Boston Mayor Martin Walsh signed an ordinance banning replica handguns in public spaces Monday. Under the ban, police can seize fake handguns that are not clearly marked with orange or red muzzles as replicas. The ban takes effect immediately.
The new ordinance was announced at a press event held Monday at Roxbury’s Twelfth Baptist Church with members of the local clergy and Boston Police Commissioner William Evans in attendance.
Residents might wish that, instead of staging press conferences trumpeting a ban on toy guns that took two months to pass, Boston’s mayor and police commissioner focused more of their time on real crimes. After all, Boston homicides spiked by 27 percent in 2014—even as the national homicide rate continued to fall—and WBUR reported in May that non-fatal shootings in Beantown had increased by 56 percent this year over 2014. Where’s the confetti?
