“Looks like a gun” is not a gun. Cap pistols, which have all but disappeared from modern life (except for some few that may have stayed in some kid’s collection years ago) looked like “real” guns, too, but there was no way they could have been converted into a real gun without an awful lot of machine work.
These “polymer pistols” have a very limited lifetime, with maybe a fifty-fifty chance of blowing the user’s hand off if used. For sure there is no second firing.
Now, modified with metal parts for barrel and chamber, and a reliable spring mechanism for the trigger, they could be as deadly as the same caliber handgun made in the conventional manner, but the heat and the pressure would also limit the use to no more than a couple of rounds before the device became too hot to hold, or deformed and became altogether useless. And the idea they would be undetectable by X-ray would be laughable, because of the added metal.
What we have here is an absolutely paralyzing fear of guns, all guns, bordering on superstition. It is my contention that guns not be made secret and mysterious, but be a part of EVERY child’s education, from the basic design of the mechanism, so the difference between a single-shot, a revolving chamber, a lever-cocking reload, and a semi-automatic reload system, and contrast this with a fully automatic weapon, which fires continuously until the trigger is released.
The next step is to further acquaint the young with the actual use, care, feeding, grooming, and proper means of handling the handgun or long gun in a controlled situation.
The next level will cover the basics of target selection, aiming at the specified target, and developing the skills to accurately put a bullet into that target with high reliability.
By this time, it should be apparent to those providing the instruction, there are some few who, either through ineptness, or those who bear malice thoughts of misusing the weapon, should never, ever be permitted access to a live-fire projectile. These few would be given appropriate instructions on how to avoid, evade or escape the presence of an armed person with real malice in mind, or for the more brave, how to confront such a person, and distract them sufficiently to either ruin their aim, or even surrender up the weapon.
Why would you write that response to an obvious joke?
The problem is that for an essentially peaceful people, such as the Australians in their cities, they do not wish to be bothered by learning about guns.
Much easier to forbid everyone from having them (with a few minor exceptions), than have to learn all that nasty stuff about mechanics, weapons, and the laws about self defense.
“Looks like a gun” is not a gun.
You won’t score too many points with Mary, but you will have made your point.