Philadelphia residents speak out on BB gun sales to children
POINT BREEZE (WPVI) -- Outraged Philadelphia residents spoke out against the illegal sale of BB guns to children, the damage it can do, and the need to make tougher regulations.
The crowd gathered at St. Paul's Baptist Church on Thursday evening.
"The guns that they are selling emulate, look exactly like the real guns that are being used," said Terry Carpenter.
Back on September 1st, Action News aired a story about a video that went viral on social media.
In the video, several children with BB guns say they had purchased them at a Point Breeze corner store.
The store in question stopped selling the guns after our story aired.
However residents say other stores continue to sell them to children, which is against city ordinances in Philadelphia.
"If we sold anything that was illegal, we would be arrested," said one parent during the meeting Thursday.
Officials say the problem is that there is only a small fine to any store caught selling to minors and there is no one checking to make sure that stores are aware of the ordinance.
"What we should not be doing is selling these type of toys to our young people, trying to train them on how to handle a gun at such a young age," said State Representative Jordan Harris.
What residents fear most is that a child will pull one of the BB guns on a police officer and the officer will shoot, thinking it's a real gun.
"It's not just a South Philadelphia problem or a Philadelphia problem, this is an Atlantic City problem, New Jersey problem, a New York problem that we must take action immediately," said Nakia Carr, community activist.
There seemed to be a strong consensus that the city ordinance should be made tougher.
"We need all hands on deck because this issue right here, trust me, let somebody get killed, then all of a sudden it's gonna be important, it's important now," said Rep. Harris.
Some residents are challenging other city council members to get involved in the issue and to be proactive before a tragedy happens.
