Real Threat from Fake Guns: Why Replicas Should Be Banned
Kids can buy identical looking airsoft versions of real guns on Amazon. Banning these sales is possible because 'toy guns' aren't protected by the Second Amendment.
"This was suppose to be a suicide by cop."
Around 1:15 p.m. on Monday, a teen with an AR-15 rifle walked onto the playground of Verplanck Elementary School in Connecticut while students and staff were outside. The teen was dressed in all black with combat boots. As teachers frantically ushered the kids inside, he pointed the gun at students and banged on the glass doors to the school.
When police arrived 10 minutes later, the teen surrendered. While he was on the ground in handcuffs, officers realized that the gun was a replica airsoft rifle. An officer’s body camera recorded him saying that he wanted the situation to turn into a ‘suicide by cop’.
Note: "Suicide by cop" is a colloquial term describing a situation in which a person who wishes to end their own life deliberately provokes police into using lethal force against them. The individual may refuse to comply with commands or brandish a weapon (real or perceived) in order to force the police officers to shoot them.
The 17-year-old has been charged with 112 felonies including 39 counts of reckless endangerment and having a firearm in a gun free school zone.
While a teen is prohibited from buying a ‘real’ AR-15 rifle, there’s nothing stopping a child of any age from ordering an exact replica from Amazon or other retailers.
Availability of Replica Guns
An “airsoft” gun uses CO2 gas to fire tiny metal or plastic pellets. These guns are popular for target shooting because the pellets are very cheap compared to real bullets, and you can shoot an airsoft gun in your backyard. There are no regulations, background checks, or permits needed to purchase or own one.
What’s problematic is how similar these airsoft guns are to real firearms. A simple search of Amazon for “replica AR-15” provides hundreds of results available on Prime.
It’s not just AR-15 style rifles, there are also exact copies of real handguns. Some of them don’t have an orange tip to help distinguish an airsoft toy from a real handgun. I don’t understand why Amazon is permitting the sale of toy guns without orange tips that violate federal law.
15 U.S. Code § 5001 sets out the marking requirements and the penalties for entering non-compliant imitation firearms into interstate commerce. The law requires that certain “imitation firearms” (including many toy guns, replicas, and look-alike non-firing props) be marked in a way that clearly distinguishes them from real firearms. The most common way to meet these requirements is the blaze orange tip often seen on toy or replica guns. The orange tip must be permanently affixed and cannot be readily removed or concealed.
The law applies to “toy, look-alike, or imitation” firearms that could be confused with real guns. The statute allows exceptions for theatrical or film productions that use realistic props without the orange tip (provided certain conditions are met). Violations can include civil fines or other penalties for manufacturers, importers, distributors, or retailers who do not comply with the marking requirements.
A Glock 9mm handgun is nearly identical to a replica Glock BB or airsoft gun.
Since the replicas are the exact same shape and dimensions as the real guns they mimic, they look identical in a holster.
Despite a federal law that requires replicas to be easily distinguishable from real guns, in the side-by-side comparisons, a 9mm handgun, a metal BB gun, and a plastic pellet airsoft gun are nearly identical without close, hands-on inspection.
One of these rifles is a BB gun while the other is a real assault-style rifle. Can you tell which is which?
This scenario can easily play out at a school: An armed teacher spots a student brandishing what looks like a firearm inside a classroom. The armed teacher needs to make a split second decision to shoot the kid or wait to get more information.
There are a few different ways this scenario can play out:
Armed teacher shoots a kid with a real gun and prevents an attack before any other students are injured.
Armed teacher shoots a kid with a replica BB gun that posed minimal danger to other students.
Armed teacher hesitates while a student with a real gun opens fire inside the classroom.
Armed teacher hesitates and realizes the student is just showing off a replica BB gun.
Armed teacher opens fire, misses a kid holding a replica BB gun, and kills a bystander student in the class.
In the best case scenario, it’s still a pretty bad outcome when a teacher shoots a student. In the worst case scenarios, a replica gun can lead to an innocent classmate being killed by a teacher.
Regardless of the outcome, there will be a multi-million-dollar lawsuit because most school districts lack a ‘use of force’ policy that defines when armed teachers and staff members are allowed to kill students. (see: What's the 'Use of Force Continuum' for armed teachers?)
Deadly consequences
On May 1, 2024, police were called for an active shooter at Mount Horeb Middle in rural Wisconsin. Officers spotted a teen outside of the school with a long black rifle and killed him when he didn’t comply with commands. Four days later, police provided an update that the rifle was a $100 pellet gun available at Walmart and Amazon.
Intent doesn’t always match capability when a teen is planning a school shooting. Based on the information that is available now, the 14-year-old wanted to commit a school shooting, but he couldn’t access a more deadly weapon. He wrote online that AR-15s were his favorite and “beautiful”. He described his family as “anti-gun” and lamented over his lack of access to firearms.
Like most other school shooters, he was actively suicidal and planned to die during the attack. Being killed by police at school while holding a rifle can be a symbolic act even if he didn’t have the capability with an air rifle to seriously injure or kill anyone else. Before the attack he wrote online:
“I hate my existence because I fear everything, I AM TIRED OF THIS. My family thinks I actually have a plan after High School, no, I don't, and if my parents ever look back, they might just see they knew NOTHING about me, and I don't blame them.”
“Looks like time is kind of running out for me, no going back for whatever I do.”
“My last morning” was the final message he posted 2 hours before he was killed by police when he brandished his air rifle on campus.
Constitutional Sales Restriction
Replica firearms—which are incapable of firing live ammunition—are not protected under the Second Amendment because they do not fall under the legal definition of “firearms.” The Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear functional firearms, and courts typically consider replica guns as accessories or toys rather than true weapons.
When kids bring replica guns to school, it can create a dangerous situation and a huge disruption. Teachers, other students, and even the police can’t easily distinguish between a real and fake gun. Seeing a replica gun triggers a lockdown and an ‘active shooter’ police response—putting everyone in danger as officers run through the school with their real gun drawn. Just seeing a gun (even if it’s not real) can scare kids and create a traumatic situation that takes days or weeks to recover from. This not only creates panic on campus but can also cause life-altering legal consequences for a young student because the courts treat both real and fake guns as “deadly weapons”.
Even when they are legally considered to be toys, a fake gun can quickly turn into a real tragedy, whether it’s someone aiming for “suicide by cop” or just a kid showing off a new purchase to classmates. In that split second, police, staff, and students can’t tell the difference between a replica and the real thing—so the outcome can be deadly. When replica guns aren’t protected by the Second Amendment, banning the online sale to children and forcing compliance with existing federal laws that require toys to be distinguishable from real guns can be an easy, common-sense way to make kids and schools safer.
David Riedman is the creator of the K-12 School Shooting Database, Chief Data Officer at a global risk management firm, and a tenure-track professor. Listen to my weekly podcast—Back to School Shootings—or my recent interviews on Freakonomics Radio, New England Journal of Medicine, and my article on CNN about AI and school security.
I have been pushing to get replica “toy” air/gas operated handguns banned in VA for more than 10 years without success. At least they should not be sold to children! A problem arises in that the definition of an air/gas operated gun covers a huge range of devices, from small caliber low velocity handguns that are relatively harmless all the way to large caliber high muzzle velocity rifles that are absolutely deadly. Only this week I have been testifying on bills to include them in code when used during the commission of a crime. Even the ones that are very weak can be “deadly” but only to the person carrying them when they cannot be recognized as not being a firearm.