Shotgun Disguised as Super Soaker Water Gun – Truth!

Shotgun Disguised as Super Soaker Water Gun – Truth!

 
Summary of eRumor:
Images show what appears to be a shotgun disguised as a Super Soaker water gun.
 
The Truth:

This is an actual photo of a Super Soaker water gun that was disguised as a pump-action shotgun, but it’s from 2012.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department confiscated the disguised shotgun back in 2012. The department issued an officer safety bulletin to warn police departments across the country about its finding. The bulletin shows photos of a gutted Super Soaker water gun that was placed over the top of a shotgun.

A Fox Affiliate in New York reported on the story back in 2012. At the time, John Occhipinti, the executive director of the National Police Defense Foundation, described the benefits of the gun for criminals:

“This is a carefully designed, disguised weapon that could not be easily detected by law enforcement, or the public, who often times when they see a dangerous weapon call 9-1-1 to notify police.”

The photo resurfaced in December of 2014 in a post on the Sheriff Deputies of Ohio Facebook profile with a message about officer safety:

“This is a fully functional shotgun, disguised to look like a toy. I suspect that we’ll be seeing more and more of this. Be careful out there.”

The shotgun recovered by police in Indiana wasn’t an isolated incident, either. Another high-profile case surfaced in California in 2012. Randy Smith, a convicted felon, was arrested in Fresno after police found him “walking the streets” with a shotgun disguised as a Super Soaker around his neck, KMPH reports:

“He took the Super Soaker apart, was able to fashion a barrel to where he was able to make what’s considered a zip gun, where you can fire one round through it,” Sergeant Mark Hudson told KMPH. “In this case it was a 20-gauge shotgun shell.”

The resurgence of this eRumor coincides with the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland. Rice was playing with an “air soft” toy gun that shoots rubber pellets in November of 2014 when he was shot by a police officer, CNN reports.