Nov 1, 2006 7:16 pm US/Eastern
Holmdel Police Find Teens Carry Replica Handguns
by Jay Dow
HOLMDEL, N.J. (CBS) ―
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Holmdel police say some teens are carrying replica handguns that still pose dangerous threats to others.
AP
The Holmdel Police Department laid out four weapons on a table for CBS 2 News' Jay Dow today -- two of them real, the other two replicas -- all to prove a point.
"Tell me if you can distinguish between the real gun and the replica," Sergeant Jim Smythe said.
Dow correctly picked out a real assault rifle, but with two handguns next to one another, he couldn't pick out the replica.
Holmdel police say they've confiscated several metal 9-millimeter look-alikes, but the most shocking part about it is the replicas have all come from teenagers.
Not only do they look and feel like just like a police service Beretta, but they actually can do some
real damage. It's clip holds plastic BBs which travel at speeds up to 500 feet per second.
Sgt. Smythe says the teens even filed off the gun's orange safety tip -- which is required by law -- to give it a more authentic look.
"If one of these gets pointed at a law enforcement officer, that's what we're concerned about," Smythe said.
Holmdel residents are also concerned about the recent findings. "We've gotta take some real serious steps to confiscate them, find out where they're coming from," Donna Erskine said.
Detectives say parents need look no further than the family computer. They say teens are purchasing these guns off the Internet, no questions asked.
"Even though it's fake, it looks real, and they could get arrested for that, and that ruins their whole life," Highland Park resident Stephanie Vawter said.
One website simply warns that "it is the responsibility of buyers to check state, national, and local laws regarding these items."
"This is like behavior that I don't expect around here," Erskine said.
Neither does the Holmdel police department, which is why it's working to discourage teens from carrying the fake guns before one of them ends up staring down the wrong end of a real weapon.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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