They’re called orbeez guns.

“It’s like fake BB’s, right?” said John Medinger, from La Crosse, Wisconsin. “Gel BB’s, right?”

Some look like brightly colored playguns, but police say others look like the real thing.

“I think that’s dangerous; I mean, I’m sure it could hurt young children,” said Kaylee Preswood of Spring Lake Park. “And if they’re very little, that’s super dangerous.”

The guns fire small gel balls that can leave a welt.

“I’ve never been shot with one, but I’m sure they’re not fun to be shot with,” Medinger noted.

On a social media post, a Blaine father said on Tuesday evening a large group of teens, wearing masks, jumped out of some bushes at the Jim Peterson Athletic Complex, and stopped four 11-year-olds, shooting them with orbeez guns at point blank range.

That father shared pictures with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS of his son’s injuries- his abdomen was covered with welts.

Parents attending a youth baseball tournament at the park expressed shock about the incident.

“That’s a little concerning because, like we said, they can hurt, not just skin and welts,” declared Jeremy Karja of Elk River. “That’s bad.”

Blaine Police Chief Brian Podany says a 15-year-old boy now faces misdemeanor assault charges in connection with the incident, and that the department is looking for others who may have been involved.

While the boy is facing charges, police said the 15-year-old suspect was not in custody as of Thursday.

However, Blaine isn’t the only city dealing with the misuse of orbeez.

Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Kalamazoo, Michigan, have also released videos and still images of orbeez guns in their communities.

Closer to home, a woman in Crystal posted a video of a takeover in Becker Park on June 30^th, where teens were firing orbeez guns at each other.

Police later had to move in and secure the park.

Police chief Podany is urging parents to speak with their children about these guns, and how they can cause harm.

Karja says he’s had his son take online gun safety courses, and he has firm rules in the house.

“We just say, hey, treat every gun, whether it’s a squirt gun, nerf gun, treat them all like a real gun,” he declared. “Where you practice that gun safety where you’re not going to hurt anyone because you could put somebody’s eye out with these, I’m sure.”

“When I grew up, boys are boys, we had fun, but shooting guns at each other is different,” Medinger adds. “It’s violent, you know?”