Color Me Unsurprised: Bradys Attack Paint

It’s quite probable that not too many people would have ever heard of Lauer Custom Weaponry if it hadn’t been for Mayor Bloomberg, and now The Brady Campaign.  In the tradition of “There’s no such thing as bad publicity!”, there’s little doubt in my mind the notoriety they’ve gained through the pant shitting hysterics of leading anti-gun groups is bound to drive the sales of their product through the roof, and make even the grizzliest of grizzled gun guys long to paint their rifle pink.  Why?  Because there’s one thing The Brady’s and Mayor Bloomberg don’t understand; we gunnies hate people presuming to tell us what is and what isn’t acceptable when it comes to our private affairs, and we’ll go out of our way to patronize companies and products just to piss them off.  The more hysterics they cry, the more colorful guns will be out there.

I’m not going to run out to buy any of the Bloomberg Collection any time soon, because I’m a traditionalist, and I like my rifles like I like my coffee: black.  But make a serious effort to ban this stuff, I might just do up an AR in Barney Purple just as an act of defiance.  Yeah, because I’m like that.  Most of us are.  So go ahead, Brady.  Continue to vilify this stuff, and Lauer will be seeing $$ in their eyeballs for every nasty editorial.

But what of colored guns?  Are they really a threat to law enforcement?  As much as I’m trying to imagine that drug dealers and gang bangers are going to run around with a Bryco 9mm painted in Barney Purple, I’m having a difficult time.  Besides, colored gun are not anything new.  They’ve been around for a long time.  Here are some examples:

So are the Brady’s wanting to be the deciders of what is and what isn’t part of the art of gunsmithing?  Do they want to dictate which decorations on guns are OK, and which aren’t?  I have no doubt they do, but decorating guns is a tradition as old as guns, and this is merely the latest incarnation.  I’d be more sympathetic to the arguments that if these dasterdly paints ever fell into criminal hands, all holy hell would break loose, if brightly colored spray paint weren’t available in every home depot.  Sure, it won’t look as nice as the custom paint Lauer makes, but if you’re a gang banger and want to paint your gun Barney Purple so the fuzz will hesistate to shoot you, well, the technology to do so has been readily available for years.  If painting guns suddenly becomes the fashion among criminals now, we’ll know who to blame, and it won’t be shooters, or Lauer Custom Weaponry.  Color me skeptical that will happen, though.