If you played video games in the late '80s or early '90s, the above accessory is probably very familiar to you. The "Zapper," as Nintendo called it, was bundled with most Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) boxes, and it's how everybody became obsessed with Duck Hunt. Just point at the screen and shoot. For the time, the technology seemed magical. (Interestingly, that same technology actually won't work on modern flatscreen TVs, due to how it was designed.)
But your Zapper may have looked a bit different than the grey one pictured above. Yours might have been orange. The reason is relatively simple: Despite its "space age" design that looked more like a laser pistol than an actual firearm, some parents and lawmakers were concerned that this toy gun too closely resembled a real gun.
Therefore, Nintendo changed the color to orange (breaking the shared color scheme between the Zapper and the NES itself), acknowledging that nobody wants toys and deadly weapons that look exactly the same.
So it strikes me as kind of dumb that two companies in Texas would modify real-life guns to look like the Zapper.
Both guns are modified Glocks. One from Midland-based Precision Syndicate, another by Austin-based Black Sheep Arms (whose video is below).
OK, fine, I'll admit, it's kind of cool how closely they were able to make a gun resemble a video game accessory that, at this point, is incredibly iconic. I'm a big fan of the old NES aesthetic, so part of me looks at these Glocks and says, "Huh. Neat." The video above is even kind of fun, with the guy demoing the gun dressed up as Mario and set to appropriate Super Mario Bros. music.
But then I think about it a little bit more and say, "Wait, this is a terrible idea."
To be fair, most of today's kids are not likely to use the NES Zapper regularly, if at all. So the chances of them looking at the real gun and confusing it with a well-known fake gun are relatively slim. Still, it's got the word "Nintendo" in big letters on the side and doesn't look like an everyday gun. As such, there were rightfully a lot of concerns about the weapon from people leaving comments online.
Many expressed hesitation about the idea not only because children might be at risk, but law enforcement officers. The second it takes a police officer to try to determine whether you're holding a real gun or an iconic video game accessory could be vital. Again, Nintendo started producing orange-colored Zappers to avoid this sort of confusion.
Precision Syndicate actually took down their Zapper image, which had gone viral, and issued a statement on their Facebook following the ruckus that had been raised ... which also seems to have been taken down.
According to Polygon, however, the statement read:
"In light of the 'Nintendo Glock' drama, we feel that the media and our fans need to know that this firearm will not be mass produced nor will it ever be. This is a one off custom build for a friend of ours. Do to the thousands of emails and messages we have received in the past 2 days we have been unable to contact everyone in a timely manner, please be patient we will get to you as soon as possible. Thank you all for your support! Oh, and please.. keep your guns locked up and away from children, it’s common sense."
Seems like a reasonable response. I don't think there was any malicious intent at all on the part of either firearm company when making these Zapper modifications, and knowing that the "Nintendo Glock" will "never" be massed produced (at least by Precision Syndicate) is good news.
Look, I get it. I own a replica sword that looks like Godric Gryffindor's sword from Harry Potter, and I've considered buying a replica of The Legend of Zelda's Master Sword more times than I care to admit. There's something really cool about owning a physical object that's heavily styled after a pop culture symbol, even if there's a little bit of danger involved with it.
But it's 2016, and a sword isn't nearly as deadly as a gun. Responsible gun ownership is fine, but can we not create a bunch of very deadly weapons that look like toys? Our police officers have enough to worry about as it is.
If you won't think of the children, think of your TV. Would you want someone to try to play Duck Hunt and actually put a hole in the device you use to watch The Real Housewives of Dallas?
