[Red Badger]

Erick Gelhaus has been an instructor and rangemaster for the county for 19 years.

He also teaches pistol, carbine, shotgun and rifle lessons for Gunsite, a private company in Arizona...

Investigators say Gelhaus mistook the pellet gun Lopez was carrying for an assault rifle.

and he couldn't tell the difference between a pellet gun and an assault rifle?.....................

[chuckles]

Did you see the pellet gun? It looked EXACTLY like an AK-47. I probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference.

[Jeff Chandler]

Have a look around:

www.pyramydair.com

[GladesGuru]

Often the “pellet rifle” is a nearly exact replica in terms of visual appearance.

If the bright, day-glo muzzle attachment was removed, there would be no visual cue to rapidly determine whether the gun was real or a toy.

Given the militarization of American police forces, the savagery of the Urban Feral predators, etc. why that gun was not cased is a valid question.

So long as the militarized cops feel justified in anything they do and any person they shoot, such tragedies will continue to occur.

Militarization of police has consequences.

[fr_freak]

Don't know if this is the same model as the kid was carrying, but:

[Trailerpark Badass]

Airsoft guns are made to be exact replicas in appearance.

I have one that looks like an H&K MP7, and, having shot a real one, they are identical in size, appearance, and weight. The only thing that would indicate it's not real is the orange tip on the muzzle.

Removing that or painting it over and walking around in public is asking for trouble. No way I would let my kid do that.

Now, I'm not going to judge this incident one way or another, but if people want hyper-realistic "toy" guns, they need to anticipate the potential consequences.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

You mean he(the cop) didn’t carry a cheap RG-22 handgun to drop on the body when he discovered his error?

“Duh we saw dis person wit an AK-47 toy and he pulled out dis real pistol and we shot him.” Sarc/Off

[School of Rational Thought]

thank you for posting. It is nice to have an opinion, but even nice to know something about the subject matter.

[raybbr]

This is being offered as cover. They are trying to create the belief that the guy was so well trained that even he was fooled by the air gun.

[PLMerite]

“and he couldn’t tell the difference between a pellet gun and an assault rifle?..................... “

Somewhere, I have an old Replica Model of an MP-40 “Schmeisser” machine pistol. Metal, exact size, weight and appearance. Bolt works, magazine detaches, no orange tip. It came with a letter from the ATF certifying that it was incapable of firing live ammunition. I guarantee you that no one would be able to tell that it was fake without handling it and closely examining it.

These days I wouldn’t point my finger at a cop, let alone anything that looked like a gun.