Friday, May 3, 2013

NY Idiocy: 3" Cigarette lighter gun nets $60,000 fine

 

Mayor Dumberg strikes again! What a MORON!

 

 

New York Post

‘Smoking’ gun nets 60G fine

By JULIA MARSH

Last Updated: 3:42 AM, May 2, 2013

Posted: 3:16 AM, May 2, 2013

The owner of a Midtown tourist shop is firing back at Mayor Bloomberg’s crusade against toy guns, filing papers to block a $60,000 fine from the city for selling lighters shaped like small pistols.

“We don’t have the money,” said Fred Shayes, 49, who owns US Camera & Computer Inc. near Penn Station. “I would have to take a loan out from the bank to pay that.”

Shayes filed a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court to vacate the fine. At issue is a bronze-and-silver colored 3-inch butane lighter shaped like a gun with a black handle and a red tip that was selling for $10 until investigators slapped the store with a fine and yanked it off their shelves.

Under city law, toy guns can’t be sold in the city unless they are bright green, blue, red or a neon color.

Toy guns are also supposed to have a legible stamp identifying the manufacturer or trade name.

Although the gun-shaped lighter can fit in the palm of a smoker’s hand, inspectors for the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs said in 2011 that the lighters could reasonably be confused with a real firearm, and hit Shayes with the fine.

“The day the inspector came, he said, ‘This is illegal,’ ” Shayes said. “I took it off the shelf right away. I sent it back, and I showed them the invoice that proved I returned it.”

He lost in a hearing at the Department of Consumer Affairs’ appeals board, and went to court.

Over the past seven years, city officials have seized more than 7,200 illegal toy guns from stores and levied $2.4 million in fines, officials said.

Retailer Party City paid a record $500,000 in fines for 800 violations of the city’s toy-gun law.

“Imitation guns that are not easily distinguishable from real weapons pose a real and significant danger to public safety,” a spokeswoman for the city’s law department said.

“Merchants who trade in this illegal merchandise must be held accountable.”

Shayes said the fine could put him out of business. He was fined $5,000 for each of the 12 lighters.



Read more:
Tourist shop fights toy-gun ban - NYPOST.com http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/smoking_gun_nets_fine_mULOkpw09uyrCdvzFwsFqL#ixzz2SEC4W78D

 

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