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This bill would require the exterior of all imitation firearms (specifically toy guns) to be painted a brightly colored orange or similar fluorescent shade to distinguish them from real firearms.

Introduced in response to the killings of several young men — including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, 13-year-old Andy Lopez, and 22-year-old John Crawford — who were all shot and killed by police while holding toy look-alike weapons. Law enforcement officers in all cases mistakenly took the imitation firearms for real weapons.

This bill would allow for the Secretary of Commerce and Consumer Product Safety Commission to regulate the manufacturing of all look-alike weapons to have an easily distinguishable paint color.

Under current law, only the tip of toy guns must be painted bright orange. That distinguishing feature has proven to be easy to remove. Even so, proponents of the bill claim that even the orange tip is not visible enough for police officers to differentiate imitations from real guns in a matter of seconds.

","official_title":"A bill to improve requirements for entering into commerce of imitation firearms, and for other purposes.","short_title":"Look-Alike Weapons Safety Act of 2015","popular_title":null,"short_summary":"Look-Alike Weapons Safety Act of 2015 \n\nAmends the Federal Energy Management Improvement Act of 1988 to prohibit manufacturing, entering into commerce, shipping, transporting, or receiving any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm unless the permanent color of the entire exterior surface is white, bright orange, or another specified predominant bright color. (Currently, imitation firearms are required to have only an orange plug inserted into the barrel.)\n\nRevises the definition of \"look-alike firearm\" to include traditional B-B and pellet-firing air guns that expel a projectile through the force of air pressure. Maintains the exclusion of paint-ball guns.","summarized":true,"cost":null,"cost_commentary":"A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.","impact":"People who use imitation firearms, manufacturers and producers of those products, law enforcement officers, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. ","argument_for":"12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot in November 2014, by police who mistakenly thought he was holding a real gun. It was a realistic black airsoft gun. If this toy were more visibly harmless, perhaps he would still be alive.","argument_against":"Current law around imitation firearms is adequate. Painting all \"toy guns\" bright colors will only give the general public and police officers a false sense of safety — and hurt the imitation firearm industry. 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Should All Imitation Firearms Have To Be Brightly Colored?