The attorney general is slated to announce today settlements with five retailers, including some industry giants, for selling toy guns that don’t fit state appearance requirements.
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Walmart, which sold 149 illegal toy guns throughout the state, including 20 in New York City, also agreed to pay a $225,000 penalty.
Eric Schneiderman says Walmart, Amazon, Kmart, Sears, and online retailer ACTA agreed to the settlement.
Rice was shot and killed by patrol officers who said they thought the boy’s toy gun, which did not have the brightly colored markings indicating it was a toy, was real. All told, the attorney general found that 6,429 of the realistic-looking toy guns were sold in New York by the five retailers from 2012 to 2014.
The new deal requires retailers to apply New York City’s strict standards to sales statewide.
The Attorney General’s Office also sent cease and desist letters to 65 third-party sellers that sold the toys in New York through Amazon, and 2 third-party sellers that sell through Sears.com.
Howard Riefs, director of Corporate Public Relations for Sears Holdings, which also owns Kmart, said the company was pleased to be able to resolve this matter in “a mutually satisfactory way”.
According to Schniederman, since 1994 there have been at least 63 shootings linked to the toy or imitation guns and of those at least eight were deadly.
Other retailers including Rite-Aid and four Westchester County dollar stores were forced to pay a total of $69,500 for “failure to comply fully with the state’s toy gun law” and other “toy gun law violations” between 2001 and 2002.
The settlement was first reported by the New York Times.
”There is a reason why selling life-like toy guns is prohibited in New York”. (Federal law requires toy guns to have an orange tip). “For instance, with a BB gun and the pellet guns that look so life like so realistic”, he said.
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“It’s a step in the right direction, but I would like to see them go further”. The office is part of the Attorney General’s Division of Regional Affairs, led by Executive Deputy Attorney General Marty Mack.
