Fayetteville Police Take Aim At Plastic Air Guns

Last week, an officer took a gun from a child playing in the street.

The air gun looked so much like a real pistol that a neighbor at Campbell Terrace called police for help.

It was not until police searched the suspect that they realized it was a plastic gun.

Police say the replicas make an officer's job on the street even more difficult.

"In my job, I have to make a determination under a stressful situation, a call of a weapon. I see something that looks like a weapon, carried by someone brandishing a weapon, then I have to assure its not a hostile weapon," says Chuck Hunter of the Fayetteville Police Department

The gun manufacturer's Web site says it is not a toy and not meant for children.

The guns are normally used on a shooting range, but police say they still have concerns that the guns are ending up on the streets as look-alikes.