As gun culture 2.0 becomes more prominent don’t you think it’s about time that we see some alternative firearms colors to Black and Flat Dark Earth?
After all, what’s the point of Cerakote, DuraCoat and others producing all of those color options if they aren’t going to be put to use? Take for example this brace of Ruger pistols coated in Cerakote’s H-243 Safety Orange with H-146 Graphite Black by Rogue Tactical Coatings. Sure, it looks like a Nerf gun to me but for a Beaver support somewhere, it’s attractive.
Cerakote has a full gallery of coated guns on their site at www.cerakoteguncoatings.com/gallery that ought to get the creative juices flowing.
And, as we begin to see more and more ladies enjoying shooting sports, I’d expect to see some innovative paint schemes showing up. Believe it or not, not every woman dreams of a pink gun. We’d love to see some of your firearms out there that have received unconventional paint jobs. Why be boring?
Tags: Cerakote
Having a gun with an unconventional colour can be quite cool for sure, but it could be also a bit dangerous sometimes.
The picture that illustrates this post is a good example. At a first glance I thought it was a training dummy gun…but actually it’s not.
In some (most) units, there are colour codes for safety reasons and immediate identification. For instance: orange for fully inert weapons and ammo, blue for non-inert training ammo and guns (like Simunition and exploding pyrotechnics training devices), etc…
To paint your gun in OD green, desert tan, snow white, camo, dark grey etc can be quite a good option for obvious tactical reasons (it even looks cool to me), but in red, blue, orange or any bright flashy colour it may induce some confusion for law enforcement officers (and complicate dangerously their job).
I don’t want any teenager to be shot by mistake or any Police officer to be killed by a “dummy lookalike” gun.
But it’s just my humble opinion.
Nothing says “open carry” like an “airsoft gun replica” finish. I think that one’s called “urban concealment ala orange”
Other than a camo or subdued color scheme, this is a terrible idea.
Please don’t use non-tactical colors for real weapons. We teach our children to tell an adult when they find a black or silver gun at a friend’s house. Real guns and toy guns don’t need to resemble one another…
Well said…this has the potential to be extremely dangerous, especially when little Timmy find’s dad’s cool “nerf gun” that looks just like his, and he either brings it to school, plays with little Johnny, or turns it on himself accidentily.
Bright orange, blues, reds, should be restricted industry colors to ensure safety.
I don’t care what color it is, just learn and practice the 4 Rules and we’re good.
Yeah that’s true for a responsible adult , but what happens when an officer takes one in the chest BC he/she doesn’t pull the trigger on Joe Dirtbag who is carrying this type of weapon. Or better yet when an officer pulls the trigger on a Nerf toy BC they have seen Intel briefs on these types of guns being out there
George, you are quite right…but how do you practice the 4 safety rules during “force on force” training or with a dummy pistol when you demonstrate some tactical procedures ? You just can’t, because you have to point your gun at people you don’t want to really destroy and pull the trigger, because what you have in your hand is a training tool and not an actual gun.
So now, what can happen if your real gun just look like a safe training dedicated object ? To me, it’s even more dangerous than having your training gun just looking like the real one (I mean a black dummy or “pellet” firing replica ).
Ah yes, do it for the children. Just like all butane lighters are the same color to…uh, ok bad example…poisonous household cleaning fluids are standardized to ensure…nope, shoot…well, at least prescription medications are made to not look like candy…ah, crap, nevermind.
+1000
After the first tragedy I can see this going south real quick. First will come the lawsuits, then the criminal charges and then the company scrapping this idea altogether. This too shall pass with the funky nerf colors. I can’t believe the legal department at this business ok’d this. And if they don’t have a legal department they are sure going to need one… sad but true.
Tactical safety orange, will scare the cops…………….
At first I thought of a lot of reasons why this was a bad idea until I saw the markings. Now?
GO BEAVERS!!!!!!
Go Beavs!
Is this you, Zachr?
Growing up I always thought that toy guns had a standardized color on them: Bright Orange. As previously stated LEOs are taught this as well. If an officer has to hesitate on whether or not someone is wielding a toy or a real weapon it can and will have dire consequences.
