Senate Passes Bill Banning Threats With Toy Guns

SACRAMENTO — Legislation making it illegal to use a replica of a firearm in a threatening manner was unanimously approved by the Senate on Thursday.

A 37-0 vote returned the proposal to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments.

Passage of the bill, by Assemblyman Curtis Tucker (D-Inglewood), the victim of an attempted robbery by a youth brandishing a realistic but phony pistol, followed by two days similar action by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The supervisors’ vote came on the heels of an on-the-air incident in which television personality David Horowitz was forced by an intruder to read a rambling statement at gunpoint. The pistol turned out to be a toy gun.

Tucker’s bill would make it a misdemeanor, punishable by a jail term, fine or both, to brandish a firearm replica in such a way as to cause a “reasonable person apprehension or fear of bodily harm.”

Supporters of the bill noted that a young man in San Bernardino was shot dead earlier this year by a police officer who mistakenly believed that the victim’s laser tag toy gun was a real firearm.

Tucker introduced the bill last January after an incident in the parking lot of an Inglewood grocery store. He was accosted by a young man wielding what appeared to be a firearm, Tucker aide Tracy St. Julien said. She said Tucker disarmed the man and found that the weapon was not real, but she said the incident “really scared” the 69-year-old legislator.