Store fined $30K for stocking toy guns

NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A New York discount store was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine for stocking toy guns that were deemed to be too realistic.

Andrew Tilem, lawyer for the odds-and-ends store called 99¢ Target, said the fine amounts to $5,000 for each of the six toy sheriff sets put up for sale at the store in Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood, the New York Post reported Tuesday.

Tilem said the vendor for the toys, JMD All Star of New Jersey, told owner Jamal Ahmed the sets, which included orange plastic-tipped toy guns, were legal for sale and one of the store's managers failed to inform the owner when a city inspector wrote the store up for stocking the items.

City regulations bar the sale of realistic toy weapons.

Tilem said Ahmed missed a hearing due to not being informed by the manager and the city imposed the $30,000 fine, which he described as "a really, really abusive penalty."

A spokeswoman for the city's Consumer Affairs department said the fine was appealed, but upheld.

"Realistic-looking imitation guns are illegal and dangerous, and just last week, a 15-year-old in Texas was killed while holding one of these guns," she said.