‘Children Will Die’: Lego-Covered Gun Draws Harsh Criticism

@culperprecision/Instagram

July 14, 2021, 6:48 am

While over half of Americans clamor for stricter gun laws, considering we can’t seem to go a day without a mass shooting in this country, one gun manufacturer has come under fire for trying to make guns seem more “fun.”

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Culper Precision received a cease-and-desist from Lego after offering up a gun coated in Lego blocks—the BLOCK19.

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Some gun-lovers were into the design, finding it cute and the name hilarious, but many more people were deeply concerned about what looks like a gun marketed towards children.

The manufacturer’s president, Brandon Scott, told The Washington Post that while the possibility that children might find this gun appealing and think it’s just a toy had crossed his mind, he was ultimately unswayed by the concern, as he just really wanted to make something cool for adults who had made guns out of Legos they “got from Santa” as children.

“There is a satisfaction that can ONLY be found in the shooting sports and this is just one small way to break the rhetoric from Anti-Gun folks and draw attention to the fact that the shooting sports are SUPER FUN!” the website description said.

While a gun company’s apparent lack of concern for children’s safety isn’t particularly surprising, the outrage surrounding the gun was still loud enough to garner widespread attention—including from Lego.

“…plastic legit blocks from that company that just wants us all to ‘play well’ but in our estimation doesn’t particularly appreciate Block19 because they have never ‘played’ as ‘well’ as a great day at the range.”

If these are legit Legos, I hope @LEGO_Group intervenes.

— nikki sumrow (@nikki_sumrow) July 8, 2021

I love Lego, and like using guns safely. But can’t see the two mixing, particularly if you have kids in the house. https://t.co/axWI1X7HPL

— Iain Thomson (@iainthomson) July 13, 2021

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From the product description: “We built BLOCK19 because… We have been building guns out of blocks for the last 30 years and wanted to flip the script to aggravate Mom.”

Guns are not toys.
They should not look like toys.
This is not okay.
Children will die.
It’s not a joke. https://t.co/CMXOLA95nM

— Lindsay V Wissman (@lindsayvwissman) July 9, 2021

Yes indeed, there is absolutely no way Lego would ever be down with this; and this company clearly is standing just behind the legally actionable line and thumbing their nose at a widely beloved company.

— Pat (@castlecraver) July 8, 2021

Some folks also pointed out that, considering we already have a problem with police shooting Black children holding toy guns or things that don’t resemble guns at all, if we start making guns that actually look like toys…it will only cause more trouble.

If that thing is a real gun, then it provides police the perfect cover to shoot anyone holding anything in their grasp, no matter what it looks like.

— DemosCat (@DemosCat) July 8, 2021

As backward as it may seem, there are federal laws prohibiting toys from being made to look like real guns, but there are no such laws to stop anyone from making guns that look like toys.

Fortunately, Culper Precision has pulled the product in the wake of the cease-and-desist. Common sense didn’t make them do it, outcry from the public didn’t make them do it, and concern about children’s safety certainly didn’t make them do it. But Lego got it done—for now, at least.

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*First Published: July 14, 2021, 6:48 am