Gizmodo had a story up today about a woman who got a $1 million bid on her late husband’s Transformers collection. Follow the link and check out the photos - it is a truly impressive cache of vintage Transformer goodness.

What struck me, however, was the mention that this woman could not legally sell the original Megatron as it resembled a Walther P38 and lacked the blaze-orange barrel tip. As a result, she is “giving” those items away with the auction.

Surely it can’t be illegal to sell vintage goods that bear a mild resemblance to a pistol? That can’t be right. Turns out though that it is. You pretty much have to read the entire chapter 76 of 15 USC to understand it, so go check that out.

If the toy gun is a replica of a firearm manufactured after 1898, it must have the orange tip. If it doesn’t, it can’t be sold after November 5, 1988 (reselling the item, even if it was manufactured before that cutoff, qualifies as “entering commerce”). It’s worth noting that this version of the restrictions implies that toys whose manufacture and initial sale predate May 5, 1989 are exempt from the requirement in perpetuity.

Interesting, then, that there are no restrictions for selling real firearms in a private sale beyond believing that the buyer is 18 or older and that the buyer claims to have no legal restrictions regarding the purchase and ownership of said firearms (eg, no prior felonies).

Let’s recap: toy gun from early 80’s that turns into robot - possibly illegal to sell to anyone; real gun from any year that can put a hole in a target at 300 yards - legal to sell to nearly anyone.

I’ve been puzzling this out a bit and here’s the only conclusion I have reached: the sale of real guns is acceptable because at least then police will know it’s a real gun and can shoot at will. The sale of unmarked toy guns is unacceptable because then police will have to think twice about shooting and that would be awful. As long as only real guns are in the hands of the public, we’ll know exactly who to shoot.

Assuming gun owners don’t paint their firearms orange. Oops.