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This handgun is an abomination, but the fact that people are defending it is even worse

This handgun is an abomination, but the fact that people are defending it is even worse

A toddler found a gun in the back of a car and shot a 30-year-old woman in the back in Louisiana. A 4-year-old found a handgun and shot himself in Missouri. Another 4-year-old found a gun and did the same thing in Colorado. A 10-year-old in Pennsylvania accidentally shot and killed himself in front of his 8-year-old sister after finding his family's loaded gun.

That's just a sampling of headlines from just the past few weeks in the U.S. According to Everytown Research, a child was killed in an accidental shooting every day prior to the pandemic, and those numbers surged by nearly 30% in 2020. And that's just the kids who are killed. Countless more are injured by accidental gunfire.

Laws exist to make sure toy guns don't look exactly like real guns (orange tips are supposed to be the giveaway), but not vice versa. In light of the fact that gun violence is the second leading cause of death for children under age 19 in the U.S., the idea of someone intentionally making a real gun look like a toy is unfathomable. The idea of marketing and selling and a real gun that looks like a toy is even worse. And the idea of celebrating a gun that looks like a toy is so weird and disturbing it's not even funny.


That didn't stop Utah custom gun maker Culver Precision from doing just that, though. The company shared a photo of its "Block19"—a Glock handgun covered in LEGO-style brick pieces—on its social media pages. So bright and colorful, right? "SUPER FUN," as the company described it, according to the Washington Post.

"We have been building guns out of blocks for the last 30 years and wanted to flip the script to aggravate Mom," the Culver Precision website read, prior to the listing being removed. "There is a satisfaction that can ONLY be found in the shooting sports and this is just one small way to break the rhetoric from Anti-Gun folks and draw attention to the fact that the shooting sports are SUPER FUN! Here's the thing. Guns are fun. Shooting is fun. 30 rounds full auto is fun."

Maybe that's true, for some people. And maybe this prototype was made as a joke "to aggravate Mom." Well, mission accomplished. This mom is aggravated, because I don't think there's anything funny about making a Glock look like an actual toy when kids already have a hard time differentiating between a toy gun and a real gun and American children are being shot every day.

LEGO apparently doesn't find it funny either, since they sent Culver Precision a cease and desist letter. (Worth noting that the company's posts were careful not to mention LEGO by name.)

Culver Precision president Brandon Scott spoke to the Post about the gun, saying he'd sold less than 20 of them, but that the majority of online commenters thought it was "super cool," "hilarious," or a "10/10 meme gun." Perusing the comments on their social media posts, it does appear that their fans see absolutely nothing wrong with a Glock that looks like a LEGO toy. It feels like an alternate universe where down is up, left is right, and preschoolers don't shoot themeslves or their loved ones every damn day.

Scott told the Post that the company would not be responsible if a child got hold of this kind of gun and killed or harmed themselves or others, that parents are responsible for keeping their guns away from kids, but also that parents shouldn't be held criminally liable in such a scenario.

In other words, Scott is living in a world divorced from reality. Yes, adults should be responsible gun owners. But far too often, they are not, and children pay the ultimate price. Sure, shooting might be fun for some people. But the last time I checked, an adult pastime that is actually fun doesn't need to be dressed up in a childlike way. (In fact, in most scenarios that would just be considered weird.) Absolutely, gun ownership is a constitutional right. But the entire gun rights argument for opposing government regulations hinges on responsible gun ownership, and creating a gun to look like LEGO toy is one of the most irresponsible things I've ever seen a gun enthusiast do.

As I'm sitting here writing this, just now, my 17-year-old looked over my shoulder at the photo of the Block19. Our brief conversation about it:

"What is that?"

"It's a Glock covered in LEGOs."

"That's a real gun?"

"Yep."

"Doesn't it look like a toy, though?"

"Yep."

"That is SO freaking stupid."

"Yep."

It really is that simple.

I'm well aware that people collect guns and that there are guns for display and guns for art purposes, and I'm also aware that this gun isn't being marketed as a serious weapon. But that in and of itself is a problem, because a gun is a serious weapon. Responsible gun owners acknowledge that fact, respect it, and teach it. They don't superglue LEGOs onto a Glock because they know that making a serious weapon look like a toy removes the seriousness from it and creates a confusing message.

You think shooting is fun? Have at it. But don't pretend that making a gun look like a toy isn't incredibly irresponsible when far more preschoolers are killed by guns than on duty police officers in the United States. It's a bad look and absolutely flies in the face of every "responsible gun owner" argument used to argue against common sense gun legislation.

Millennials and Gen Z ditch top sheet to the dismay of Boomers


Once again the youngins are flabbergasting the older generations with their disregard of things they deem unnecessary. There's always something that gets dropped or altered generation to generation. We learn better ways or technology makes certain things obsolete. But it doesn't matter how far we've come, our beds still need sheets to cover the mattress.

The debate is on the use of top sheets, also known as flat sheets. They're the sheets that keep your body from touching the comforter, most Gen X and Boomers are firmly for the use of top sheets as a hygiene practice. The idea being that the top sheet keeps your dead skin cells and body oils from dirtying your comforter, causing you to have to wash it more often.

Apparently Millennials and Gen Zers are uninterested in using a top sheet while sleeping. In fact, they'd rather just get a duvet cover, though they may be cumbersome. A duvet cover can be washed fairly frequently, while some may opt for a cheeper comforter that they don't care is washed often because their distain for a top sheet is that strong.

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Family

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Finally, a kid should have to earn having nice things and starting them off with a brand new Mercedes isn’t going to instill much work ethic.

Even though a large number of parents say a teen’s first car should be a clunker, many are applauding Joe Tegerdine, a father in Springville, Utah, and his wife Kerry for buying their son Joseph, 18, a 330-horsepower 2020 Ford Mustang.

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For Lindsay Moore, it was finding a “prized possession” her dad once gave up to help the family, and returning it to him once again.

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Veterinarian lists things pet parents do that 'give him the ick' and they are spot-on

Though meant in good fun, these 'icks' could be helpful pointers for pet parents everywhere.

Representative Image from Canva

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Ally McBeal first brought us the phrase “gives me the ick” back in 1999. And it’s recently had a resurgence, thanks to, you guessed it, TikTok. And while it’s mostly reserved to the dating world, the term can and has been used to describe virtually every red flag or pet peeve under the sun.

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The history of colonialism and the stealing of lands from indigenous peoples in the Americas is fraught with pain and suffering that has gone unseen by many. A growing Land Back movement has been fighting, in part, for indigenous people's reclamation of their ancestral homelands and the restoration of land management based on Native knowledge and practices.

One small but significant move in that direction has taken place in the redwood forests of northern California. The Yurok Tribe, who had 90% of their homelands stolen during the Gold Rush, has joined the Redwood National and State Parks and the nonprofit Save the Redwoods League in an agreement that will give ownership in 2026 of 125 acres (50 hectares) of land near Orick, California to the tribe.

According to the AP, the land is named 'O Rew in the Yurok language, and the tribe's cultural resources director Rosie Clayburn said the return of the land is proof of the “sheer will and perseverance of the Yurok people."

"We kind of don't give up," Clayburn said. The Yurok Tribe has been living along the Klamath River for thousands of years and is currently the largest indigenous tribe in California, with over 6,300 members. It is one of the few tribes in the state that lives on a portion of its ancestral lands.

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