Wal-Mart halts N.Y. toy-gun sales

Los Angeles Times ^ | 4-11-03

[Brian S]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Thursday suspended sales of toy guns in its stores throughout the state of New York, only hours after Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer sued the world's biggest retailer, accusing it of selling such toys without required safety markings to distinguish them from real weapons.

The toy guns have orange caps on their barrels, as required by federal law, but they don't have nonremovable orange stripes down the barrel's length as New York law requires, Spitzer's lawsuit contends.

Safety experts say the brightly colored markings help police officers distinguish toy guns from real weapons, and that the permanent stripes are important because the plastic barrel caps can fall off or be removed.

"In our continued efforts to be a responsible retailer, we have made the decision to suspend sales of all toy cap guns in New York," the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said. "This decision is based on the belief by the attorney general that some of the toy cap guns we are selling do not comply with the law."

[lilylangtree]

Wasn't Michael Moore earlier on a kick to get the guns out of Wal-Mart? Bet he's grinning from ear to ear.

[DannyTN]

Now there's a toy for children.

[MississippiMan]

Government in this country is broken. City, county, state, federal, doesn't matter. They're broken and they no longer resemble what was intended. And we're the boiling frogs who allowed it to happen and continue to ease right along as the temperature climbs, pretending we're making a difference, when the very BEST we can hope for now is to slow the growth of the insanity.

MM

[packrat01]

Kids should have toy second admendment rights!

Adults already have toy second admendment rights! If we had real second admendment rights, it'b just be the BAT, not BATF.

[ZULU]

More anti-gun nonesense. I wich New York had a Republican governor. (Heheheh!!)

[69ConvertibleFirebird]

...the belief by the attorney general that some of the toy cap guns we are selling do not comply with the law."

A pointed finger and the word "bang" don't comply with the law in govt schools either. therefore we should ban all children from the schools.

The job of liberals is to make our kids so incompetent that they have to rely on the govt for life.

[Mears]

Good Lord,I never thought of the criminal painting orange stripes on a real gun.

Looks like another dumb,feel-good law to me.

[panaxanax]

"What's to prevent anyone from painting bright orange stripes down the barrel and around the muzzle of a S&W Mod 29?"

OR:

Choosing your plastic orange-striped pistol then walking to the hardware section (about 35' from the toy guns) and getting some black spray paint or electrical tape?

I wish Wal-Mart would fight this.

[weegee]

A pointed finger and the word "bang" don't comply with the law in govt schools either. therefore we should ban all children from the schools.

No need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. We'll just cut off their index fingers.

[weegee]

I wonder if this means that incarcirated criminals have to put an orange "safety" marker on their carved soap guns while in prison.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

looks like you may be forced to buy a toy gun online in your state. I wonder what the penalties are for Toy gun traffiking across state lines?

Ask Sarah Brady or Rosie O'Donnell. I'm sure they know...

[Labyrinthos]

I wonder what the penalties are for Toy gun traffiking across state lines?

Although I don't know the answer to your question, I do know that if you're caught carrying a concealed toy gun without a permit, they make you watch Rosie O'Donnell reruns for 72 hours straight.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I guess that the NY legislature will next look at requiring Baking soda, talcum powder, and powdered sugar all be colored some pigment so as to limit the number of "false anthrax scare" cases.

I'm sure Osama bin Loser would NEVER, EVER think of coloring his anthrax to resemble "safe" powders...

[Djarum]

Safety experts say the brightly colored markings help police officers distinguish toy guns from real weapons, and that the permanent stripes are important because the plastic barrel caps can fall off or be removed.

And the magical, 'permanent' stripe can't be painted over! Just who are these "safety experts"?

[CJ Wolf]

the sure know how to torture those pro-gun people don't they. lol.

[honeygrl]

"and all toy guns are to be replaced with girly boy toys "

Next they'll insist they all be pastel colors.. it's probably already that way in San Francisco.. gotta gay-up those little boys!

[honeygrl]

There's almost an entire aisle in most of the stores here of water guns.. even the grocery stores have a good selection. I'm in GA.

[GOPcapitalist]

when the very BEST we can hope for now is to slow the growth of the insanity.

Very true. And I continue to be shocked at just how quickly things have changed. I had all sorts of toy guns as a child, and most of them didn't have any goofy orange markings on them. Nor did anyone ever mistake them for real guns - they were made of PLASTIC and had "GI Joe" stickers all over the side. It was all normal kid stuff.

I even remember bringing my plastic toy "Davy Crocket" rifle to school for "Texas History Day" in 3rd or 4th grade. Part of the assignment was to pick a famous hero from Texas history and come to school in costume...well, half the class showed up as either Davy Crocket, Jim Bowie, or Sam Houston and we all brought our toy guns or plastic Bowie knifes as part of the costume. Nobody thought anything of it more than harmless fun - not the teachers, not the students, not the parents.

Nowadays if a third grader shows up a school with a transluscent neon green squirt gun, they'll have him cuffed and in the back of a police car the second he steps foot in the door.

[Unwavering Conservative]

Wal-Mart has always fought lawsuits and challenges to them to the bitter end.

Now, they all of a sudden start cowering, without a fight, to the gun control Nazis.

I am beginning to think that Wal-Mart might secretly support gun control.

[upchuck]

Nowadays if a third grader shows up a school with a transluscent neon green squirt gun, they'll have him cuffed and in the back of a police car the second he steps foot in the door.

Sad, isn't it?