Danish toymaker Lego said Wednesday it had asked a Utah-based gun company to stop producing a product that makes a pistol look like it is covered with the famous multi-colored building brick.

What You Need To Know

  • Lego said Wednesday it had asked a Utah-based gun company to stop producing a product that makes a pistol look like it is covered with its iconic toy product

  • The design creates a customized semi-automatic Glock weapon that has a strong resemblance to a Lego toy

  • The company, Provo-based Culper Precision, wrote on Instagram that they "have decided to take the product down after some communication with Lego"

“We have contacted the company and they have agreed to remove the product from their website and not make or sell anything like this in the future,” Lego said in a brief statement.

The design creates a customized semi-automatic Glock weapon that has a strong resemblance to a Lego toy.

The company, Provo-based Culper Precision, wrote on Instagram that they "have decided to take the product down after some communication with Lego."

In an earlier post, the company said it had made the Block 19 “to create an opportunity to talk about the enjoyment of the shooting sports and the joy that can only be found in marksmanship practice and training.”

"We also recognize and built this to highlight the pure enjoyment of the shooting sports as we feel that like us, our customers truly deeply love the shooting sports and the inherent fun, satisfaction and joy that comes from participation in them," they wrote.

“We here at Culper Precision are grateful for the attention that Block19 is currently getting across the globe,” they said. They also insisted people have the right to customize their property, but also noted that responsible gun owners take measures to secure their firearms.

Shannon Watts, founder of the gun-control group Moms Demand Action, drew attention to the product on Twitter last week, and on Wednesday called the it “a recipe for disaster.”

“We have already seen tragedies happen when unsecured firearms are around children and they don’t look like toys,” she said in a statement. Unintentional shooting deaths by children of themselves or others rose more than 30% between March and December of 2020 as compared to the same time frame the year before, the group’s research found.

Watts told the Washington Post that when she saw the toy, she thought it was "sick and that children would die," and noted that "responsible gun owners should be appalled by this."

On her Twitter account, Watts shared a comment from a poster on The Firearm Blog which seems to concur with her latter point: "This, if real, is the most irresponsible gun modification I have seen in a long time. Perfect fodder for the 'Everytown for Gun Safety' people. Not a help," the commented wrote.

Another comment reads: "Bottom line is that it’s clearly a bad idea to make a deadly weapon look like a child’s toy. I don’t mean to be judgemental, but I honestly struggle to understand how/why anyone could find this amusing in the slightest."

That increase comes during a record-breaking surge in U.S. gun sales that began as the coronavirus pandemic took hold last year. Gun rights are politically important in conservative states such as Utah, which joined several other states in loosening gun laws this year by rolling back requirements for people to get permits to carry guns in public.

Lego was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name is derived from the two Danish words LEg GOdt, which mean “Play Well.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.