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NEWSPAPER EDITORIAL QUESTIONS MAKERS OF GUN IN GONZALEZ SHOOTING
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<div id="komoona_cboxOverlay" style="display: none; height: 100%; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: fixed; top: 0px; width: 100%; z-index: 9999;"></div><div id="komoona_colorbox" style="display: none; left: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 50px; padding-right: 50px; position: fixed; top: 0px; z-index: 9999;"><div id="komoona_cboxWrapper" style="left: 0px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 0px; z-index: 9999;"><div><div id="komoona_cboxTopLeft" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) no-repeat 0px 0px; float: left; height: 25px; width: 25px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxTopCenter" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) repeat-x 0px -50px; float: left; height: 25px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxTopRight" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) no-repeat -25px 0px; float: left; height: 25px; width: 25px;"></div></div><div style="clear: left;"><div id="komoona_cboxMiddleLeft" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border2.png&quot;) repeat-y 0px 0px; float: left; width: 25px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxContent" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: left; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div id="komoona_cboxLoadedContent" style="height: 0px; overflow: hidden; width: 0px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxLoadingOverlay" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/loading.gif&quot;) no-repeat 5px 5px rgb(255, 255, 255); left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 100%;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxLoadingGraphic" style="left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 100%;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxClose" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/controls.png&quot;) -50px 0px; cursor: pointer; height: 20px; position: absolute; right: 2px; text-indent: -9999px; top: 1px; width: 20px;"></div></div><div id="komoona_cboxMiddleRight" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border2.png&quot;) repeat-y -25px 0px; float: left; width: 25px;"></div></div><div style="clear: left;"><div id="komoona_cboxBottomLeft" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) no-repeat 0px -25px; float: left; height: 25px; width: 25px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxBottomCenter" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) repeat-x 0px -75px; float: left; height: 25px;"></div><div id="komoona_cboxBottomRight" style="background: url(&quot;http://dimrh7ecexr02.cloudfront.net/images/komoona_colorbox/border1.png&quot;) no-repeat -25px -25px; float: left; height: 25px; width: 25px;"></div></div></div><div style="display: none; position: absolute; visibility: hidden; width: 9999px;"></div></div>Editor <strong>Hasso Hering</strong><br />Demnocrat-Herald<br />Albany, New York<br /><br />Some news reports on the police shooting of a teenage boy in a Brownsville, Texas, middle school were a little confused about pellet guns.<br />The boy, Jaime Gonzalez, was shot and killed when he refused to obey police commands to put down his weapon. Our Associated Press story this last Friday said the incident “raised questions about whether pellet guns should be marked in a way that would easily distinguish them from real handguns.”<br />What the boy actually had, according to an account in the New York Times, was not a pellet gun but a Umarex SA177, which is a CO2-powered, .117-caliber BB gun that looks like a Glock. It shoots steel BBs, not pellets.<br />Another Associated Press report, though not in our paper, said that “under federal law, pellet or BB guns must be sold with an orange band around the tip of the barrel so they can be distinguished from real weapons. But law enforcement experts say users often remove the bands, and the coloring can sometimes be hard to see. Gonzalez’s gun had no markings, according to (the police chief).”<br />Federal law does require that certain toy and replica guns, including air-soft guns, be equipped with a blaze orange muzzle. But the law specifically says it does not apply to guns that shoot metal projectiles such as BBs or pellets. These are usually made to resemble the firearms under whose names they are marketed. They are meant to look like firearms because that’s what the collectors want.<br />The most salient point, though, is this: Pellet- or BB-firing handguns powered by compressed air or carbon-dioxide cartridges are not marked as toys because toys they are not.<br />Many come with a warning on the box or on the barrel that says, more or less in these words: “Not a toy. Improper handling may cause serious injury or death.”<br />The unfortunate Texas teenager’s family, understandably, wondered why the officers shot him when he had “only a pellet gun.”<br />What he had was no firearm but nevertheless a real gun, and when he pointed it at them, the officers had no choice but to react.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6016803033174468094-4497146449402979927?l=rrunrrun.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>
LINK: http://rrunrrun.blogspot.com/2012/01/newspaper-editorial-questions-makers-of.html

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