Councilman Points "Gun" at Members in Meeting

I wish my city council meetings were this interesting. I have a point in sharing this anecdote, too, below the story.

L.C. Bulger III watched in mounting horror as a 10-year-old trained a chrome pistol first at his companion's head, then on a group of boys just down the Saginaw sidewalk.

Clad in his Sunday best, Bulger sprinted off his doorstep on the city's East Side toward the child gunslinger.

As he drew nearer and hollered for him to stop, Bulger saw the boy's friend had a gun of his own. Both boys whirled.

"They quickly put the guns in their belts and put their shirts over it," recalls Bulger, a 41-year-old special education paraprofessional, who confiscated the guns.

"But the way they turned around, that could have been pretty deadly if I was someone with a weapon, or an officer."

The guns were fakes but looked as real as any 9mm on the street, says Bulger, part of the Parishioners on Patrol effort to confront violence by roaming city streets at night.

It was Bulger's run-in, shortly before noon two Sundays ago, that prompted fellow anti-violence activist and Saginaw City Councilman Amos O'Neal's dramatic stunt at last week's City Council meeting.

Using the same kind of toy Bulger took from the boy, O'Neal stunned colleagues by whipping the silver replica from his belt, pointing it at the city manager and panning the council chambers with the glinting barrel.

Some people ducked or hunkered down. Others backed up. Only the mayor, the city manager and a police lieutenant in the audience were in on the real story.

Councilman Bill Federspiel, who works as a police officer in Saginaw Township, criticizes O'Neal for pointing the device at people and says that as an officer, he would have drawn his gun had O'Neal's behavior turned any more bizarre.

Although the point of the story is that Saginaw is banning "realistic-looking" toy guns. In fact, the Michigan House is getting in on the act.

"These guns look unbelievably real when they're modified," said freshman State Rep. Andy Coulouris, who helped prosecute a few toy gun cases in his days as a Saginaw County assistant prosecutor.

Coulouris is co-sponsor of House Bill 4892, which could criminalize what the 10-year-old did with the toy.

The law would make it a misdemeanor to remove the telltale orange cap from the toys and a four-year felony to use a replica to threaten or intimidate.

Federal law requires that imitation guns come with an orange plug or likewise marker, but the rule does not apply to non-imitation traditional water, paint ball, BB or pellet guns.

Usually, this is where I would rip on politicians... but I think they are on to something with this one. I'd place realistic-looking toy guns in the same category as an unloaded real gun used in a crime, in that they create a genuine fear-for-life among people they are used on, and hence, justify a self-defense action, be it either from police or a law-abiding citizen. And Michigan has seen a few cases of unloaded weapons or fake weapons used in crimes this year - with the result being a dead perp after a police shoot-out.

Now, I am not for banning toy guns, but in my childhood, you couldn't confuse my cap gun with Dad's .45. I'm sure a lot of you will disagree with my assessment, and that's fine. But I do think the politicians have a point on this one.