A teenage boy who pointed a gel blaster gun made to look like a real pistol at two girls so frightened them they blindly ran out into traffic.
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The 16-year-old found the gun in a kitchen drawer of his stepfather's Springdale Heights home.
The girls, both aged 15, were put into an extraordinarily dangerous situation, magistrate Miranda Moody has told the stepfather, who cannot be identified.
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"These gel blasters are a menace," she said to the man, on sentence in Albury Local Court.
"The issue is that gel blasters do kill people.
"It's one of the reasons why they are illegal under the (NSW Firearms) Act.
"Those girls could have run into the middle the road and be killed because they were really scared."
The man, 50, pleaded guilty to charges of possess an unauthorised and prohibited firearm, acquire a prohibited firearm without a licence or permit, not keep a firearm/pistol safely and possess ammunition without holding a licence or permit.
Defence lawyer Mitchell Irwin said a friend of the man directed him about 12 months to get one of the gel blasters.
"He didn't realise how serious it was," he said.
"He used it for a period of time and then put it away. The last time he used it was 11 months ago.
"Like a lot of people in the community he did not realise this was a firearm.
"He regrets his actions and now realises how serious it was.
"There was certainly no malicious intent in possessing this firearm."
The court was told the incident involving his stepson happened between April 2 and 19.
"At this time the young person retrieved a black handgun from a kitchen drawer and pointed it at both (the girls), causing them to run out of the house and ... onto the street," police said.
"The accused was at home at the time but did not witness this incident."
Police found ammunition in another kitchen drawer.
The man was convicted and was placed on a 12-month community corrections order.
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