GLOUCESTER TOWNSHIP, NJ (CBS) – Police warned residents this week that officers will have “zero tolerance” for shootings involving a toy gun they say was used earlier this month amid the chaos of Gloucester Township Day, where hundreds of young people attended were involved in fights in a park and shopping center.
Gloucester Township police say they have “zero tolerance” for it Orbeez guns and similar “gel blaster” guns, which fire water-absorbing beads which could potentially injure victims.
Police said they investigated an incident on Tuesday “in which juveniles shot an Orbeez gun at people from a moving vehicle.”
Five people recorded the incident for social media and were identified by police officers, the department said on Facebook.
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
On Wednesday afternoon, police received another call about two men and a woman “shooting an Orbeez gun at random people walking outside.”
Police warned parents to talk to their children about the dangers of hydrogel guns, some of which are sold online with minimal features to identify them as toys (such as brightly colored barrels). Some users also remove the points or other parts that make it clear that the gun is a toy. Something that, according to the police, could lead to the toy gun being mistaken for a real firearm.
“It is possible that someone could view the toy gun as a realistic threat, endangering the safety of your children or others,” the department said. “GTPD will also identify, arrest and charge suspects who have inappropriately used these toy guns to cause fear or panic among our residents of Gloucester Township, New Jersey.”
In 2022 and 2023, police forces in the US warned about a social media challenge called the “Orbeez Challenge“, where people filmed videos of themselves firing the gel guns at random passersby. Searching for the term on TikTok now results in a “no results found” page with a piece of text explaining that the phrase “may be associated with behavior or content that is contrary to our guidelines.”
A new bill would ban water beads
Last year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission warned about water beads can expand exponentially in a child’s body. CPSC estimates that there have been 4,500 hospital emergency room visits due to water beads since 2017.
In December 2023, major retailers including Amazon, Target and Walmart said they would do so stop selling the products.
In May, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation to ban water beads nationwide due to the potential danger if a child swallows them. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned that beads can expand exponentially if swallowed.
The new legislation is named after a little girl named Esther, who swallowed a stray water bead that her older sibling had played with months earlier. Esther did not survive. Now Esther’s Law is intended to protect children in the future.
