Concerns mount over look-alike guns

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- A new brand of BB and pellet guns is prompting renewed calls for restrictions because they look so much like deadly firearms, officials say.

Critics point to cases in Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arkansas, where young people with imitation guns were killed by police who assumed they were armed, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

While some parents say so-called airsoft guns are safe when used with safety goggles and supervision, critics say the devices look like the real thing, which endangers the user and others who might believe the person is actually armed.

"I'm not talking about the question 'Should kids play with guns?' The issue is why you would make the guns so realistic that even a trained policeman can mistake the gun for a real gun," said Stephen Teret, founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.

Some jurisdictions have banned the look-alikes.

"A lot of these young people were bringing them to school, and some of these look more like a real gun than a real gun," said Police Chief David Bishop of Beaverton, Ore., where replicas were banned in public in March 2007.