ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Lookalike guns have caused some very real scares in New Mexico. There’s a national push to regulate the way they look, and how they’re sold. KRQE News 13 asked if state lawmakers will take up a bill this session, but several lawmakers said it would be a tough sell.

The similarities of lookalike guns versus the real deal have caused some deadly encounters with police, and scary experiences for people in the community, such as the one near EMCORE last week.

“I just heard gunshots,” a 911 caller told the dispatcher. The fears were very real. “He’s all dressed in black with gloves on and he has a handgun,” another caller said.

“We don’t have the luxury of predetermining what’s a hoax and what’s not,” said officer Tanner Tixier, of the Albuquerque Police Department. “And if we receive numerous calls saying someone’s shooting inside or outside of EMCORE, we’re going to respond appropriately.”

Witnesses worried for their lives last week when they saw the man police later identified as 28-year-old Andrew Godsey, shooting a gun near EMCORE and an elementary school in southeast Albuquerque. Officers later learned Godsey was carrying two airsoft guns.

“There are currently no laws on the books here in New Mexico that makes it illegal to hold a fake gun, or even to wave it in the air,” said Democratic Senator Michael Padilla, Majority Whip.

Read more here: http://krqe.com/2014/12/10/the-real-push-for-new-laws-on-fake-guns/