Toy guns have never really made sense to me. Here’s a weapon designed to injure, incapacitate or even kill — in toy form.

Despite the fact that most toy guns today are made to be clearly distinguishable from the real thing, there’s a risk that they can be confused for the real deal and put people in harm’s way. Which is just what happened last night when a mentally delayed 18 year old boy faced an RNC officer with a very real gun pointed at him.

While people may wish to jump on the “blame the cop” bandwagon (and it doesn’t help that this happened just weeks after an RNC officer confused an autistic teen for a drunk and put him in the lockup overnight), when it comes to guns there isn’t really a lot of room for error.

According to the CBC.ca report, the officer was responding to calls that there was someone in the neighbourhood with a gun.

If I were running around brandishing a toy gun and a cop pulled his piece on me and told me to drop it, you’d better believe I’d drop it. The father of the teen involved in this incident isn’t sure his son would understand such a command. So maybe it’s time to reevaluate whether or not his son should be playing with toy guns.

Maybe it’s time to reevaluate if anybody should be, really. People in the neighborhood were obviously scared enough that they had to call the cops. The officer involved didn’t have the luxury to start asking questions or examine the gun up close. Neither is to blame for not knowing the difference.

Thanks to this toy gun you’ve got folks who are scared, a cop who’s been pulled away from his duty, and a kid who’s in danger of being injured or killed.

I guess toy guns are meant to be fun, but none of that seems very fun to me.