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http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2008/03/21/2008-03-21_gun_paint_company_taunts_mayor_bloomberg.html
Gun paint company taunts Mayor Bloomberg with paints named after him
Friday, March 21st 2008
Bloomberg is the featured moniker of Lauer Custom Weaponry's
gun-customization kit. Hizzoner is also an outspoken opponent of Lauer's gun
paints - so much so he outlawed them in N.Y.C.
Lauer Custom Weaponry's 'Bloomberg Collection' features gun coatings with a
color-by-borough paint set (Manhattan Red, Brooklyn Blue, Bronx Rose, Queens
Green and Staten Island Orange).
....and a template to create a graffiti 'facade' for maximum gun pimping.
A Wisconsin company that disguises deadly firearms with bright paints and
camouflage has a new target: Mayor Bloomberg.
Lauer Custom Weaponry, whose products were banned in the city in 2006
because they make dangerous guns look like innocent toys, is taunting the
anti-gun mayor with a line of paints named "The Bloomberg Collection."
The company - which named its purple hue after Barney, the dinosaur beloved
by toddlers - is peddling a rainbow of candy-colored paints for each of the
five boroughs.
There's red for Manhattan, rose for the Bronx, blue for Brooklyn, green for
Queens and orange for Staten Island.
And as an extra slap - a stencil of the mayor's face for the barrel of the
gun.
Gun owners also can plunk down $129 for a "Bloomberg Collection EZ Camo Kit"
to pimp out their semiautomatics and rifles with a brick wall and graffiti
decoration.
It's no joke.
An outraged Bloomberg called gun-coloration kits "a tragedy in the making."
"Making a quick buck by coloring a handgun to look like a toy is craven and
beneath any honest businessman," Bloomberg told the Daily News. "By coloring
these guns, a real one looks like a toy, and a police officer won't be able
to tell the difference."
"Imagine an officer who comes upon a teenager pointing a pink gun into a
crowd. If the gun is a toy, an innocent teenager may be killed - and others,
too.
"Our police officers have a hard enough job as it is, and that's why we
passed a law to prevent these deadly tragedies from occurring."
It's just the latest time Bloomberg has come under fire from the weapons
industry for his efforts to shut down New York's illegal gun trade.
Last year, a Virginia gun shop held a "Bloomberg raffle" - with the prize a
brand-new gun - to protest the mayor's crackdown on stores he says are
illegally peddling firearms that end up on New York streets.
Not to be left out, the National Rifle Association soon plastered a picture
of Bloomberg as an octopus on the cover of its magazine.
This time, Bloomberg angered Steve Lauer, owner of Lauer Custom Weaponry,
when he pushed through a law that punishes anyone who uses, buys or sells a
gun-coloration kit in New York with a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
"The mayor picked us out as being the pink-gun guys," said Toby Johnson, who
described himself as Lauer's "right-hand man" at the Chippewa Falls company.
The bright paints were meant to help rescue workers and range masters locate
guns more easily - not fool cops, Johnson said. They regularly sell the
colors named after the boroughs and have even sold "five or six" Bloomberg
camo kits, Johnson said.
Women also are big fans of the colors, he added.
"The ladies like it. They fashion their guns after their clothing," Johnson
said.
But at least one woman was angered by the "shameful ploy" and "disgraceful
marketing."
"In the hands of a child, a real gun made to look like a toy has deadly
consequences," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).
Gun paint company taunts Mayor Bloomberg with paints named after him
Friday, March 21st 2008
Bloomberg is the featured moniker of Lauer Custom Weaponry's
gun-customization kit. Hizzoner is also an outspoken opponent of Lauer's gun
paints - so much so he outlawed them in N.Y.C.
Lauer Custom Weaponry's 'Bloomberg Collection' features gun coatings with a
color-by-borough paint set (Manhattan Red, Brooklyn Blue, Bronx Rose, Queens
Green and Staten Island Orange).
....and a template to create a graffiti 'facade' for maximum gun pimping.
A Wisconsin company that disguises deadly firearms with bright paints and
camouflage has a new target: Mayor Bloomberg.
Lauer Custom Weaponry, whose products were banned in the city in 2006
because they make dangerous guns look like innocent toys, is taunting the
anti-gun mayor with a line of paints named "The Bloomberg Collection."
The company - which named its purple hue after Barney, the dinosaur beloved
by toddlers - is peddling a rainbow of candy-colored paints for each of the
five boroughs.
There's red for Manhattan, rose for the Bronx, blue for Brooklyn, green for
Queens and orange for Staten Island.
And as an extra slap - a stencil of the mayor's face for the barrel of the
gun.
Gun owners also can plunk down $129 for a "Bloomberg Collection EZ Camo Kit"
to pimp out their semiautomatics and rifles with a brick wall and graffiti
decoration.
It's no joke.
An outraged Bloomberg called gun-coloration kits "a tragedy in the making."
"Making a quick buck by coloring a handgun to look like a toy is craven and
beneath any honest businessman," Bloomberg told the Daily News. "By coloring
these guns, a real one looks like a toy, and a police officer won't be able
to tell the difference."
"Imagine an officer who comes upon a teenager pointing a pink gun into a
crowd. If the gun is a toy, an innocent teenager may be killed - and others,
too.
"Our police officers have a hard enough job as it is, and that's why we
passed a law to prevent these deadly tragedies from occurring."
It's just the latest time Bloomberg has come under fire from the weapons
industry for his efforts to shut down New York's illegal gun trade.
Last year, a Virginia gun shop held a "Bloomberg raffle" - with the prize a
brand-new gun - to protest the mayor's crackdown on stores he says are
illegally peddling firearms that end up on New York streets.
Not to be left out, the National Rifle Association soon plastered a picture
of Bloomberg as an octopus on the cover of its magazine.
This time, Bloomberg angered Steve Lauer, owner of Lauer Custom Weaponry,
when he pushed through a law that punishes anyone who uses, buys or sells a
gun-coloration kit in New York with a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
"The mayor picked us out as being the pink-gun guys," said Toby Johnson, who
described himself as Lauer's "right-hand man" at the Chippewa Falls company.
The bright paints were meant to help rescue workers and range masters locate
guns more easily - not fool cops, Johnson said. They regularly sell the
colors named after the boroughs and have even sold "five or six" Bloomberg
camo kits, Johnson said.
Women also are big fans of the colors, he added.
"The ladies like it. They fashion their guns after their clothing," Johnson
said.
But at least one woman was angered by the "shameful ploy" and "disgraceful
marketing."
"In the hands of a child, a real gun made to look like a toy has deadly
consequences," said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan).