Ohio gun bill shoots blanks

Columbus Dispatch: A state legislator’s proposal to require toy guns to be brightly colored or marked with fluorescent strips might make Ohioans feel as if they are “doing something.”

But this law would not change the dilemma facing police officers. Unless they can ascertain whether a gun is a toy, they have to proceed as if it is real.

Rep. Alicia Reece, D-Cincinnati, recently announced that she will propose legislation requiring all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns sold in Ohio to be distinctively colored or marked. She is responding to the deaths of a Cleveland boy and a Dayton-area man, each shot by police responding to 911 calls.

THE NYC EXPERIENCE

Passing Reece’s bill won’t prevent further tragedies, as New York City found after it passed a similar law in 1999 that required toy guns to be brightly colored, entirely transparent or translucent.

A New York City Council report noted that toy guns without the mandated look still could be purchased. And, in the prior four years, police officers had fired at 12 people whose toy gun looked like a real firearm.

A little paint can make a firearm bright orange, or blacken a fake gun to look real.

Reece’s proposal is well-intentioned, but it wouldn’t accomplish what she intends.