NORTH BAY – North Bay Police and the OPP have raised concerns over the amount of fake guns they're finding when arresting individuals.
Police officials say these imitation firearms are often extremely difficult to distinguish between real guns and have increased the difficulty for officers to decide whether or not to use force when they stumble upon one in the hands of a suspect.
"For police officers to make that split second decision, whether it's in broad daylight or dark hours, is a very difficult decision to make. We train our officers to act quickly in life threatening situations," explained Scott Tod, North Bay Police Chief. "We've had robberies that have occurred, we've had home invasions that have occurred all with the use of imitation firearms and we've had legitimate, real firearms used also."
Police put a few of the fake guns they’ve seized on display along with one real semi-automatic C8 rifle to highlight how close in comparison they look.
(The legitimate semi-automatic C8 rifle sits in the middle of the display while the remainder of the guns are fake)
Officers say the production of these imitation guns can be done in several different ways, even further increasing the difficulty to tell the difference between what's real and what's not.
"You have your traditional manufacturer, then they make different adaptive things to make a weapon from a semi-automatic, and then you have different techniques with 3D printers now that can actually produce firearms, which is a real concern," said Karl Thomas, OPP Acting Chief Superintendent.
Tod said that to his surprise, they have even come across zip guns that are "homemade and fire a single round at a time."
He also notes that these firearms, both real and fake, come from various places, but many of the ones they've seized over the last while have come from the Greater Toronto Area.
