PC: Green Bay Police Department
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — The Green Bay Police Department is warning the community on the dangers of gel blasters or water bead blaster toy guns.
These toy guns are designed to shoot small and colorful beads that can expand up to 100 times their original size when soaked in water. Once hydrated, the beads can be loaded into the toy and the trigger pull causes the compressed air to push the bead out. Some models may project beads up to 60 feet.
These toys are designed for safe, supervised play. Improper use, such as aiming at a person’s face or sensitive body parts can lead to serious injuries. Additionally, play resulting in property damage or playing in inappropriate settings, such as near traffic or in public areas such as parks, may be subject to law violations.
Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis says they’re seeing an alarming increase in incidents involving gel blasters.
“We really want the public to understand how dangerous this is, especially when there are cars involved there could be a traffic collision, you could get somebody hurt, and we don’t even want to think about what could happen if somebody mistook one of these toy guns for something real. That could be a tragic outcome.”
If a toy gun is used improperly, the following citations could occur:
947.01 Disorderly Conduct.
(1) Whoever, in a public or private place, engages in violent, abusive, indecent, profane, boisterous, unreasonably loud or otherwise disorderly conduct under
circumstances in which the conduct tends to cause or provoke a disturbance is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor.
940.19 Battery; Substantial Battery; Aggravated Battery.
(1) Whoever causes bodily harm to another by an act done with intent to cause bodily harm to that person or another without the consent of the person so harmed is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.
(2) Whoever causes substantial bodily harm to another by an act done with intent to cause bodily harm to that person or another is guilty of a Class I felony.
941.2965 Restrictions on use of Facsimile Firearms.
(1) In this section, “facsimile firearm” means any replica, toy, starter pistol or other object that bears a reasonable resemblance to or that reasonably can be perceived to be an actual firearm. “Facsimile firearm” does not include any actual firearm.
(2) No person may carry or display a facsimile firearm in a manner that could reasonably be expected to alarm, intimidate, threaten or terrify another person. Whoever violates this section is subject to a Class C forfeiture.
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