North Bay police are worried about the rise of imitations firearms being used in crimes.
Special Constable John Schultz says recently police arrested one person who had three fake firearms.
What police have also noticed is that more young people have been seeing using imitation firearms.
Schultz says the fake weapons create special issues for police when confronting someone committing a crime.
Schultz says an officer literally only has moments to determine if someone committing a crime with a weapon is holding a fake gun or the Real McCoy.
And he says it’s tough telling them apart.
“The quality of these firearms is so good, you’re challenged to tell the difference,” he said.
“We have firearms individuals who are challenged to see the difference between what is a fake (firearm), and what’s real. With some of the good quality imitations, you have to pick them up and study them to tell the difference. It’s scary.”
Schultz says the conditions and guidelines that allow officers to discharge their firearms are very strict.
He says they have an obligation to protect themselves and the public.
Schultz says it means when someone is seen walking around with a firearm the officer has to quickly determine if it’s a real or a fake before drawing their own weapon.
Schultz isn’t aware of any incidents in Canada where an individual carrying a fake weapon and committing a crime was shot by police unlike in the United States where there have been many such incidents.
“But if people keep using these it’s only a matter of time before something bad happens,” he said.
Schultz says it’s not a crime for people to own fake weapons and adds they are easily acquired online, through retail stores and can even be brought across the border in some circumstances.
Since they aren’t real, the regulations to keep them securely stored don’t apply in the same way that a gun collector must keep real firearms under lock and key.
Because imitation weapons don’t have to be locked away, it’s easier for someone breaking into a home to steal the items and now that person can commit a crime using what looks like a real gun or rifle.
Schultz says although it’s not illegal to own fake firearms, carrying one around and acting like it’s real is a breach of the Firearms section under the Criminal Code.
Schultz says normally when police confiscate imitation weapons and the case has gone through the courts, judges will usually order the fakes destroyed which entails melting them down.
Another issue for police is pellet guns.
Schultz says not only do manufacturers make some of these guns look real but some go as far as to make the pellet guns with a muzzle velocity that shoots the projectile out at more than 500 feet a second.
Schultz is cautioning pellet gun owners that devices matching this specification meets the definition of a real firearm because of the speed of the projectile.