A real gun resembling a Lego toy horrifies parents, sparks backlash: 'How is this even legal?'

A company in Utah is facing flak after creating a real gun that looks like a toy when placed in a case. The kit designed to hold Glock handguns is made from red, yellow, and blue Lego blocks to resemble a children's toy. The company describes the gun case as a 'fun product' but parents who have watched their children succumb to guns are horrified. “We have been building guns out of blocks for the last 30 years and wanted to flip the script to aggravate Mom,” Provo-based Culper Precision wrote on its website about the product, reported The Washington Post. The company said that the kit case designed with Legos was created to make guns more 'friendly' and added that shooting sports were "SUPER FUN."

“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!” claims the site for a product named BLOCK19 and priced $549 to $765, depending on the specifics. The description concludes, "Here’s the thing. Guns are fun. Shooting is fun. 30 rounds full auto is fun.” Many parents, especially those who lost their children to gun violence, certainly didn't think it was fun. Thousands of kids were victims of gun violence every year and making it more appealing for kids to handle guns has caused an uproar online. Many were angered that someone even thought of creating such a product and added that it could cost the lives of many more children.  

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a grassroots movement to protect people from gun violence, was horrified by the product. "This "Lego Glock" is an actual thing you can buy, build and shoot: "...honestly what childhood toy is more welcoming than a big ole pile of blocks," wrote Watts, before adding, "Unintentional shootings among children have risen by 30% in the past year." Many gun owners were also appalled by the product. One person wrote beneath a review of the product, "This, if real, is the most irresponsible gun modification I have seen in a long time. Perfect fodder for the "Everytown for Gun Safety" people. Not a help. When a kid has an ND (negligent discharge) with one of these, I wouldn't want to be Culpeppper's lawyer," they wrote. "Making a legitimate firearm appear to be a toy is simply irresponsible. Just because we can, doesn't necessarily mean we should," another added. Kristin Song, who lost her 15-year-old son after he accidentally shot himself, was horrified by the image of the custom design. “How is this even legal?” asked Song, before adding that it was "sick and that children would die.”

Culper Precision’s president, Brandon Scott, defended the product saying the onus on protecting the children was on the parents. Considering the rate of unintentional shootings by kids, the gun dressed up to look like a toy certainly poses problems. More than 4.6 million children lived in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm as per stats from 2015. Culper Precision was sent a cease-and-desist letter from Lego, despite not mentioning the company by name. The product has since been removed from the website. The product wasn't in contravention Federal law as there's no prohibition on guns being made to look like toys. However, federal law prohibits toys from being made to look like guns. BLOCK19 would be illegal in New York where the state bans people from disguising firearms as something else, said David Pucino, a lawyer at the Giffords Law Center.