By DAVID SEIFMAN
March 17, 2004 -- Mayor Bloomberg appeared to be packin' heat - a very realistic-looking gun - at a press conference yesterday about the dangers of toy weapons.
"Let me show you something," the mayor announced suddenly, stepping away from the podium to reveal a "Luger" tucked in his waist.
"Anybody want to stop and guess whether I've got a gun on?" he asked the audience at the Union Settlement on East 104th Street.
"Let me tell you, this was bought yesterday . . . If you think this doesn't look to a police officer who wants to go home to his family like a real gun, you don't know what happens on the streets."
The weapon certainly looked real. It even felt real, with the heft of the genuine article.
That's why, Bloomberg said, the city is continuing a crackdown on stores that sell illegal toy guns made to resemble real ones.
(photo) MAKING A POINT: Hizzoner brandishes a real-looking toy gun at a Union Settlement press conference yesterday to show the dilemma cops face.
- Ed Reed
Consumer Affairs Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra said 31 stores have been cited over the past 17 months, including Jack's 99-cent Store, which recently agreed to pay a $50,000 fine for stocking almost 2,000 dark-colored toy guns.
--from the NY Post
Uploaded: 3/19/2004