Every now and then, we come across some weird stories that relate to LEGO, whether with its retailers, or with the people who play with them. They can range from a case of brick theft with a stolen Duplo statue head in Gloucestershire, to getting in trouble with the law because of a dangerous-looking brick-build. Earlier this week in Ludwigshafen, Germany a teenager was arrested by local police because of LEGO. The reason: he had built a submachine gun out of LEGO bricks that – a LEGO machine gun – when seen from a distance, looked terribly like the real thing. Anybody would panic at that.
So when the 19-year-old “suspect” looked out the window of his house with the LEGO machine gun in his hand, neighbors immediately contacted the authorities, seeing as Germany has some of the strictest firearms laws in the world. That was reinforced by how quickly the police responded to the suspect’s address.
There they found the man with another companion, aged 23, and some LEGO bricks, some of which went into building the machine gun MOC in the teen’s hands. Regardless of the true material being discovered, the poor suspect is now under an official investigation, because the prop weapon he made was in the unfortunate shape of a firearm prohibited under both the German Weapons Act and the larger European Firearms Directive.
Though we can give credit to that teen for building an impressive, closer to real-life LEGO machine gun, I can just imagine his regret for his lack of good and sensible judgment on this one. The lesson of this story: mind your local firearms laws, and make sure your brick builds won’t be mistaken for anything that could get you in trouble with the police. Perhaps settle for a less conspicuous build next time – maybe a brick-built gun like the featured image above, will do.
Source: Deutsche Welle.com
Ah, just incredible the draconian state strikes again. Once they discovered it’s a prop weapon they should’ve let it go at that. As far as we know he has no criminal record BUT still they need to investigate.
Sounds just like here in the States, a kid brought a tiny Star Wars Lego blaster…got suspended, another kid bite (yes he bite, ate) a pop-tart into a shape of a gun (suspended) and even in my son’s school if you make a shape of a gun with your fingers or a pencil you’ll get reprimanded and/or suspended.
This madness needs to stop post haste!
I don’t care what laws are on the books, these are draconian, these are unjust and serves no one but to hammer and condition the young and innocent.
Europe has become a police state.