Replica guns common in Regina crimes: Police chief

On Friday, police discovered the gun at the centre of calls and a lockdown at a Regina high school was actually a replica — an Airsoft gun — and it’s certainly not the first time one of those has been part of an incident.

Regina Police Service Chief Evan Bray said it’s very common to see replica guns used in crimes.

“It’s a serious problem and I think it’s something that we have to be aware of,” Bray said after Tuesday’s Board of Police Commissioners meeting.

Though the guns may be fake, Bray said the consequences they bring are very real.

He talked about the families of students at F.W. Johnson Collegiate on Friday.

“They were absolutely grief-stricken, worried, upset (and) panicked,” Bray said. “There were all kinds of challenges that happened in the community. And learning after the fact that it was an Airsoft doesn’t take away all of those feelings. They’ve gone through all of those emotions and challenges.”

For the suspect, they can include charges — the 13-year-old girl arrested on Friday in the situation at F.W. Johnson is being charged with several weapons offences.

And sometimes there are more serious consequences. Bray said he can think of times that an Airsoft was used to intimidate a person who didn’t know it was a replica, and then there was retaliation a couple of days later.

Bray said it also worries him, thinking about the consequences when police come upon someone with a replica gun that they don’t know is a replica.

It can be incredibly difficult to tell if a gun is real or fake, according to Bray, even for police.

“Even a toy firearm today could look very, very real depending on how it’s been modified to look,” said Bray.

“Oftentimes we can even show police officers who deal with firearms and weapons in our community regularly two pictures, and it’s very tough, unless you study carefully, to see which one is real and which one is not.”

In a traumatic situation, Bray said officers don’t take time to stare and see if it’s real, they just react.

Replica guns add a lot of complexity to the community, said Bray, and they’re fairly easy to get; they’re available at sporting goods stores and don’t have the same restrictions around ownership and storage as real guns.

That’s why Bray said it’s important to educate youth on the challenges replica guns can pose, their proper use, and the consequences that can arise from their misuse.