The Waterloo Regional Police Service is investigating after someone was seen with guns Friday afternoon on Regina Street in Waterloo.
Officers later determined they were airsoft guns.
It’s the fourth incident involving a replica gun in the past four days.
A man was seen on Monday with an airsoft gun at the Sunrise Center in Kitchener.
Then on Wednesday, someone shot several times at the second-storey window of a Kitchener home in the area of Elm Ridge Drive and Queens Boulevard. Holes from an airsoft gun were later found.
Police say a car was also shot at in Waterloo, as it was traveling on Albert Street early Thursday morning. They believe a pellet gun damaged the driver’s side window.
Also on Thursday, police arrested two people at the University of Waterloo who had drugs and BB guns in their car.
According to a local airsoft technician, there are fundamental differences between air guns. A BB gun shoots metal balls, and pellet guns shoot conical, pointed metal. Airsoft guns, meanwhile, use non-lethal plastic projectiles.
“The pellet gun is meant for target shooting, environment control and generally shoots metal pellets and it is not advisable to shoot your friends with them,” said Ziming Wan, a technician at BlackBlitz Airsoft. “Whereas airsoft guns are designed specifically so you can shoot your friends with them and they can still be your friends.”
Air guns can look like a high-powered version.
“It needs to at least sort of look the part.”
Wan said the type of air guns he typically sees in the news tend to be low quality versions from non-specialty stores.
To be safe, employees at his store try not to sell airsoft guns to the wrong people.
“If we have a customer and it sounds like they’re going to be up to no good or we don’t get a good vibe, we always instruct our employees, if he doesn’t pass the vibe check, you can deny the come out,” Wan said.
Anyone over the age of 18 can purchase an air gun in Ontario.
Wan doesn’t want to see licensing introduced for air guns, but thinks an airsoft governing body could help form forming who has access to the guns, while still allowing the sport to continue.
“The most important thing is how people act when they have it,” he said.
It’s illegal to use any imitation firearm when committing a crime. Both the Cities of Waterloo and Kitchener have bylaws prohibiting anyone from discharging any type of gun in the city unless it’s in a designated area.