The use of pellet, BB, airsoft and toy guns that look like real firearms in criminal activities appears to be on the rise, some law enforcement officials said.

Earlier this month, two officer-involved shooting incidents in the Sacramento region involved the use of such guns.

Experts, policy researchers and law enforcement officials The Bee interviewed said systematic data in recent years aren't available and little research has been done on the subject.

Sgt. Tim Curran, spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, said he does not believe the use of imitation guns in crime is on the rise. The recent incidents – one in Lincoln and one in Rancho Cordova – are coincidences, not indication of a trend, he said.

But other police officers say they are seeing more robberies and other crimes being committed by suspects carrying imitation guns.

"We see an increase of people carrying these guns to commit a crime or scare someone," Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong said.

"People use it for crime because you can't differentiate whether it's real or fake," said Garen Wintemute, an emergency medicine physician and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis Medical Center. Wintemute was an author in a 1987 study that helped push for regulations to distinguish real guns from toys.

Police say criminals also use them because they are cheaper and far easier to obtain.

A person buying a firearm from a federally licensed firearm dealer has to pass a background check, and in California, wait 10 days for the weapon to be released.

It's a misdemeanor under California law to sell any BB device to a minor, but an adult can obtain one without a background check or a waiting period.

For example, a black Sig Sauer P230 airsoft gun is available at Fry's Electronics store on Northgate Boulevard for $24.99. Warnings on the product's packaging remind store clerks to check the customer's age before completing a sale and inform users that the product is intended for recreational or training purposes.

But aside from a blaze-orange tip at the end of the barrel – a marking required by federal law to distinguish imitation and toy guns from real firearms – the airsoft is strikingly similar in appearance to a real handgun.

State law requires manufacturers of imitation firearms to put in writing as part of the packaging that the product may be mistaken for a firearm by others and that altering its color or markings to make it look more realistic is dangerous and may be a crime.

Wintemute said these regulations fall short of making fake guns look markedly less like real ones. Imitation gun manufacturers often tout the stark resemblance of their product to real firearms as a way to market and sell their goods, he said.

"Kids don't want to buy a balloon-looking green gun," Wintemute said.

To make a replica gun look even more real, criminals remove the orange tip or color it black, police said. If the toy gun is translucent or in bright colors, they spray-paint it black.

John Brandt, a public relations counsel for Crosman, whose products include airsoft guns, said the Rochester, N.Y.-based company meets or exceeds government regulations.

If someone alters the product or removes the marking, "that's outside the purview of a manufacturer's responsibility," Brandt said. "What a criminal does with our product is beyond our control."

On New Year's Day in Lincoln, a retired Sacramento County firefighter allegedly used a pellet gun to hold up a mini-mart, led police on a brief chase before jumping out of his car and aiming a pellet rifle at them. Officers shot and killed him, thinking he had a real weapon.

Nearly a week later, another man pointed an air pistol capable of shooting pellets or BBs at officers when they arrived at a Rancho Cordova home to respond to a 911 hang-up call. Officers shot and wounded the man, also mistaking the pellet gun for the real thing.

Under poor lighting, from a distance or in a volatile situation, police officers say they are not going to have time to determine if a weapon is real or fake before they make a split-second decision to shoot.

Wintemute said difficulty in telling imitation and toy guns apart from the real ones puts law enforcement officers in an untenable position. They either live the rest of their lives knowing that they hurt someone who had a fake gun, or end up dead if the suspect's weapon turns out to be real, he said.

"We don't want to shoot or kill anybody at all," Sacramento Police Officer Dave Topaz said. "But under the law, all we have to feel is a reasonable deadly threat to us and others."

Call The Bee's Chelsea Phua, (916) 321-1132. Bee researcher Sheila A. Kern contributed to this report.