Five major retailers, including Walmart, will pay $300,000 after selling imitation guns that are illegal in New York State.

Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman reached an agreement reached with Walmart and four other retailers for violating a New York State law that prohibits the sale of “imitation weapons,” which are toy guns that look like real guns.

Walmart operates stores in Massena, Potsdam and Ogdensburg.

The investigation found that, from 2012 through 2014, Amazon.com, Kmart, Sears, Walmart and California-based ACTA, – and third-party sellers operating through Amazon.com and Sears.com – sold more than 6,400 prohibited toy guns in New York without the legally-required distinguishing color markings.

The deals require the retailers, most of whom sold the toys online, to apply New York City’s strict appearance standards to all statewide sales. New York City law currently requires any toy gun sold in the five boroughs to be entirely brightly colored; state law is more lenient, requiring markings only along the sides and tip of the gun barrel.

The Attorney General’s Office also sent cease and desist letters to 65 third-party sellers that sold the toys into New York through Amazon, and 2 third-party sellers that sell through Sears.com.

The agreement with Walmart requires the company to pay $225,000 in fines to New York State. Kmart, Amazon.com, Sears and ACTA will pay more than $84,000 in combined fines and costs. The Amazon settlement includes a civil penalty of $7,250 – $50 per online sale – which is paid to New York State, plus $2,000 in costs to the Attorney General’s Office. Kmart has agreed to pay a $64,550 penalty – $50 per online sale and $500 for each in-store sale. It also will pay $2,000 in costs. The settlement with ACTA includes a civil penalty of $7,000, and $2,000 in costs to the Attorney General’s Office.

The fines imposed on Walmart are higher because that company violated a similar 2003 agreement with the Attorney General’s Office, in which it the company agreed to stop selling realistic looking toy guns in New York. While the earlier settlement stemmed from illegal in-store sales of imitation weapons, the current investigation found that those sales had moved to Walmart’s online marketplace.

New York City, New York State and federal laws have long restricted the sale of realistic-looking toy guns because experience has repeatedly demonstrated that these toys endanger both their users and the public. Hundreds of crimes have been committed in New York City with toy guns, and there have been at least 63 shootings in New York State since 1994 as a result of someone holding a toy or imitation weapon. At least eight of those were fatal.