First off, banning any gun for any reason is unacceptable. That being said, I can understand why people are trying this:
Nassau County proposes ban on brightly painted guns
Owning or selling brightly colored guns may soon be illegal in Nassau County under a proposed ban because the painted weapons could pass as toys, police and county officials said yesterday.
Suffolk County officials are considering a similar ban.
I've said it before, and I will continue to say it until someone can give me a valid reason not to, making a real gun look like a toy is stupid to the extreme.
While I'm not really down on those camo pattern guns hunters use these days, I have to ask, why camouflage the gun when you're wearing a bright orange vest? Kinda defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
Also, a gun is not a fashion accessory. It's not supposed to "go" with anything except your holster. Pink is cute on a lot of things, but a gun is not one of them.
Don't get me going on those cartoon patterns offered by various companies, that's just childish. If you want a yellow/orange/mauve pattern gun, get a Super Soaker. And grow the hell up.
Anyway, back to the legal issue here. It is a safety issue, and they may actually succeed in banning these guns. If they do, it's our fault because we got cocky. Cocky and short-sighted, and now we may see a gun ban that appears "reasonable" to the average American.
Guns aren't toys. They shouldn't look like toys. We're giving the banners an "in", and they are going to take it. As they take it, they will point to the childish appearance of these guns in an effort to paint all gun owners (including hunters) as immature and irresponsible. And they will succeed.
Update: Stile over at The Gun Blogs has more.
Update the Second: MostlyGenius makes a good point:
The circumstances dictate whether or not a police officer is going to shoot. If you quick-draw a cell phone a the wrong time you are going to get shot, because your behavior consistent with being a threat.
[snip]
By the same token an adult running from the scene of a crime with a rifle painted like hello kitty is still going to look like a threat.
Update the Third: Ahab reiterates his sage advice:
the biggest rule with toy guns is that if you ever here “drop the gun” you drop the damn gun right then and there. Obviously, in this specific instance it’s a little different, but I want my kids (and everyone else) to understand that when it comes to fake guns and cops, it really is better to err on the side of caution.
Looks like I will become a grumpy old man in the future. I just hope it's not the near future. =)
3 comments:
Not all hunting requires a blaze orange vest.
I knew someone would say that. =)
That's why I'm not really down on camo patterns.
Hunters grew up with bolt action wooden stock rifles and think military style black plastic is ugly and Zumbo said they looked like terrorists rifles. He got shouted down over that opinion.
Your objection sounds like a Zumbo type opinion.
Men like their black or blued guns. Women on the other hand like their guns in colors. Some manufactures trying to appeal to a different market tried color and the husbamds hated it and theirs wives like it.
Cell phones used to come in only black, now crazy colors and people personalize them.
Their is no logical reason a rifle can not be personalized to a color scheme. If a father has a daughter and wants to interest her in rifle shooting and she wants on Hello Kitty or Barney purple than why not? The color does not make a firearm deadly or not.
When I was a child all our toy guns came in black. My brothers had Thompson machine guns in black and used to sit in the back of the station wagon and shoot out the rear window at others cars.
No one freaked out . If the gun was black, in the hand of a child it was obviously a toy.
Now based on the logic of Nassau County criminals can spray paint real guns with orange Krylon day glow paint and disguise real guns as toys. Should we now ban all spray paints?
If a criminal uses a weapon or a toy to hold up someone then assume the criminal should be stopped.
We want to turn people attitudes about guns instead of thinking they are big scary things and only a criminal would have a gun, to it is normal for a 13 year old to take a 22 rifle out to shoot. People used to ride on the subways in New York city with longarms and no one thought they were criminals.
Instead of using the gun as a shortcut to determine criminality let the criminals actions do that and their is no confusion.
I hope I gave a few reasons why it is fine for Lauer to sell their Durocoat to customers to peronalize their weapons.
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