Stratford police are pushing for more education surrounding the use and safe handling of replica firearms.
It comes after an incident on March 26, which saw officers searching for a man carrying a gun in a busy commercial area in the city, triggering a large response including Stratford and Perth County OPP officers.
The man was located and police seized a replica Glock pellet gun.
“They look as real as ours and they’re really hard to differentiate between which is real, which is fake,” said Inspector Mark Taylor, describing the differences between an issued police pistol and the seized pellet gun shown during a demonstration Thursday.
Given the similarities between a real firearm and replica, Taylor says police cannot change their training methods to respond to firearm threats.
“We train to react to that gun. That to me, that’s a firearm from here, from 2 feet away, that’s a firearm. And whoever’s holding that is a potential massive threat to me,” said Taylor.
“Until you start manipulating that weapon and using it just by the feel and the weight to it, it’s very difficult to differentiate,” added Constable Darren Fischer.
Police said they are planning on developing flyers with community partners that will be handed to anyone purchasing similar items.
“We want to provide information that’s going to help individuals be able to utilize these devices in a safe manner, allow them to recognize what the possible repercussions could be, in regards to the police response and hopefully prevent further incidents from happening,” said Fischer.
Fischer said no charges were laid in the incident as the firearm was a replica and not real.
“The individual was cooperative with police and we were able to seize that firearm to ensure that there would be no further risk going forward,” said Fischer.
Taylor said 11 officers attended the incident and thanked Perth OPP for responding.
