American Notes TOYS

The pistol's realistic ability to hit a target with an infrared light beam has made the Lazer Tag gun the hottest high-tech toy on the market, although it has been condemned by critics for promoting violence. Now the game's realism appears to have cost a young player his life. One night last week Leonard Falcon, 19, and three young friends were darting about Central Elementary % School in Rancho Cucamonga, a suburban town 45 miles east of Los Angeles, zapping each other with the beams from their guns. During the mock combat, Falcon jumped from behind bushes, assumed a shooting stance and fired his plastic pistol at an obscure figure. In the next instant Falcon was killed, after two shotgun blasts were fired by a sheriff's deputy.

Authorities say the officer was investigating a report of armed prowlers in the schoolyard; in the darkness the distinct flash of light from the toy gun made it look as if a real pistol were being fired. "The deputy reacted as he had been trained to react," said City Manager Lauren M. Wasserman. "He had a hundredth of a second to make a decision." Said the boy's father Joseph Falcon, who had been uneasy about the toy guns: "Something has got to be done to warn people."