Legislation has been filed for the 2017 regular session that could put students in jail for bringing a toy gun to school. Bossier Parish Sheriff Julian Whittington urged Haughton Representative Dodie Horton to file the measure because fake guns look incredibly real nowadays. Whittington says painted pretend guns cause panic and chaos in schools.

“It’s dangerous from the student’s perspective because, here in Bossier we have school resource officers in all of our schools, and I promise you if that kid would’ve pointed that fake gun at one of my deputies he probably would’ve been shot.”

If signed into law, a student could be fined up to 250 dollars or spend six months in jail. Whittington says the penalty is serious but so is the potential for a student getting shot.

“Of course there are provisions in the law, if there is a school function, ROTC kids, here in Bossier we have shooting sports, so there are exceptions but it’s just primarily for the kids’ safety number one.”

Whittington says he requested the bill after a scare in Bossier last year where students brought in a fake and a real gun. He says when he thinks of a toy gun, he remembers green water guns he played with as a kid.

“That’s not what we’re talking about. I had it in my hand, until I went to look into where do you load it, where do you put the clip in and the bullets, you could not tell it was fake. That’s how real these things are, these aren’t little green water pistols.”

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