The NYPD has a lot of presence on social media sites like Facebook. There, they will post about various busts they make, much like any other department. Because of the size of the NYPD, though, these posts are often made through accounts for individual precincts.
And sometimes, they post some outright silliness, especially when it comes to firearms.
Over the weekend, though, the NYPD’s 100th Precinct hit a new low when they posted this one:
Can you see the problem?
That’s right. It’s a cap gun.
It’s not a replica that could have been modified to fire live ammo. It’s not even a starter pistol that could, theoretically, be converted. It’s a cap gun wrapped in electrical tape to hide some of the more obviously plastic pieces.
And honestly, considering it was found during an arrest, that’s fine. They caught a couple of thieves in the act, and because of the way they’ve modified this toy to look more realistic, it’s entirely possible that this either has been used in an armed robbery or would have been used for one. Confiscating it is fine under the circumstances, I suppose.
What bothers me is that they called this an illegal gun.
It’s not. It’s not a gun. It’s a toy. It’s a toy that can’t even really be modified into a live firearm.
Let’s compare it to this post on the same day from the 41st Precinct:
That appears to be an actual shotgun that’s been sawed off. Again, it’s wrapped in electrical tape–what is it with New York City criminals and electrical tape, anyway?–but it appears to be an actual firearm, and since it’s been sawed off, it’s an unregistered NFA item. I don’t like that particular law, but it’s a real gun that was found and was a violation of state and federal laws.
But the cap gun?
Seriously? That’s getting labeled as an illegal gun, just like the sawed-off shotgun?
NYPD precincts get trolled pretty hard on just about any gun they recover and post on social media, and not always for any reason other than some people just don’t like seeing the police taking guns away from people without also hearing about an arrest.
Yet another reason they get trolled is that they post non-guns as “illegal guns” all the damn time, and they do it without an ounce of self-awareness that they’re looking like complete and absolute morons.
Again, a cap gun.
It’s an actual toy, but this is worse than them busting someone over an airsoft gun and selling that to the public as an illegal gun. That one at least fires projectiles, meaning it’s a gun, even if it’s not a firearm–yeah, there’s a difference. This, though, can’t do anything but drop a plastic hammer on a plastic cap that makes a popping noise and little else.
Arrest the guys for theft, take the toy away and throw it in the trash, and call it a day. That’s fine.
Don’t post it on social media and pretend you’ve made the streets safer, all to make sure the public thinks there are more guns out there than there actually are. The fearmongering doesn’t help anyone, and pretending non-guns are guns is nothing but fearmongering.
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