NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KTHV)- North Little Rock police are concerned that BB guns could place kids in a deadly situation. They're encouraging parents to turn BB guns in to police, since more and more of them could be mistaken for real guns.
The concern comes after police fatally shot a 12-year-old with a BB gun in Cleveland, Ohio. On Monday night, the NLRPD confiscated a gun they thought was real. To their surprise, it turned out to be a BB gun.
Sergeant Brian Dedrick said a BB gun's resemblance to a real gun is astonishing. "It looks like a revolver, and it has actual ah- bullets."
Police explained new BB guns have shells mimicking bullet casings. "That is exactly the type of gun this one was. Bullets and no orange tip," said Dedrick.
The mother called police after she found the gun in her son's room. "If an officer would encounter this gun as he's working in law enforcement capacity, they would think this gun looks real."
Just last week an eight-year-old in Central Arkansas brought a BB gun onto his school bus.
North Little Rock Police say it's not the first time they've had to confiscate a BB gun. In recent years, there have been several issues on some school campuses, with three incidents taking place in schools in the North Little Rock School District.
Steve Canady is the districts school safety coordinator. "They looked exactly like real semi-automatic pistols," said Canady. "It was hard for me to tell the difference and I was a police officer for 22 years."
Police say BB guns aren't an issue if they're being used properly. Sergeant Dedrick said what makes him nervous is when the labels are taken off, and are used to pretend to be real guns.
