Gun Maker Halts Sale of LEGO Gun Following Cease-and-Desist

We’ve discovered the laborious manner that sure poisonous mixtures set off such foreseeable hurt that they need to by no means have made it previous the drafting board. Medical recommendation and Lysol. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fb. Cops and surveillance toys. In that vein, right this moment we be taught what occurs when LEGO bricks merge with Glocks: Attorneys come knocking.

LEGO has despatched a cease-and-desist order to a Utah-based customized gun firm for “Block19,” which, in line with the Instagram promotion, brings “a type of childhood goals” to life. On June twenty fourth, the corporate Culper Precision defined the motivation behind its deadly arts and craft: “We wished the second modification to easily be too painful to tread on, so there was just one logical resolution.”

They gleefully reveal that they only glued some LEGO on there, and so they caught fairly good: “We superglued all of it collectively and surprisingly it survived a little bit over 1500 rounds in full auto at Shootah this previous weekend!” One other marketed perk is the flexibility to construct extra LEGO creations onto the gun’s physique, a traditional grownup pastime.

Earlier than the corporate eliminated the gun from its web site, the Guardian reports, it marketed the firearm for $549 to $765, properly above its common Glock price ticket.

The gun additionally reenforces Second Modification rights, one way or the other, they argue, in a blogpost following widespread criticism. “We’re sick of the previous 30-40 years of slowly capitulating our rights away within the worry of what somebody who hates us for exercising our 2nd Modification rights thinks about us,” they wrote. They added that they launched Block19 to liberate gun homeowners from the “worry of the loud voices on social media,” to point out that weapons are “for EVERYONE,” that Block19 steps nearer to creating weapons “the nice unifier.”

The Gun Violence Archive has found that in 2020, gun violence killed or injured 5,137 teenagers and youngsters—a spike from an already-horrifying 3,818 teenagers and youngsters in 2019 and three,547 in 2018. By comparability, FBI knowledge reveals that 47 regulation enforcement officers have been killed by guns in 2019. Analysis by the Children’s Defense Fund found that from 2008 to 2017, weapons killed twice as many youngsters below age 5 than regulation enforcement officers on obligation.

But whereas manufacturing weapons to appear like toys is in opposition to federal regulation, customizing and proudly owning a toy-disguised gun is authorized, the Washington Publish reported. Earlier this yr, North Carolina regulation enforcement claimed to have found a gun disguised as a Nerf alongside 20 different firearms. The proprietor wasn’t charged for the gun however possession of mushrooms and hashish.

Gun violence has spun thus far uncontrolled within the U.S. that, in 2019, Amnesty Worldwide issued a journey advisory for guests to train “excessive warning” as a result of gun violence now quantities to a human rights disaster.

Associated gun accounts that Culper Precision tagged on its Block19 submit appear to be considering alongside the identical strains. A Toy Story gun (“for portfolio functions solely”). A Nintendo gun. A gun plausibly inspired by Toys R’ Us. Storm Trooper gun? A gun in front of a Marvel emblem.

Culper Precision additionally tagged LEGO on Instagram, maybe bringing the merchandise to the corporate’s consideration, if not a wave of disgusted gun control advocates. In an announcement to Gizmodo, LEGO declined to touch upon the wedding of deadly weapons and their toys, however that they’ve requested Culper Precision to cease selling the Block19. “We have now contacted the corporate and so they have agreed to take away the product from their web site and never make or promote something like this sooner or later,” it stated.

Whereas most commenters on the LEGO gun submit applauded Culper Precision for lighting the web on 🔥🔥🔥, others didn’t fairly see how gluing LEGO bricks on a gun makes a pro-Second Modification assertion. “I help the second modification, however this seems to be an excessive amount of like a toy,” one wrote. “Is nobody apprehensive a few child killing himself or others with it?”

Sure. It’s a gun.