Anti-gun Shakedown Machine Now Targets Toy Gun Sellers

The pro-Second Amendment community understands that guns are not toys.  In the hands of trained, responsible, law-abiding individuals they are tools suitable for any number of practical purposes; perhaps most importantly, they can be used to save lives.

But what about toys that look like guns?

We’ve covered the issue of toy guns for decades, as anti-gun extremists seem to think they represent a gateway to children eventually growing up to have an interest in real guns (as if that might be a problem).

Of course, it is a problem for those who despise our right to arms, as children who do not see firearms as an inherent threat to society are more likely to grow up to be adults who feel the same.  Adults, of course, are far more difficult to indoctrinate into the anti-gun cult.

So, over the years, we’ve seen gun control messaging appear in some odd places. Santa has been used to push the message, and toy gun turn-ins have run during the Christmas season on a number of occasions.  Halloween, arguably the second most popular holiday for kids, has also been targeted for anti-gun messaging, and even cartoons are not safe from the reach of disarmament extremists.

Then there are myriad examples of schools with “zero tolerance” policies related to anything that resembles a firearm, even when they are neither firearms nor in the actual school.  At least one child was even punished for voluntarily turning in a toy that had been accidentally brought to school.

So it is clear that, along with actual firearms, anti-gun extremists also hate toy guns. This is so, even though the main argument supporting their crusade against toy guns—i.e., exposing kids to toy guns leads to violent behavior—is unsupported by research.

Which brings us to New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). James, you may recall, has used her office to send threatening letters to ammunition sellers, and was involved in a phony “scandal” regarding an ammunition manufacturer.

Now she is using her office’s resources to go after Walmart.  The offense?  The retail giant has an online store that sells toy guns, and a few third-party resellers, apparently, allowed for the purchase and shipment into New York of toy guns that are not, in the AG’s opinion, lame enough to comply with NY law.

A news article about this relatively innocuous mistake includes a picture of what we presume is one of the offending toys, and it clearly looks like a toy.  It has the tell-tale bright orange barrel, along with a bright orange trigger.  It even appears to be in an odd shade of blue-grey that seems obviously plastic.

New York law, however, requires all toy guns sold in the state to be “made in bright colors or made entirely of transparent or translucent materials,” according to the article.  Colors such as black, dark blue, silver, or aluminum are not allowed, the article notes.

According to a release from the AG’s office, while Walmart neither admits nor denies the allegations made about the toy gun “nontroversy,” the company agrees to a number of requirements, including paying $14,000 in civil penalties and $2,000 for the cost of the investigation.

AG James released a statement celebrating this hard-nosed, crime-fighting victory, noting, “Realistic-looking toy guns can put communities in serious danger and that is why they are banned in New York.”

So, residents of the Empire State can now rest easier knowing that their top law enforcement officer is on the job ridding the state of the scourge of toy guns that look fun enough for kids to want to play with them.