EUGENE, Ore. (KMTR) -- Eugene Police are reminding parents and kids about the rules of replica, pellet shooting guns after an emergency response in North Eugene on Friday.
EPD officers raced to North Eugene High School after 3 p.m. on Friday, June 8th, 2012, after someone called 911 with a report of two juvenile teenagers spotted with guns on school grounds.
The guns turned out to be plastic guns and were not harmful. Police spoke with the suspect, but no one was arrested.
Plastic pellet shooters, which are typically called “airsoft guns” are popular recreational toys to have around. Many people even modify the guns as well, painting the orange safety tips to make the guns look more realistic.
Eugene Police says if you have a realistic toy gun, don’t modify it and its best not to even show it in public.
Police say people and officers can be put in a dangerous situation if someone sees the gun and misunderstands what level of harm the device can inflict. Officers treat any “armed subject” as potentially dangerous and every gun as if it is real.
“It'll depend on what the person is doing with the gun but we have to respond, if we get called to a situation, we have to respond as though it's a real gun until we can figure out what is going on with the situation. So if its a BB gun, we don't want to be putting people in the position of having cops show up and treat them in a manner that it is an actual firing gun,” says Officer Josh Sundquist of the Eugene Police Department.
Replica plastic shooting BB guns are also illegal to fire in the Eugene city limits anywhere outside of a shooting range. A violation can result in a fine of up to a few hundred dollars.
North Eugene High School was not put in lockdown following the incident, as class had already been released for the day when police responded to the school.
