Plastic Guns

I'm dressed as a cowboy for Halloween, as I'm sure most of you have noticed. I even have small plastic guns hanging from my belt. Obviously, they're toys. You can't buy real guns in Japan - but did you know that you also can't buy real-looking plastic guns in the US?

The plastic guns I have right now are silver with black handles. They look real, especially from a distance. Toy guns in the US are almost always some kind of neon orange or other bright color. The reason is that if a toy gun looks real, people might think you have a real gun, and might be frightened - if they're police officers, they might even shoot you. Because some people actually do have real guns, all the toy guns are painted very colorfully so that no one confuses the two. Therefore, I'd have a hard time putting together this costume in the US - unless I wanted to be a neon cowboy.