Focus on Gun Color is Farcical

Someone painted this Cobra FS 380 for unknown purposes.  The police claim that it was to make it appear to be a toy, but people have been customizing and adorning the appearance of weapons for centuries.  From fox19.com:

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) -
Orlando Lowery was in court this weekend for allegedly painting his .380 caliber semi-automatic handgun to look like a toy.

It is only in recent times that firearms could easily be made in many different colors.  As the capability to do so has emerged, more and more people are taking advantage of it.  Here are some pistols in different colors.

This Pink Glock is fully functional.  One advantage of brightly colored handguns is that they are highly visible.   It is hard for a gun to be a credible deterrent if it cannot be seen.   I have read of more than one incident where a person armed with a mini-revolver was forced to fire it to prove that it was real.

Here are a couple of colorful Glock pistols that are not functional.  If a criminal wanted to have police believe his gun was not "real", training blue might be a better color.   Blue is the traditional color for training munitions that are inert.   This is a Glock 17 T FX,

 Another colorful Glock that cannot fire, a Glock 22 P

This Taurus PT 738 has an excellent reputation for reliability.  It is small, light, easy to carry, and is said to have one of the better triggers of the tiny, composite framed .380 pistols.   It comes in a variety of colors.

In the article about the painted Cobra FS, a Democrat legislator wants to require non-firearm guns to be brightly colored:

 Ohio State Representative and President of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus Alicia Reece (D-Cincinnati) introduced legislation to require all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns sold in Ohio to be brightly colored or have prominent florescent strips.

It seems a nonsensical solution to a non-problem.  A 12-year-old who was acting irresponsibly with an airsoft gun was shot and killed in Ohio.  The orange tip required to be on the gun by law had been removed.  From foxnews.com:

A boy brandishing a replica gun died Sunday after being shot by a Cleveland police officer responding to a 911 call about a person waving a gun in a park.

Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said the officer fired twice after the boy pulled the fake weapon -- which was lacking the orange safety indicator usually on the muzzle -- from his waistband.

An officer should never assume that a realistic looking item is not real if it is colored, so requiring non-guns to be colored is silly.  

The proposed law seems an emotional response that burdens everyone else for the sake of extremely dubious benefit.  It costs time, money, manpower, and incrementally reduces liberty to implement these regulations and laws.   The old "if it saves one life" mantra is irrational.   A great many things might "save one life".   In the example above, you can easily argue that the "coloring" regulation  was partly responsible for the shooting.  There was no orange tip, so the officer was more likely to believe the gun was a real threat.

One may also ask, what if it costs a single officer's life, because they assumed a gun was a toy when it was not?   Hypothetical's can be easily constructed for both sides.

In half serious mien, it would be better to pass a law requiring all 12-year-olds to be responsible young men with strong moral values.    If followed (not easy, but done in much of the country by custom and culture), it would save many more lives. 

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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