NE:Should Toy Guns Bring the Same Penalties as Real Guns?

Nearly every state has enhanced penalties for armed robbery vs. unarmed robbery.  In the Nebraska statute, to be considered armed, a toy or replica gun is not enough.   If the robber can show that what he used in the robbery was not a real gun, then the enhanced penalty does not apply.  From ketv.com:

"It looks like a real gun. You know it acts like a real gun," Kleine said. He made the comments while showing KETV NewsWatch 7 a fake gun used by a teen to commit a robbery. 

But under state law, the fake gun isn't a firearm, even if it's used to commit a crime

The current law gives robbers an incentive to use fake or toy guns in the commission of their crimes.    That may be a good thing.   I would rather that robbers used fake, toy, or ineffective guns instead of real, effective guns.

 Nebraska senators have yet to sign off on toughening the law about using toy or replica guns in crimes. It hasn't yet come out of committee. There's talk of adding it as an amendment to other legislation.

Out of 85 weapons seized:
- 24 are not loaded
- 2 are not loaded with the correct ammunition
- 9 are completely broken
Combine those facts and you will see that 41% of the weapons we seize from criminals are completely non-functional!
- See more at: http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/node/8579#sthash.RjkSiUoW.dpuf

Many robbers never believe that anything is going to go wrong in their conception of what will happen when they are in the process of committing crimes, so they are comfortable with using toy or fake guns.   A surprising number of robbers use guns that are not loaded, guns loaded with the wrong ammunition, or loaded with much less than full capacity.  In one of the few studies to consider how criminals are armed, Greg Ellifritz, from a small midwestern police department found this:

Out of 85 weapons seized:

- 24 are not loaded

- 2 are not loaded with the correct ammunition

- 9 are completely broken

Combine those facts and you will see that 41% of the weapons we seize from criminals are completely non-functional!

No one has developed a national database on this, so there could be considerable variation.   Still, it is interesting information.

It might be wise to encourage this trend.   If a criminal's gun is fake or does not work, people cannot be shot with them.  The down side for the criminal is that a person who cannot tell if the gun is fake or not would be prudent in assuming that the gun is real and loaded, thus increasing the chance of the criminal being shot.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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