LAKEWOOD, NJ – A video of a young male student showing a bus driver what appeared to be a real gun has gone viral this week while released in between two mass shooting incidents, one involving a school.
It turns out the gun was not real, instead, it was a toy gun that the boy had painted over the orange tip. In the video you can see the bus driver questioning the boy about the gun.
The boy is seen pointing to the tip of the gun. According to the Lakewood Scoop, the boy’s family said the bus driver told him a toy gun should have an orange tip on it or it could be dangerous.
The boy didn’t realize it and the family confiscated the toy gun and destroyed it.
Toy guns that replicate real-life guns are typically sold with an orange tip at the end of the barrel to alert others that the gun is not real.
On Tuesday, a gunman shot and killed 19 students and 3 adults in Texas. Last weekend 11 were killed in a Buffalo supermarket. Today, schools in Lakewood and surrounding towns have seen increased police presence and heightened security in the wake of the Texas shooting.