Culper Precision briefly made a customized pistol called "Block19" whose shell resembled a toy made with actual Lego or Lego-like pieces. In July 2021, the company removed the item from its store.
In July 2021, pictures that supposedly showed a handgun made out of Lego pieces was widely circulated on social media:
This is a genuine, customized firearm that was made by Culper Precision. This item was first advertised on social media in June 2021. A few weeks later, the company released a statement saying that the gun was no longer for sale.
Culper Precision introduced this firearm in a June 24 Facebook post. The weapon-modification company said it superglued various Lego or Lego-like pieces onto a GLOCK 19, a semi-automatic pistol, in order to create the "Block 19" prototype. According to Culper Precision, the Block 19 was showcased at Shootah 2021, a live-fire and training event in Utah, and that the Lego-shell survived firing hundreds of rounds.
We wanted the second amendment to simply be too painful to tread on, so there was only one logical solution.
Here’s one of those childhood dreams coming to life, the Block 19 prototype, yes you can actually build Legos onto it. That RMR is comprised of miscellaneous pieces and a red lightsaber. We superglued it on and surprisingly it survived several hundred rounds in full auto at Shootah this past weekend!
Thank you to everyone who came by and saw it!
You can see the Block 19 in action in the following video:
CBS reported that shortly after these pictures went viral, the Lego Group sent a cease-and-desist letter to Culper Precision asking the company to stop production of the weapon.
CBS reported:
Gun company Culper Precision has stopped selling a new pistol customized with brightly colored block pieces after toymaker Lego issued the company a cease-and-desist letter.
Culper's handgun, dubbed the Block19, is a customized semiautomatic Glock firearm covered with red, yellow and blue Lego-like pieces on the barrel and the grip, giving the fully functional weapon the appearance of a toy. Culper, based in Provo, Utah, introduced the Lego-style gun last week.
On Wednesday, Danish toymaker Lego said in a statement that it had asked Culper to stop selling the Block19. "We have contacted the company, and they have agreed to remove the product from their website and not make or sell anything like this in the future," Lego said.
On July 14, Culper Precision wrote on Facebook that it had decided to "take the product down after some communication with Lego."
It's unclear how many of these Lego guns were produced or sold by the company. We reached out to Culper Precision for clarification, and will update this article if more information becomes available. The company did have the Block 19 listed as a product for sale on its website (it was available from $549.00 to $765.00), but this page has since been removed. An archived version of the Block 19's product page described the product as a "Customization Package for Glock 19."
Culper Precision posted a lengthier statement on its website explaining the thought behind the creation of Block 19. The company wrote that it "built block19 to show all these new firearms owners that guns are not JUST for Law Enforcement and current or former Military, or the types that are prone to overt bravado that is so often portrayed on social media, guns are for EVERYONE, and we want to be the first to welcome new firearms owners from any personality type or political affiliation, if you own a firearm, you are our friend ... Whatever that may or may not be worth to you … if you are a human being that is alive and legally able to purchase a firearm we built this to be a welcome and a gesture of friendship and inclusion."
To sum up: The picture of the Lego gun is real. This is a Glock19 that was modified by the company Culper Precision. While the company listed this Glock19 customization product on its website in June 2021, by mid-July, after Lego sent a cease-and-desist letter to the company, this page was removed, and Culper Precision said that the Block19 was no longer available.