By Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- When gunshots recently rang out in West Philadelphia, responding officers were prepared for a dangerous situation. But instead police found that a teenager had simply been firing blank rounds from a gun bought off the Internet.
Now police are warning parents that blank firing guns, which produce the smoke and sonic bang of a real weapon, could force police into a tragic shoot-off with a child with a fake firearm.
Police responding to the fake shooting this month found an 18-year-old with a silver 9 mm handgun. Capt. Gregory Malkowski, a 17-year police veteran, said he couldn’t tell it was a fake from even 5 feet away. If the teen had pointed the gun at him, Malkowski said, his reaction would have been immediate.
“I’m going to shoot instantly, without a doubt. It looks so real,” he said. “Parents should watch when their kids are on the Internet. What they buy could get them killed.”
Philadelphia police and other experts say they haven’t seen a rash of people using blank guns, but Malkowski said he fears a trend could develop given how inexpensive the guns are -- they start around $50 -- and how easy it is to buy them on the Internet.
Blank firing guns are used for everything from military funerals and military training exercises to theater and movie productions.
Some Internet businesses say they screen out buyers who might use the guns for mischief. R.J. Owens, co-owner of San Francisco-based gunblanks.com, said he verifies buyers’ identities and interests before selling a gun. About 10 times a month he refuses to make a sale, he said.
“There’s a big wave of, how do I put this nicely, of the undesirable element trying to buy blank guns for illicit purposes,” Owens said. “You have these people who call up and say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I want to get me one of those 9 millimeters.’ And you say, ‘Which one?’ And they say, ‘I don’t care, just one that’s big and shiny.’
“If I get a bad vibe I say, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t make the sale.”’
But while Owens carefully screens buyers, he said he doubts all his competitors do. And, he points out, there are dozens of blank guns for sale on eBay.
Experts say they see a parallel between problems with blank guns and kids carrying toy guns, which can lead to accidental shootings by police who think they’re facing a live firearm.
Because police have so little time to decide whether to fire at a suspect, blank and toy guns cause great concern, said Alan Lizotte, a criminal justice professor specializing in gun ownership at the State University of New York at Albany.
“You get (police officers) to describe for the class what happened when there was a shooting ... they’ll give you a 20 minute description of how it happened,” Lizotte said. “And then the students will ask how long did the situation take, and they’ll say 2 1/2 seconds. The people with the blank guns and the toy guns don’t think about that.”
Malkowski said he wants to educate parents and other officers about the potential dangers of blank guns before someone gets hurt. He said he’s looking into a larger educational program to get the word out.
“They’re not blank guns like we used to have. They’re not plastic any more. They look realistic,” he said.