Lego tells company to stop selling custom toy-like gun
Lego has told a company to stop making a real gun that looks like it is made out of the toy bricks.
The colourful firearm has sparked backlash in the US, with campaigners calling it “unacceptable” to have a gun looking like a toy.
Culper Precision, the Utah-based company who developed the gun, had called the Block 19 weapon “one of those childhood dreams coming to life” and that Lego bricks could be built onto it.
Lego told The Independent they had been in touch with the company amid media attention around the product.
“They have agreed to remove the product from their website and not make or sell anything like this in the future,” Lego told The Independent in a statement.
Culper Precision’s president told The Washington Post they had received a cease-and-desist letter from Lego.
Campaigners had hit out at the product that appeared to look like a Lego toy.
Moms Demand Action and Everytown, groups which advocate against gun violence, said: “With unintentional shootings by children on the rise since the pandemic and children at home during the summer, having a firearm that looks like a toy is unacceptable.”
Shannon Watts, the group’s founder, told The Washington Post when she first saw the image of the lego gun, she thought it was “sick and that children would die”.
In an Instagram post, Culper Precision said Block19 was built “to create an opportunity to talk about the enjoyment of the shooting sports and the joy that can only be found in marksmanship practice and training”.
“Our business is taking a firearm of known value and transforming it into a personalized invaluable treasure for a fair price,” the company said.
“People have the right to customize their property to make it look like whatever they want. It is our business to assist firearms owners in making their guns better reflect them as a person and individual.”
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