Last week we told you about the three teenage boys convicted of attempting to rob a man of his cell phone with a toy gun. The reason why it was an "attempted" robbery is because the victim Holman Katagenie was a former cop and he fought back when he realized the gun was fake. But truth is most people won't wait around to find out if the gun someone points in their face is real. Add that to a ready availability of toy guns in the hands of desperate criminals and you have a big problem on the hands of law enforcers. This summer Youth for the Future declared war on toy guns and advocating a ban on the sale of toy guns. Today 7NEWS went undercover to find out how easy it is for real criminals to use toy guns.
Keith SwiftReporting,
How easy is to buy a toy gun in Belize? We wanted to find out and we'll show you just how easy it is with just ten dollars. Our first stop was this store at the corner of King Street and Amara Avenue.
[Interacting with Vendor and Buying Plastic Gun]
I paid $4.95 there but I got a better deal on Dean Street.
[Interacting with Vendor and Buying Plastic Gun]
As easy as that I was able to buy two of these guns with ten dollars. These toy guns are legal but because they resemble real guns, they are used in criminal activities.
Joseph Card, Youth for the Future
"We have learnt that toy guns have been used on numerous occasions by perpetrators to commit crime.
This evening we hit downtown Belize City with our newly bought guns to find out how real a threat they could be.
Woman #1: Looks like a play thing to me.
KS: But if you are walking down a street at night and someone…
Woman #1: I would think it is real. I would be frightened obviously and maybe jump back.
Man #1: That looks fake. Sometimes I am alone in the shop and two or three guys come so I would think it is real.
KS: Does this look real?
Man #2: Not really to me.
KS: If someone comes to you and pulls it out of their pockets….
Man #2: Well people could do bad things with it.
Man #3: The moment they haul a gun at you, you have to jump because at that moment you won't wait to find out if it is real or not real. At that moment you are only thinking about if you will get shot or if you will run for your life. That is all you have to think about. You won't find out at that moment if it is real or not real. All you are trying is to get far from that person if they are asking you for money or you watch or your phone or whatever you have in your hand. You will make sure you keep away from them.
So its fake guns used for real crime and because of that, Youth for the Future says these guns should be off the streets and they are asking high school students to use their imagination to suggest ways how they can get these potentially dangerous pieces of plastic banned.
Joseph Card,
"We want the young people themselves to be a part of what we are doing. So we're doing this essay competition for the secondary schools, both the north side and the south side of Belize City. The essay says: 'banning of toy guns - will it help alleviate gun crimes in Belize.' And basically it is an argumentative essay that these young people will try to write, it is a thousand words. We are asking them to complete this essay by the 6th of October whereby a north side student will be chosen from a north side school and a south side student will be chosen from a south side school and those students will form a debate team that will later meet to debate this very topic."
Reporting for 7NEWS, I am Keith Swift.
Again the competition is only open to second and third form students in Belize City. The thousand word essay can either be for or against a ban on toy guns in the city. Essays can be dropped off at Youth for the Future's Governance Unit. The deadline is October 6th.
