Law enforcement says fake and real guns can look dangerously similar

After an early morning shooting in Sturgeon Thursday where a police officer shot a man brandishing a BB gun, ABC17 News is looking into how difficult or easy it might be to tell the difference between a BB gun and a real firearm.

“This firearm at first glance, when I saw it, looked like a real firearm capable of lethal force,” said Detective Tom O’Sullivan with the Boone County Sheriff’s Department.

Federal law states that since a BB gun is not considered a toy, it doesn’t have to be labeled with an orange tip or anything distinguishing it from a real gun.

Officers in the field often don’t have the time to spot the difference.

“That’s a part of this job, making split-second decisions sometimes involving life or death,” said O’Sullivan.

Mike O’Dell at the Black Rifle gun store said the BB guns are often made to look as similar to a real firearm as possible, but sometimes that has dangerous consequences.

“I’ve looked at BB guns for years and seen some of them out there that are licensed by manufacturers of it,” he said. “They’re made to be replicas of it. It’s still dangerous”

O’Dell said since it’s hard to tell point-blank the difference between a fake and a real gun, it’s much more difficult to identify it when an officer is out in the field.

“They arrive to a call, already knowing the world has more tension than it did just a few weeks ago, and now they know they’ve got a guy that is possibly intoxicated, that is being violent and now all of a sudden you introduce something that looks like a handgun,” said O’Dell. “In that split-second, is that a decision you’d be able to make?”