Man Painted Handgun Red to Resemble Toy

[JP8]

We should have background checks for red and orange paint.

Police: Man Painted Handgun Red to Resemble Toy
CINCINNATI — Dec 12, 2014, 6:44 PM ET
By DAN SEWELL Associated Press
Associated Press

Southwest Ohio authorities said Friday they arrested a man with a loaded handgun painted red to resemble a toy.

The arrest came just four days after legislation was introduced in the state to require that lookalike guns be brightly colored or otherwise marked. Ohio lawmakers took up the bill following two police fatal shootings of young people carrying lookalike guns in recent months.

Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil said it's "a scary thought" that guns would be painted to mislead police.

Police responding to a call about a man with a gun said they found Orlando Lowery, 23, with a .380-caliber handgun painted red and 9 grams of cocaine. No attorney was listed for Lowery, who was jailed on a concealed weapons charge and a drug count.

The bill, introduced Monday by Rep. Alicia Reece, would require all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns stand out in color or have prominent fluorescent strips. The Cincinnati Democrat named the bill after 22-year-old John Crawford III, who was carrying an air rifle this summer in a suburban Dayton Wal-Mart store when he was fatally shot by police. Police said they thought Crawford had an assault rifle. Last month, a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun in Cleveland was fatally shot by police.

The legislation was modeled after a California law. Several other states and cities have similar laws.

Some opponents of the bill have expressed skepticism about whether such measures would be effective in preventing fatal shootings, and some have suggested that criminals would try to disguise weapons to cause police to hesitate.

The sheriff said his office wouldn't get into the debate over the bill, but would provide some facts about the arrest.

"And the fact is right here in Hamilton County, we arrested a dangerous individual who we believe purposefully painted a loaded handgun red to mislead law enforcement into thinking this was a toy gun," Neil said in statement.

[DavidTM]

Well, you can't arrest a guy for being creative. Plus....he didn't get shot.

[Hodgie]

Impossible we all know that orange and red guns are fakes because the liberals said they had to be and we all know that even criminals wont do anything that the liberals put into law because it will only save lives! This has to be some kind of mistake.

[NathanB]

I bet it was one of those cobra 380s and not painted at all

[raxar]

I bet it was one of those cobra 380s and not painted at all

Exactly what I was thinking.



He should have went with the blue though, he could have earned the street name "papa smurf"

also

[G17-5291]

Exactly what I was thinking.



He should have went with the blue though, he could have earned the street name "papa smurf"

also

Nothing like a 2 pound .380 that holds 6 rounds and feeds from a mag made out of tin foil.

I'm glad that guy has one, when he tries to rob somebody with it there's an 85 percent chance it won't fire and it'll give the victim time to pull his 1911 out.

[forby]

OH NO!!!!!!!

Here comes the ban on non-black guns.....

[jakebrake]

and, they DIDN'T expect this? as soon as they announced that latest feel-good measure, i knew someone would do it . just a question of when

[NathanB]

It actually was a cobra 380 like we speculated. I know a lot of race guns and whatnot that aren't black

[USMC3531]

or they just hide their gun inside a toy gun....