The world has become a drastically different place and therefore, the rules must change right along with it.

It is now illegal in New Jersey to sell a toy gun that too closely resembles a real gun.

Here are the specifics....

Toy guns must be ANY OTHER color than black, blue, silver, or aluminum.

Toy guns must have a bright orange stripe along the side so officers and other law enforcement can quickly recognize that it is indeed, a toy.

There is an exception: this does not apply to theatrical weapons used in films because the show must go on!

Anyone found selling toy weapons that do not have the orange stripe on the side will be fined $500 for the first offense and then $1,000 for each subsequent violation.

I know there are a lot of debates revolving around this subject but just to put it into perspective, 172 deaths occurred as a result of a toy gun being mistaken for a real one between 2015 and 2019.

 “As a mother and a grandmother, I shudder to think that a child can be playing one moment and dead the next simply because an officer was unable to determine whether a gun was real or a toy,” said Assemblywoman Cleopatra Tucker, D-Essex, who sponsored the bill. The law is "crucial to preventing unnecessary deaths to take steps to make it immediately obvious that a toy gun is a toy.”

This is a slippery subject for sure and by no means am I telling ANYONE how to live their lives. But let's put all of the debating aside to keep our kids safe!

Take a look at the original article and the history of this new law at APP.com.

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