T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Over 40 realistic squirt guns were confiscated by the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office on Friday for not having an orange or red tip.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — Sheriff’s deputies confiscated more than 40 toy guns from vendors at the Belmont County Fair because of their dangerous appearance.

On Thursday, the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by a concerned parent. The parent had picked up their child and friends at the Belmont County Fair, where the children had purchased squirt guns that were practically identical to a Glock handgun.

The squirt guns didn’t have an orange or red tip that is required in the U.S. Code Title 15 Section 5001, which states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, enter into commerce, ship, transport, or receive any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm unless such firearm contains, or has affixed to it, a marking approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission …”

Upon receiving the call, the office responded to the fair to take photographs of the squirt guns in question and complete a report.

“When I came on Friday morning during my command meeting, this report was presented to me,” Belmont County Sheriff David Lucas said. “I had the road sergeant go out to the fair and meet with the fair president, Ed Campbell, and what I told my sergeant was, ‘You go to that vendor and confiscate all of the squirt guns because they are illegal squirt guns.'”

Lucas added that he decided to take such drastic measures because although a child could be innocently playing with the squirt gun, a police officer or a resident carrying a concealed gun could make a devastating mistake due to the fact that the squirt gun looks identical to a Glock handgun.

He said he is aware that school students have been known to play a game called “assassin” with squirt guns. The point of the game is where students play hide and seek and shoot other students with squirt guns during school. Due to the realistic nature of the squirt guns that were being sold by a vendor at the fair, Lucas said it could lead to horrific consequences if a student were to bring a hyper realistic squirt gun to school.

“Imagine a student having one of these and a school resource officer came up to them, they would have no idea it was a toy gun,” Lucas said.

The Belmont County Sheriff’s Office confiscated all of the squirt guns from the vendor on Friday, and while they were being confiscated the vendor approached the officers and informed them of another vendor at the fair that was also selling the realistic squirt guns. The sheriff’s office confiscated more than 40 of the hyper realistic squirt guns from two vendors at the Belmont County Fair.

Even though the guns being sold by the vendors are definitely toy guns, every one that was confiscated has marking identical to those found on real Glock handguns, including the Glock stamping, where it was made, and the “9×19 mm” marking, which indicates the caliber.

Lucas said the office has no plans to pursue any charges against the vendors but wanted them to be aware of the criteria they must meet before they can legally sell toy guns. Although no charges will be pursued, Lucas will be sending all of the photographs and reports to U.S. Customs and Border Protection because the toy guns were made in China and were legally brought into the country.

“I mean, you might think, ‘They’re just water guns,'” Lucas said. “Well the water gun could turn into a life or death situation just because of how they’re manufactured.”