PEDIATRICS Vol. 81 No. 2 February 1988, pp. 316-317
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Plastic Handguns That Resemble Toy Guns: New Technology Creates a Uniquely Hazardous Product

GAREN J. WINTEMUTE MD, MPH1, STEPHEN P. TERET JD, MPH2, and JESS F. KRAUS PHD, MPH3

1 University of California, Davis Medical Center, Sacramento
2 School of Hygiene and Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
3 School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles

Pediatricians are well aware that handguns are a hazard for children.1-3 This hazard exists, in part, because children cannot reliably differentiate between realistic toy guns and real guns.2-5 Moreover, children holding toy guns have on occasion appeared to highly trained adults to be truly armed, often with tragic results2 (Time Magazine, April 20, 1987, p 33; Sacramento Bee, July 31, 1987, p 1).

It is less well known that real handguns made almost entirely of plastic may soon enter the marketplace, making the differentiation of real guns from toy guns immensely more difficult. The physical characteristics of these guns, and the likelihood of their promotion as a new means of personal and household defense, will almost certainly result in increased shootings of children (and of others by children).




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T. L. Cheng, R. A. Brenner, J. L. Wright, H. C. Sachs, P. Moyer, and M. Rao
Community Norms on Toy Guns
Pediatrics, January 1, 2003; 111(1): 75 - 79.
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