Mobile ice cream vendors in San Diego would be barred from selling toy guns

(lets see now - ban assault weapons because they are never used in crime and ban toy guns because someone might use it to commit a crime - BUT never able to shoot it unless it was a water gun and then . . ad et nosiam!)

SAN DIEGO – Mobile ice cream vendors in San Diego would be barred from selling toy guns that resemble the real things under a proposed ordinance that was unanimously approved by a City Council committee Wednesday.

The Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee voted 3-0 to amend an existing law to specifically forbid mobile street vendors from selling anything but food or candy.

The guns “look so realistic” that if someone stuck one in their waistband and flashed a jacket open, the average citizen couldn't tell whether it was a real firearm, Maienschein said.

At a City Hall news conference Tuesday to promote the changes, city and law enforcement officials displayed samples of the toy guns, which could easily be mistaken by police officers as the real thing.

According to the chief of the San Diego Unified School District Police Department, 37 of the fake weapons have been seized from students over the past year, most of them coming from ice cream trucks.

“We are very fortunate that we have not had a tragedy as a result of these,” SDUSD police Chief Don Braun said.

San Diego Police Department Chief William Lansdowne said the replica guns, which cost between $10 and $100, not only pose a “huge problem” in the city of San Diego, but also around the country.

“It's young kids using these types of look-alike guns that are committing street robberies, who are taking them to school,” he said yesterday.

Maienschein said fake guns are available through other sources, but ice cream vendors are the primary source for children.

The amended law will be considered by the full city council in about 30 days, Maienschein said.

The councilman said notices have already been sent to vendors notifying them of the proposed law. If the ordinance changes are approved, the SDPD's Vice Unit would begin random inspections of ice cream trucks. Violation would be a misdemeanor.

State law already prohibits the sale of imitation firearms, with exceptions for theatrical productions, military ceremonies, out-of-state sales, sporting events and school anti-gun displays.