City Council: Fake Guns Should Look Fake

Los Angeles officials announced plans Friday to ask state lawmakers to bolster a bill to require fake guns to be made in bright colors.

A police officer told the City Council's Public Safety Committee an ordinance being written at the city level would be more effective than State Bill 199.

The city's pending ordinance would require companies such as Airsoft, which makes  paintball guns that look like semiautomatic rifles, and the makers of BB guns to produce those products only in bright orange or green.

SB 199 would allow a wider palette of colors, the officer said.

State law prohibits real guns from being made in bright orange and green, so the city's proposed ordinance would be more effective in preventing police officers from mistaking a fake gun for a real one, police said.

The city ordinance also would prohibit the open display of fake guns.

Public Safety Committee members said they would wait to see what happens with SB 199 before acting on the city ordinance, but they suggested the City Council come up with a resoluton in support amending the bill.

City Councilman Mitch Englander, the committee's chair, said when he goes to Sacramento to lobby for funding to fix city streets, he will meet with the bill's sponsors to ask for the changes.

The committee voted to recommend the City Council table ordinance for the time being.