- By Barbara Stewart, Courtesy of
The New York TimesSports Authority Inc., a chain of
sports-equipment stores, was cited by the city yesterday for selling
imitation semiautomatic machine guns that are strikingly similar to
the real thing, the Department of Consumer Affairs said.
"These are very dangerous," Gretchen Dykstra, the consumer affairs
commissioner, said yesterday morning as she stood outside a Manhattan
Sports Authority store with two of the black aluminum-and-plastic guns
displayed on the sidewalk. "People have been walking by and looking at
these and saying, `They've got real guns!' "
The fake weapons violate a New York law forbidding the sale or
ownership of imitation guns that are realistic-looking and are painted
black or gray. To be legal, an imitation gun must be unmistakably
fake, she said, and must be either brightly colored, fancifully shaped
or both.
The imitation semiautomatics, which are called markers, are not
meant to be children's toys, and are used for the war game paintball —
a cross between capture the flag and a skirmish exercise, in which
players try to make it to home base without being blasted by pellets
filled with fluorescent goo.
The imitation weapons are neither inexpensive nor simple. The cost
of one on display yesterday was $250, and descriptions on the box said
it was powered by a carbon dioxide device, had a range of 150 feet and
included features like sighting devices and a quick-release feeder for
ammunition.
The imitation semiautomatics at the Sports Authority stores in
Queens were discovered by happenstance, when a city employee noticed
an advertisement for one in the newspaper. The city has issued
subpoenas to Tippman Pneumatics Inc. in Indiana and Kingman
International Corporation in California, which make the guns in the
Queens store, to see if they are being sold in other New York stores.
A hearing for Sports Authority has been scheduled for Nov. 8. The
company could face fines as high as $200,000.
Frank Bubb, a Sports Authority spokesman, said sales of the
imitation guns had been suspended in the Queens stores.
"This is the first time anything like this has ever come up," he
said. "I don't know of any other state or city with a law like that.
We intend to cooperate with New York in any way we can."
Ms. Dykstra said: "Even if it weren't illegal to possess these, it
completely violates common sense. Look at them. Could they look more
real? They're really scary. Can you imagine what would happen if
somebody went out on the street or down in the subway carrying one of
those things?"
UPDATE: If you would like to sign an online
petition to support Sports Authority, Kingman, and Tippmann, please
visit
http://www.petitiononline.com/pb101/petition.html. Special
thanks to David Alexander for bringing this to our attention.
