On Tueday, May 24, school districts across the U.S. were again alarmed at another tragic mass shooting that took place at a school in Uvalde, Texas where an 18 –year old shot and killed 19 students and 2 adults before he got killed by responding police. A day before that, a student can consider himself to be lucky that he only got arrested instead of being shot by police officers in Madison, Wisconsin for bringing airsoft gun to a school.

Madison Police Department have stepped up patrols after an airsoft gun was found inside the backpack of a 16-year old student as reported by NBC 15. The police initially reported that the gun was real but the magazine is an airsoft one, but later updated it to state that it is an airsoft gun as posted on the Madison Police Department Facebook Page:

UPDATE: A continuing challenge and safety concern is facsimile guns that appear real or can be modified to be used in the commission of crimes.

Responding officers initially believed parts of the gun to be authentic. The student was initially arrested for possession of a firearm. The charges have been amended to dangerous weapons on school premises.

This facsimile appeared in many ways to be a real gun. It wasn't until a further and close examination that the weapon was determined to be a facsimile.

Detectives will continue to examine the weapon on Wednesday.

Examining the weapon should be easy even just by doing a Google search and comparing the photo of the confiscated gun to search results. It is an Elite Force Fully Licensed GLOCK 45 Gen.5 Gas Blowback Airsoft Pistol which also bears the same serial number as seen in the photo.

It is tough for the police to distinguish an airsoft gun from the real thing as airsoft guns are made to look the same as real firearms and gas blowbacks even mimic the operations. It is Federally-mandated to have replica firearms to have an orange tip to distinguish them but some people remove them.

The arrested student can consider himself lucky. There are incidents in the U.S. where police shot and killed or injured people carrying airsoft guns in public. With police already on high alert with the Texas school shooting, students who are airsofters should think twice about bringing airsoft guns to school and for parents to check that they do not.