New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA) Reiterates 2018 Prohibition of Toy Guns

December 12, 2022 — Mayor Ras J. Baraka, President of the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association (NJUMA), issued today an advisory to all NJUMA members; all residents of NJUMA communities, all partners in state, county, and local government; community-based organizations; and all New Jerseyans that the State of New Jersey, pursuant to Public Law 2018, chapter 481, prohibits the sale of toy guns that are indiscernible from actual firearms. With holiday shopping underway, it is crucial that New Jerseyans remain aware of the prohibition on toy-gun sales and that leaders work diligently to ensure the safety of all communities.

On November 22, 2014, Tamir E. Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy carrying a “toy…airsoft pistol with a removable magazine that was virtually indistinguishable from a real .45 Colt semi-automatic pistol,” was shot and killed by Timothy Loehmann of the Cleveland, Ohio Division of Police at the playground adjoining the Cudell Park Recreation Center. Loehmann and his partner, Frank Garmback, “believed that they were responding to a playground where a grown man was brandishing a real gun at individuals,” although the dispatcher who “broadcast the call as a ‘Code 1’ (the highest priority call)…did not relay that the individual might be a juvenile or that the gun might be fake.” The U.S. Department of Justice concluded in December 2020 that “after extensive examination of the facts in this tragic event…the evidence is insufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Officer Loehmann willfully violated Tamir Rice’s constitutional rights.”

271 people in the United States carrying “toy weapons,” including seven in New Jersey, have been shot and killed by police since January 1, 2015.

In response to the devastating episode in Cleveland, East Orange Council Chair Ted R. Green, now the incumbent Mayor of the City of East Orange, a NJUMA community, sponsored a city ordinance, adopted in August 2015, disallowing any person to “sell, possess or use or attempt to use or give away any toy or imitation firearm which substantially duplicates or can reasonably be perceived to be an actual firearm,” with certain exceptions. Soon after, in December 2015, Lieutenant Governor Sheila Y. Oliver, at the time a member of the General Assembly representing the Thirty-Fourth Legislative District (LD34), introduced a bill to prohibit the sale of “toy guns and imitation firearms.” Then-Assemblywoman Oliver and then-Councilman Green each delivered testimony in favor of the bill before the Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee in September 2016. The bill was reintroduced in 2018 by Assemblywoman Britnee R. Timberlake (LD34) and was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy in January 2020.

In June 2019, U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, State Senator Nia H. Gill (LD34), Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura, East Orange Mayor Green, and East Orange Police Director Dominick Saldida issued a joint statement calling for “stricter controls on toy, imitation, air and BB guns designed to look like real, lethal firearms.”

A toy gun is defined in New Jersey as “a facsimile or reproduction of a firearm that is marketed as a product intended for children or is substantially similar in appearance, size, and shape to a genuine firearm.” A toy gun for sale, other than a “theatrical firearm…for which a permit is issued by the Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police” or a water gun, must be:

• “a color other than black, blue, silver, or aluminum;”
• “marked with a non-removable orange stripe that is at least one inch in width and runs the entire length of the barrel on each side of the barrel;”
• “equipped with a barrel at least one inch in diameter that is closed at a distance of at least one-half inch from the front end of the barrel with the same material from which the toy gun or imitation firearm is made; or”
• in compliance with “the provisions of 15 CFR 272.1 et seq.”

“Glorifying the act of shooting and enabling violence through the sale of toy guns has several negative impacts on youth in our communities. Gunplay should not be encouraged as a form of recreation. It is our responsibility as leaders and guardians of our neighborhoods to ensure youth have positive outlets and forms of play in outdoor spaces or through other positive recreational activities,” said Mayor Ras J. Baraka, Mayor, City of Newark and President of the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association.

“During this holiday season it is imperative that merchants stop selling toy guns that promote violence,” said Mayor Adrian O. Mapp of Plainfield and Vice President of the New Jersey Urban Mayors Association. “Community safety is always top priority which makes the ban and restriction of toy gun sales critical and necessary.”

“Collectively, we must remain vigilant and steadfast in prohibiting the sale of toy guns and other items that glorify and encourage the culture of gun violence that has disproportionately affected our communities,” said Mayor Ted Green of the City of East Orange.

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