Because Baltimore doesn’t have bigger problems to worry about.

BALTIMORE —In the midst of a surge in gun violence, a juvenile court official is pushing for a crackdown on the sale of toy guns, and she’s got the example to make her case.

Zakia Mahasa is a master in the city’s juvenile court. On Tuesday, she held up a toy gun she said a deputy sheriff from her court took from two young boys in a west Baltimore neighborhood.

“The boy pulled out a pistol, pointed it at another boy, and the other boy started running. So, of course, he says his heart went in his mouth because it looked like a gun,” Mahasa said.

The gun is plastic and fake, but Mahasa said when placed side-by-side with a real pistol, it is hard to tell the difference. She said the neighborhood where the boys were playing with it has been riddled with gun violence.

One street, Bennet Place, is closed because of two fatal shootings a week apart. Police put a mobile command center at the scene of another fatal shooting on Presstman.

“To me, doing what I do is not a question of if but when somebody is going to die. Some little child is going to die, or somebody is going to use that in the commission of a robbery. It looks that real,” Mahasa said.

Toy guns are sold at a corner store in the neighborhood.

They must be popular. The day WBAL-TV 11 News was there, two empty packages had been left in front of the store, as if whoever bought them couldn’t wait to pretend they were armed.