In the wake of the Feb. 14 shootings, NIU is not looking to ban toy guns though other schools have.

While sensitivities have been heightened from the shootings, Terry Jones, associate director of the NIU judicial department, believes toy guns do not pose any threat by themselves.

“We would enforce those who would choose to use look-a-likes the same way those who would use a real weapon because if the intention is to threaten or intimidate, one should be held accountable,” Jones said.

At many colleges across the country, students engage in campus-wide games that involve shooting plastic toy guns at each other.

One such college was the University of Nebraska, which held a game called “Assassins.” In the game, students used plastic toy guns, squirt guns or anything else that would launch a harmless projectile in order to “kill” their assigned target for a cash prize at the end of the game.

However, due to numerous school shootings across the country in February, the University of Nebraska put a stop to the game last month believing it was inappropriate and distasteful.

At NIU, there is a similar game called “Humans vs. Zombies,” but is less conspicuous than “Assassins” by marking players openly with a headband or armband.

Despite the shootings at NIU, Emily Sturnfield, a junior geology and environmental sciences major and the president of the “Humans vs. Zombies” organization, said she has not received any scrutiny from administrators or anyone else.

“We as an organization have never been pressured to tighten our policies on NERF guns because we have always been very conservative about what we let students in the club do with them,” Sturnfield said.

Some of the rules players must abide by include making sure their toy guns are brightly colored, carrying them in the open and not concealing them, never using them to intimidate other students or shoot at non-players, and following the Illinois state mandate that all plastic and toy projectiles must have an orange tip.

Sturnfield also said her organization is careful to cover its bases and coordinates with the University Police and a lawyer on campus to reduce liability for everyone.

In respect to the sensitivities of everyone, and due to the bad weather, the “Humans vs. Zombies” organization has canceled their activities this semester, just as they did when the Virginia Tech shootings occurred.

It is also by their own decision that they have chosen to ban NERF guns from all campus-wide games in the future and limit them to secluded areas on the weekends.

“It’s quite fun to play either way, and NERF guns are hardly the most accurate or useful of items one could stun zombies with,” Sturnfield said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.