A Utah company has stopped selling a kit that encases Glock handguns in Lego blocks, amid an uproar and after the Danish toymaker demanded that it cease and desist.
Marketing the “Block19” as a “a childhood dream come to life,” Culper Precision introduced it on Instagram, saying: “We wanted the [US constitution’s] Second Amendment to simply be too painful to tread on, so there was only one logical solution.”
Red, yellow and blue blocks made the original weapon barely visible, disguising it as a child’s toy.
Selling the kits for US$549 to US$765, the company enticed adult gun users to buy the firearm “made out of the Legos you got from Santa.”
At the urging of gun control advocates, Lego sent the company a cease-and-desist letter, demanding that it stop producing the Block19.
Culper Precision president Brandon Scott told the Washington Post that a lawyer told him Lego might have a case if he kept offering the Block19, so he decided to comply.
“They had a similar reaction to you,” he said. “Where it was like: ‘Is it wise to make a gun look like a toy?’”
A report from the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety showed that from March to December last year, unintentional shooting deaths by children of themselves or others increased 31 percent from the same period in 2019.
The COVID-19 pandemic kept millions of children home as gun ownership reached record highs — the problem continues.
Last week, a 12-year-old in California died after he accidentally shot himself with a gun that his friend brought to a sleepover.
Shannon Watts of Everytown for Gun Safety, which sent a letter to Lego about the Block19, told the BBC there was a risk that children might be drawn to use firearms “even when guns don’t look like toys.”
The company does not appear to be apologetic: Culper Precision said on Instagram on Tuesday: “Our business is taking a firearm of known value” and transforming it into a “personalized invaluable treasure for a fair price.”
People “have the right to customize their property to make it look like whatever they want,” it added.
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