I totally agree with you in principle, but disagree as far as practicality.
Like as fun as it would be to put this on your car to mess with some cops, I am not going to poke that tiger.
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Yeah, I mean, I’m not endorsing it as a fashion statement. I’m just saying folks should feel free to make bad fashion choices without getting killed by cops. The fashion police is just an expression 
As for the question of whether it’s scary to people in general, fair point. I don’t think it would scare me personally, but depends on context I guess.
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Fair enough. Personally, I get nervous when I see someone apparently carrying a half concealed pistol, and I live in a concealed carry state.
If a person really has to have this phone case to feel complete, sure, they should be able to do so without having to worry about being gunned down by a twitchy cop.
And we should have socialized healthcare, a housing solution for the homeless, unstigmatized mental healthcare, living wages, the unassailable right to choice when it comes to abortion, an honest government, etc.
Unfortunately, I (and others) can see how the reality of having this product unnecessarily increases the chance of a person getting shot by a twitchy cop, even though it shouldn’t happen. Some people can tell a stove is hot, and others just have to touch it to be sure.
The fact it can still be purchased on eBay means a person can weigh their chances and make their own decision.
Everyone still has the right to decide to do something that other people around them will think was stupid.
“What’s that you say? I guess you’re right. It’s nothing to me.”
“Ah well that’s life. Or it was. It’s nothing to me.”
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What could possibly go wrong? Especially in Chicago, FFS.
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I know a guy who has this as a tattoo
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see also
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Natural selection.
I am surprised that it isn’t mocked up to look like a non-firing “training gun/prop.” So that law enforcement would at least stop and recognize it as a potential training prop and not as a threat. This is similar to how kids toy guns have a marked red tip.
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To misquote you, “Son, the quality of your individuality is questionable.” I read that in a Sam Elliot voice.
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That’s true, but I feel there is well more than enough stupid here to go around. Stupid kids (and adults) shouldn’t carry stupid tchotchkies whose only purpose is to shock and scare. Stupid police shouldn’t go around expecting and anticipating (and hoping?) that every encounter is going to end up with someone dead … preferably some random civilian.
It’s like the police have never heard of Occam’s Razor.
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Like being innocent, and not even suspicious looking will stop the Chicago police from shooting you, taking you to one of their black sites, and torturing you to death.
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huh. That’s odd - generally blue is considered the standard colour for inert/inactive training weapons and ordnance.
In the USA it’s dayglo orange tips on toy guns. Or otherwise an orange or yellow toy altogether.
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Wouldn’t help in Vancouver; there are several ‘out’ gay officers that will happily write you up. Their peers will quite happily call them up to attend the traffic stop just to make the point that nothing gets you out of that ticket.
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Although, the simplest answer to “What is that gun shaped object?” would be, “it’s a gun.” No?
“It’s a novelty phone case” just doesn’t seem like the simple answer to me. And in the few seconds when they have to decide if they are about to be shot, they will be prone to Occam their way to a “gun” conclusion.
Props to this officer for not coming to that conclusion. Part of me expects he will be written up for it.
Well, the red tip is only visible once the “weapon” is fully revealed, and these apparently do come in white and pink, so that’s something. But the black one is just foolhardy.
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I don’t know what the relative production numbers are (toys/props/sims vs real shooty bang bangs), but I suspect that in most places there are still more toys than real firearms.
If we extend a loose definition to “gun shaped objects” - screwdrivers, fishing rods, cardboard tubes, bits of wood, etc - then Occam starts kicking back real hard.
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Agreed. But you also have to factor in situations. I pass a guy working on his car, and I don’t think his screwdriver is a pistol. I come across a guy in a stolen car, and I don’t think his replica gun phone case is a phone case.
When riding my motorcycle back to my flat in Bicester around 2am (I worked the night shift) while stationed at RAF Upper Heyford in the late 80s dressed in my BDUs with a grey poster tube slung across my back, I was pulled over because the cops thought I had a bazooka.
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There’s more real guns than there are people in the US, so if you see something that looks like a gun, you’re not an idiot for assuming it might be real.
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Also, don’t wear that “Shoot Me, Please!” T-shirt.
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