28 people holding BB/pellet guns were killed by police in US this year

[Luiz 4,253]

Police officers in the US have in 2015 killed at least 28 people holding BB or pellet guns comparable to the one Tamir Rice was carrying when he was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio.

The steady stream of fatalities, recorded by a Guardian investigation into all deaths caused by law enforcement, has prompted some lawmakers and campaigners to push for tighter regulations on the design of non-lethal guns that often closely resemble real firearms.

Announcing on Monday that the officers involved in Rice’s November 2014 deathwould not face criminal charges, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Timothy McGinty, said: “I want to call on the legislature and the manufacturers of toy guns not to make guns that look so much like the real thing.”

On Friday, a new law aiming to ensure this will go into effect in California. It bars the sale of BB guns unless the “entire exterior surface of the device is white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink, or bright purple, either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other colors in any pattern”, or it is transparent.

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States in 2015 – interactive

The Guardian is counting the people killed by US law enforcement agencies this year. Read their stories and contribute to our ongoing, crowdsourced project

 

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Support for the measure, which was signed in September last year by Governor Jerry Brown, increased after the fatal shooting by police in Sonoma County of Andy Lopez, a 13-year-old boy who was carrying a plastic toy gun that resembled an AK-47 rifle.

Local activist Marni Wroth said in the wake of Andy’s death regulating toy guns has never been a priority for activists, who have instead prioritized advocating for greater oversight of police use of force. Wroth said McGinty was “deflecting” by calling on toy gun manufacturers to change, and that the primary issue remained with police policy.

“That, to me, is just a smoke and mirrors thing,” she said.

The sheriff’s deputy who killed Lopez in October 2013 said that the barrel of Lopez’s toy gun moved towards him and another officer when Lopez turned around, after the deputy shouted at him to drop the weapon. That officer, Erick Gelhaus, didn’t face any criminal charges.

About nine months later, 22-year-old John Crawford was shot dead in a Walmart superstore near Dayton, Ohio, while speaking on his cellphone and holding a pellet rifle he had picked up from a shelf. Surveillance footage showed Crawford was shot almost instantly as he tried to run away when an armed officer advancing down an aisle towards him shouted an order. A grand jury decided not to indict the officers in that case.

Several deaths this year involved people who placed officers in difficult situations by wielding pellet guns while allegedly pretending to be armed with a genuine firearm. But other cases have raised more questions about the actions of responding officers.

Tiano Meton was killed by Border Patrol agents in January after refusing to stop at a checkpoint in Texas, authorities said. Officers pursued Meton for about 30 miles before Meton drove off the road. When agents approached Meton’s stopped car, one yelled “gun!” prompting two agents to open fire, according to the Hudspeth County Herald. Investigators later said that a “pistol-shaped pellet gun” was found in Meton’s car.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/dec/29/28-people-killed-bb-pellet-guns-police-tamir-rice

[uo111 5,282]

You can't really expect police to not fear for their life when everyone and their grandmother have guns and are trigger happy with em.

Then you give people fake guns that look real, and blame the police for thinking they are real.

It doesn't work that way. People who think this is just a police problem are completely out of touch with reality. It's a combination of a lot of different things that have lead to this, and expecting one facet of the issue to solve the entire problem is stupid.

[TiphEret 1,320]

1 hour ago, uo111 said:

You can't really expect police to not fear for their life when everyone and their grandmother have guns and are trigger happy with em.

Then you give people fake guns that look real, and blame the police for thinking they are real.

It doesn't work that way. People who think this is just a police problem are completely out of touch with reality. It's a combination of a lot of different things that have lead to this, and expecting one facet of the issue to solve the entire problem is stupid.

I agree with you it's not just a police problem but I am sure they are also trained to shoot not to kill? 

[AlexanderLevi2 5,849]

1 hour ago, uo111 said:

You can't really expect police to not fear for their life when everyone and their grandmother have guns and are trigger happy with em.

Then you give people fake guns that look real, and blame the police for thinking they are real.

It doesn't work that way. People who think this is just a police problem are completely out of touch with reality. It's a combination of a lot of different things that have lead to this, and expecting one facet of the issue to solve the entire problem is stupid.

I agree that it's not just a police problem but it is a BIG problem. When I was younger, I was always told to never question a police officer but EVERYTHING should be questioned. There's a TON of shady **** that happens within the police.

[Goosey 3,017]

Tamir Rice gun:

 

[uo111 5,282]

12 hours ago, TiphEret said:

I agree with you it's not just a police problem but I am sure they are also trained to shoot not to kill? 

They are trained to shoot to kill (it's the only safe option if the other party has a weapon) but they are also trained to only shoot if their life is threatened.

The second part of that is where they mess up. 

12 hours ago, AlexanderLevi2 said:

I agree that it's not just a police problem but it is a BIG problem. When I was younger, I was always told to never question a police officer but EVERYTHING should be questioned. There's a TON of shady **** that happens within the police.

You still shouldn't run from them or resist them because even if it is illegal for them to shoot you while you are running (it is, btw), they are still just people with a gun at the end of the day.

When people say that, I like to think they are recognizing that a police officer has a deadly weapon, not suggesting that they can do no wrong. 

[LePetitGAGABLover 21,234]

14 hours ago, uo111 said:

You can't really expect police to not fear for their life when everyone and their grandmother have guns and are trigger happy with em.

Then you give people fake guns that look real, and blame the police for thinking they are real.

It doesn't work that way. People who think this is just a police problem are completely out of touch with reality. It's a combination of a lot of different things that have lead to this, and expecting one facet of the issue to solve the entire problem is stupid.

You should run for president. This is the best thing I've heard about the gun problem in America.

Republicans blame guns and people, while Democrats blame police and the 2nd Amendment.