Mayor Marty Walsh Signs Ordinance Banning Replica Handguns

Photo Courtesy of Mayor’s Office

Mayor Marty Walsh signed an ordinance Monday morning banning replica handguns in all public spaces, effective immediately.

Walsh was joined by Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans, Reverend Jeffrey Brown, and Dan Mulhern, director of the city’s public safety initiative, at the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury for the ceremony.

“It is up to us to work together as a community on every angle of the gun issue to keep our neighborhoods safe,” Walsh said in a release. “The safety of Boston’s residents and visitors is a top priority, and I am proud to sign this ordinance banning replica handguns in public spaces which will help us in our larger mission of raising community awareness and engagement to remove replica firearms from the hands of our youth.”

Under the new ordinance, the BPD may confiscate a replica handgun and require its owner to pick it up from the district station. If the owner is under 18, the BPD will notify his or her parent or guardian, who will have the option of picking it up.

“Replica guns have become a big issue for us. We all too often encounter young people who are carrying these fake guns and even though they are fake, the public and police don’t know they are,” Evans said in the same release. “Our goal is to make the city the safest place it can be and this ordinance will help remind the public and residents of the dangers these replica guns present.”

Boston police have recovered more than 100 replica handguns this year, according to the Mayor’s Office.