New York AG cracks down on toy gun sales by Wal-Mart, Amazon

Major retailers who were found selling illegally manufactured toy guns in New York will pay fines and comply with stricter New York City requirements for toy guns sold throughout the state, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said at a press conference on Monday.

State law requires toy guns be marked with brightstripes on the sides of the gun and the tip of the barrel, and in the city, toy guns must be brightly colored or translucent to differentiate from real guns.

“Year after year we’ve found retailers such as Wal-Mart, Amazon and K-Mart chose profit over safety, and in the process put New Yorkers and police officers at risk of deadly encounters,” Schneiderman said.

An investigation by Schneiderman’s office found more than 6,400 toy guns that violated state rules were sold in New York from 2012 to2014 by retailers.

The majority of illegal toy guns were bought online and shipped to New Yorkers, Schneiderman said. K-Mart was the only store selling the prohibited toys in their physical stores, and a spokesman from Schneiderman’s office told Metro the guns were sold at one store outside of Rochester.

Walmart will pay $225,000 in fines, and the other retailers will pay a total of more than $84,000. All of the retailers will now only sell toy guns that meet New York City standards.

Schneiderman said there have been at least 63 shootings in New York sparked by an imitation guns, and at least eight of those fatally, since 1994.