replica weapon at a student and demanded money.
University Police have recovered two of the weapons and they were found to be plastic replicas. “Unless you have these things in your hand or are very close to them, it is impossible to distinguish the ‘fakes’ from the real thing,” said Jim Phillips, Chief of University Police. “Bystanders, victims, the police or someone else with a real gun may believe a replica is a real gun and someone can get hurt or killed,” continued Chief Phillips. “Students need to keep these things at home, or better yet, get rid of them altogether.”
The question must be raised, “Why do students carry these toy guns around campus with them?” If you possess one of these authentic-looking toys or know people who have them, please encourage, persuade and convince them to get rid of it. It may be a toy but it looks real. Let’s avoid a tragedy and the risk of an unnecessary shooting of another young person.
|
