Realistic toy guns removed from Shanghai Wal-Mart

From the Scotsman:

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese quality watchdogs have seized 46 toy guns from a Wal-Mart store in Shanghai because they looked "too realistic", state media reported on Thursday.

Five types of toy guns, including pistols and a machinegun, seized from the U.S. retailing giant's outlet in Pudong district, violated colour standards, the Shanghai Daily said, citing the local bureau of quality and technical supervision.

According to a Chinese report on the same matter, the store was the Nanpu branch, and about five types of toy guns, a total of 46 in all, were considered in violation of China's laws regarding toys.

Both reports state that the law is that at least half of the toy gun should not be painted black or gold, like a real gun (gold?), but has to have brighter, i.e. non-realistic colors in order to distinguish them from real weapons. It's an interesting rule and every country seems to have different notions about exactly makes a toy gun look 'fake' enough.

Now in the US, realistic guns have been called a safety risk, and for good reason: there was an incident a few years back where an actor at a party with a fake gun was shot dead by the LAPD, in what can only be described as a tragic irony, at a costume party in Hollywood. Presumably, stuff like that won't happen in Shanghai or China, and so the reasons for not selling such toys lie more with the "guns incite violence in children" theory, which is a never-ending debate that we have no desire to get into. But hey, better safe than sorry, right?

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