Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

Is this gun real? Take the quiz ....

Can you differentiate between a toy gun and a real one?

Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association President Steve Loomis says that in many cases it’s nearly impossible – even for a trained police officer – to tell the difference simply by observing them.

Loomis supplied the Northeast Ohio Media Group with the following photos of guns in the Cleveland police evidence room and challenged us to determine which are real and which are not.

“Police officers get it wrong,” Loomis said. “On many of these, you can’t look at them and explain why one looks more real than another. You’re absolutely just guessing.”

So go ahead. Take a guess. Is this gun real or fake? Then scroll to the next slide to see if you were right.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

This gun is fake.

Federal law requires that toy or imitation guns be sold with orange tips on the barrels, but the tips can be removed or painted. Such was the case with the gun pictured here, which is missing its orange tip.

In November, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed when Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann mistook Tamir’s airsoft- pellet gun for a real one. Tamir’s toy gun also lacked the telltale orange tip.

The shooting stirred debate over the dangers of realistic toy guns and whether laws should require manufacturers to design them in a way that clearly differentiates them from real firearms.

Scroll to the next slide to see another gun and take another guess.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

State Rep. Alicia Reece, a Democrat from Cincinnati, announced in November that she will introduce legislation requiring all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns sold in Ohio to be brightly colored or have prominent fluorescent strips.

Is the gun pictured here real or a replica? Make your guess.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

It’s a replica.

Loomis said he believes the legislation Reece is proposing would be largely ineffective. He noted that a gun owner can send his or her firearm to a number of companies for a custom paint job. And he said police have confiscated real guns that suspects had made to look fake using the components of large squirt guns.

Only a law requiring manufacturers to make fake guns out of clear plastic would help officers recognize them in the field, Loomis said.

Let’s try a more challenging one. Scroll to the next image.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

In September, California passed a law, similar to the one under consideration in Ohio, requiring that all replica or toy guns be brightly colored.

An Arkansas law prohibits "imitation firearms" or toy guns, which include airsoft guns, non-firing guns and water guns that are identical to firearms manufactured after 1898. However, that law does not prohibit replicas of older antique firearms, BB guns, air guns that shoot pellets, paintball guns, any device that has an orange tip inserted in the barrel or any device that is brightly colored, transparent or transclucent.

Ready to take another guess? Which of these guns is real?

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

The gun on the right is real. That's Loomis' service weapon.

The other gun, he said, is a toy that was used in an aggravated robbery of a convenient store on Cleveland’s East side. The suspect used it to pistol-whip the victim, he said.

“Look at that thing,” Loomis said. “I couldn’t find a real Colt in the property room. But that thing looks and feels like a real gun. If you had it in your hand, you wouldn’t know the difference.

Scroll to the next image for another challenge.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

Local governments also have passed legislation to address the dangers of realistic fake guns.

In 1996, the city of Cleveland passed a law that prohibits “brandishing” replica firearms, including BB guns, that are made to look like real weapons, while in the “presence of a law enforcement officer, firefighter, emergency medical technician or paramedic engaged in the performance of his or her duties.”

Ready to take another guess? Is this gun real or fake?

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

Fake.

Earlier this year the City Council in Atlantic City, N.J., banned the sale of realistic toy guns, such as this one. The ban does not extend, however, to non-firing antiques, film props or brightly-colored toy guns.

Dallas City Council is considering a ban that mirrors New York City’s, which includes prohibitions against airsoft guns, toy pistols that shoot pellets or any toy or imitation firearm that resembles a real gun unless it is brightly colored or transparent.

Now let’s try a more challenging one. Scroll to see another image.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

“These are both Walther 380’s,” Loomis said. “One can kill you, one will get you killed.”

Take a guess.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

The gun on the left is real.

The fake one features a magazine that pops out and a slide that pulls back when the gun is loaded.

“In other words, every motion on that toy gun mimics a motion on the real one,” Loomis said.

Advance to the next slide to try again.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

The gun pictured here was used by two 13-year-olds and an 11-year old during the attempted robbery of a 72-year-old woman, Loomis said.

Is this gun real or fake?

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

Fake.

Loomis said that criminals committing armed robbery often use fake guns, such as this one, to avoid gun specifications that would add one to three years to their prison sentence.

Scroll forward and try again.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

One of these rifles is real, the other is a toy that police say a man used to menace others.

Which is a real firearm?

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

The one on the right is a Cleveland police patrol rifle with the police insignia engraved on the handle.

Loomis said the man brandishing the fake gun was eventually arrested without getting injured because he "did what the cops told him to do -- go figure."

Scroll to the next slide for the final challenge.

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

A 1990 study commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department found that, during a four-year period, 15 percent of all robberies were committed with imitation guns. And in hundreds of cases each year, fake guns were mistaken for real ones.

Loomis said that in recent years, Cleveland police have confiscated more fake guns during arrests than ever before.

“It’s unfortunate that we see more and more of these replica guns,” Loomis said. “Nothing good comes from them. We absolutely are going to treat a real-looking gun as a real gun. We have wives and kids and grandkids, and we deserve to be able to go home safely at the end of the day without repercussion for protecting ourselves.”

Only one of the guns pictured here is real. Which one is it?

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Leila Atassi, Northeast Ohio Media Group

The gun that is second from the left in the bottom row is real. That’s Loomis’ gun.

“Each of these guns was used in a crime,” Loomis said of the toys. “That is to say they were brandished, pointed at people and used as if they were real.”

Loomis said criminals often believe they cannot be charged with aggravated robbery if the gun they’re using is not real.

“But they’re wrong,” Loomis said.