Toy guns blocked for sale in NY

Nick Muscavage Albany Bureau | Wires

ALBANY -- Three dozen online retailers will no longer be able to sell realistic-looking toy guns, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Tuesday.

Schneiderman reached a settlement with 30 online toy gun retailers who sell their products through Amazon.com. The third-party retailers have sold over 5,000 imitation toy guns in New York, and they are illegal because they did not meet state safety standards, he said.

“When toy guns are mistaken for real guns, there can be tragic consequences,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “New York state law prohibits the sale of imitation weapons that closely resemble real guns.”

The 30 retailers have separate settlements, but when combined they will have to pay $27,650 in fines and penalties to the state. Schneiderman had sent a cease-and-desist order to the retailers in July. The names of the third party retailers were not disclosed.

In August, Schneiderman announced an agreement with Amazon.com, Kmart, Sears, Wal-Mart and California-based ACTA for them to stop selling “imitation weapons,” which are toy guns that look like real guns. They also had to pay a $300,000 fine.

Schneiderman’s office tracked the sale of the guns sold through Amazon by the third-party retailers since late last year: 7 were sold to consumers in Elmira; 13 in Binghamton; 18 in Ithaca; 52 in Buffalo; and 99 in Rochester.

The agreement requires the sellers to only offer toy guns that are colored entirely white or bright red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink or purple.

New York City has law that requires toy guns to be entirely brightly colored, but state law only requires bright markings on the sides and tip of the gun barrel.

NMUSCAVAGE@Gannett.com

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