Company in Hot Water for Making Real Guns Look Like Lego Toys

Lego, needless to say, was not pleased.

"SUPER FUN"

A Utah gun shop called Culper Precision horrified gun safety advocates last week when it started to sell the "BLOCK19," a handgun customization kit that lets people coat their later-generation Glock 19s in Lego bricks, making the dangerous weapon look exactly like a child's toy.

The goal was to counter gun control advocates and "draw attention to the fact that the shooting sports are SUPER FUN!" according to the company. But the Lego-covered guns threaten to make a bad situation even worse, The Washington Post reports, as thousands of kids already happen upon guns and accidentally shoot themselves or others every year.

Online Outrage

While gun advocates reveled in the absurdity of a "super cool" Lego firearm on online forums, others were horrified by what they saw as a serious danger to child safety.

"Nothing says you are stupid [more] than making your real gun look like a toy," reads a comment on a gun blog identified by WaPo. "This is the dumbest idea I have ever seen."

Technically Legal

In the US, it's illegal to sell toys that are exact gun replicas. But selling or modifying real guns took look like replicas of toys, WaPo reports, is okay. In the past, police have also encountered guns made to look like Nerf dart guns. While alarming, especially considering a scenario where kids encounter an unsecure gun and can't tell the difference, there's no federal law preventing this sort of modification.

But Culper Precision president Brandon Scott wasn't concerned. He implied to WaPo that the pain of losing a child to an unsecured firearm ought to be punishment enough for any parents who leave the BLOCK19 — which, again, is a deadly weapon deliberately disguised as a child-friendly toy — lying around.

Scott's technically-legal-but-questionable product, however, is no more. While the law couldn't stop the BLOCK19, Lego could. After getting a "polite" cease-and-desist letter from the company on Monday, he told WaPo, Scott decided to comply.

READ MORE: ‘SUPER FUN’: A gun covered in Legos to look like a toy sets off a furor [The Washington Post]

More on guns: Police Raided Factory Churning Out Black Market 3D Printed Weapons