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As Christmas approaches, children across the nation are asking Santa for toy guns. But after two recent shootings in our home state of Ohio, toy guns no longer seem so innocent.

Both incidents involved African-American youths who were killed by white police officers. And in both cases, the police thought the young men carried lethal firearms – when in fact they were pellet guns, which posed little threat. Hardly equal to the death sentences they incited.

In August, John Crawford, 22 years old, was shot down in our local Walmart. He was walking around the store with an unpackaged MK-177 air rifle that he picked off a shelf while talking on his cellphone. (In Ohio, it is perfectly legal to carry a gun openly, and Walmart sells conventional firearms in addition to those that fire BBs and plastic pellets.) A 911 caller reported – falsely — that Mr. Crawford was threatening people with a gun in the store. The police rushed in, guns drawn. Mr. Crawford reportedly only had time to cry, “It’s not real!” before he was shot dead.

A grand jury decided to issue no indictments in the killing of Mr. Crawford, which sparked peaceful protests in our community. Unfortunately, this has become a season of grand juries withholding similar indictments.

Then in November, a similar killing took place in Cleveland. Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old, was hanging out in a park, playing with a toy gun used to fire plastic pellets, when a police officer shot him down within seconds of arriving at the scene. The officer thought the gun was real.

These two cases have raised many questions about policing, race and justice. They have also prompted new legislation. Alicia Reece, an Ohio state representative, proposed a bill named for John Crawford that would require realistic-looking plastic pellet, airsoft and BB guns to clearly look like “toys.” As Ohio voters, we support this legislation, yet we know it won’t solve all the problems.

Ultimately, as gun violence and racial profiling continue to intersect with such tragic consequences, we’re left to grapple with a more troubling question: Was it the color of the gun that led to these deaths, or was it the color of their skin?

Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar are independent filmmakers who live and work together in Dayton, Ohio. Their documentary “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” was nominated for an Academy Award. Their film “A Lion in the House” won an Emmy Award.

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