Arlington police are facing a growing problem of fake and replica guns being used in crimes.
“We seized 12 guns last year that ended up being fake or replica-style guns that were used in aggravated robberies,” Lt. Chis Cook said. “That’s a lot. That’s almost one a month.”
Cook theorized that the true number could actually be even larger.
“That’s just the ones we know about. A lot of time when we are interviewing crime victims, [they] just report it as a firearm,” he said. “If we don’t make an arrest or if we don’t actually seize that weapon, we may never know that that was a fake gun.”
“I think criminals have figured out, ‘If I can’t get a real gun, I’ll get a fake one and they look so real that I’m going to be able to use it in a criminal offense,'” Cook added.
Cook said these replicas are very realistic and could cause major issues. He used an example of a teen carrying a fake gun and approaching an officer.
“Luck was on our side because the officer was in such close proximity, he was able to knock the gun from the teens hands,” he said. “This is just an incident waiting to happen; where we are going to have a deadly use of force encounter between a citizen or an officer and one of these suspects that have a fake gun."
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Arlington police are now actively seeking legislative change, according to Cook.
“Not only on the individual level where if you use a fake gun there can be enhanced penalties and stuff like that in the commission of an offense, but also on the manufacturing side,” he said. “That’s where we want some accountability on the manufacturers. Do these guns have to look so authentic that when you are presented with it on the street that the public and officers alike believe that it is real? Our argument is no.”