This company(and any others) should scrap this idea before it has a chance to take off because it is wildly irresponsible.
Oddly enough, there isn’t a standard toy gun color and any LEO that thinks that every orange gun he sees is a toy is a fool. Amazingly, everyone has fixated on orange because I chose the most outlandish photo I could find which happened to include orange. However, there are already a multitude of guns available in some very unconventional colors.
SSD, you should be using your voice as an industry reporter to have these colors banned.
Federal law requires toy guns to have a blaze orange marking. See § 1150.3 Approved markings. If toy guns are required to have such markings, real guns should be prohibited from having such colorings (outside of those less lethal options used by LEO)
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=fe6593e6c18f07b9f6b29ffca8409aa9&rgn=div5&view=text&node=15:3.1.3.7.1&idno=15
Andrew brings up a good point. Except that we all know that in practice this means a ring of orange around the muzzle that is painted over.
Andrew, the law you cite only applies to a “person [who] shall manufacture, enter into commerce, ship, transport, or receive any toy, look-alike, or imitation firearm”. Additionally, IIRC, there is additionally governing language that specifies that the orange tip is specifically for sale/transport from a sales entity to the end user, though I will have to track that language down and get back to you.
I went looking for the additional language, and I was mistaken. Based on differentiating interpretations of the law, and it’s intent, the orange tip is for sale/transport between manufacturer and end user. That said, there is little (if any) judicial law to support the interpretation I reference or a strict adherence.
Additional language and the language I mentioned above can also be found in 15 USCS § 5001. Paul, your interpretation is very loose, and I doubt any court of law or equity would concur.
And while NYC is extremely strict in its gun laws, this language from the NYC admin code 10-131 pretty much hits the nail on the head….
g. 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to sell or offer for sell, possess or use or attempt to use or give away, any toy or imitation firearm which substantially duplicates or can reasonably be perceived to be an actual firearm unless:
(a) the entire exterior surface of such toy or imitation firearm is colored white, bright red, bright orange, bright yellow, bright green, bright blue, bright pink or bright purple, either singly or as the predominant color in combination with other colors in any pattern;
This exception that permits toys guns to be painted these colors is exactly why real firearms should not.
I still don’t think that NY laws should be the model for the rest of the US.
…just throwing this out for discussion:
Why shouldn’t LEO’s guns be coated blaze orange or some other attention getting color?
If they have to use them, in the line of duty, would they not want all the attention they can get?
Maybe they don’t want to be seen by an active shooter as easily a la the North Hollywood shoot out.
Undoubtedly, the impact of increasing number of women in shooting sports will have an influence on the industry. However, I would caution against overlooking the influence over a longer period of time of Gun Culture 2.0 and later versions. I think we’ll see “cross-pollination” from action sports (e.g., X-Games, skateboarders, etc.) as well as mainline sports (e.g., Nike’s Oregon & UnderArmour’s Maryland uniforms). Just like we went through the “steel vs. plastic” debates, I think we’ll see a debate of “traditional” colors vs. “alternative” colors.
Why didn’t everyone get their nickers in a twist when manufacturers started making pink guns. The orange gun and rigid tools would go together like pees and carrots. BTW a black or stainless gun can be just as appealing to children. I found a thing called a safe, and it does a really good job keeping whipper snappers away from my collection.
Because pink isn’t a semi-standardized color typically denoting a less lethal option (orange) or training weapon (blue)
The more I think about this the more I think that civilian gun ownership shouldn’t be driven by what LE does. Even they aren’t standardized.
In truth? I see the good, and bad on this…
Most gun owners contact with LEO’s, the gun SHOULD be in the HOLSTER, or NOT IN THEIR HANDS! Otherwise, you’re asking for a rookie to just go “Itchy” on you.
But!
That being said, my gal would LOVE a deep purple cerakote on her Ruger GP100. (rolls eyes so hard sprains neck) Yes, I am debating on whether to tell her that such a thing exists.
I can see some manufacturer or another start to offer their guns in a bright green and market it as a zombie killer.