Last week we ran a review of a TriStar Raptor–a Youth Model in Muddygirl Pink. Several of you had some strong opinions about the color choice. And more than one of you took us to task for having Sam Trisler, a burly dude who clashes with almost everything pink, reviewing a shotgun that is clearly market to young shooters who like woodsy pink things.
I believe his exact opinion of the camo pattern was it looked “like something a Disney Princess threw up on.” That got some of you riled up, as the screen-cap below illustrates.
The debate as it is playing out…
So Here’s the Question:
These gun companies value users’ opinions. They value our opinions. Many of them are actually pretty responsive to the views expressed by our reviews, and the comments you make in response to our comments. So let’s give them a better sample to work with.
If you have a young shooter in your life, girl or boy, teenager or younger, ask them how they feel about pink guns. Get a quote. Paste it into the comments below.
And while we’re at it, ask the women in your life. Grown daughters, mothers, wives (if you have more than one), friends, etc. Anyone you know who has a considered opinion. If you happen to fall into this category–we do have a growing female readership–weigh in yourself.
Here’s a review that I did at the end of the summer. The video is below. The 11 year old girl own this .308 Savage–but she doesn’t much care for the pink, as she herself reluctantly admits.
I’m a 51yo man – devoted husband for almost half of those years, father of (2) boys and (1) girl, former police officer and an admitted gun-lover. I also happen to be fond of the pink – shirts (especially dress shirts) and ties. As for guns, not for me. I have a thing for handguns and my “color” (finish) of choice has always been nickel – there’s just something about a pre-lock S&W revolver with a nickel finish that I really like. As for my beautiful wife, she too is fond of revolvers, but really likes them dressed with some aftermarket hot-pink grips. There’s a very simple reason for all the various cosmetic options available on firearms today – different people like very different things. I can assure everyone of this – if it wasn’t selling, they wouldn’t keep making it. If pink guns and accessories are in demand, so be it – the 2nd amendment needs all the support it can get.
The Mrs has informed me that she is not partial to pink camo rifles and said that performance is more import then the color of the firearm.
I have been shooting for 30+ years and to offer a PINK gun is just offensive. I want to be taken serious should I bring a Barbie doll with me too. Pink is to bright I wouldn’t want to be seen in the woods with a pink gun. I find it hard when I go to places like Outdoor World and there selection is a joke. These do look like toy guns. I want a real gun not one that looks like I bought it in Wal-Mart at the toy department. I also think just the average person would think it was a toy. Ladies we are just as equal as the men and to tell the truth if someone pulled out a pink gun on me I would think it was a toy. This is serious business lets keep it that way.
I really do not understand why anyone would have a problem with pink guns! Men can buy guns in blue, black, nickel, brushed stainless, polished stainless, olive green, foliage green, FDE, desert tan, coyote tan, coyote brown and a hundred different kinds of camo, but making a gun in pink is somehow a bad thing?!? I don’t get it. Besides that, I know several women who really like pink guns. My stepmother wasn’t interested in owning a gun at all. She’d go shooting with us sometimes, and she really liked shooting my M&P 15-22, but she really couldn’t care less about owning one…until my father and I got her her own M&P 15-22 in ‘Platinum Pink’ camo. She likes that gun; she shoots it well, and she’s proud of it. After that my father got her a Kel-tec P3AT in pink camo. She liked that one too, until she shot it anyway. Too much recoil, but we solved that problem with a purple Ruger LC380, and now she has her CCW and carries either the purple LC380 or the pink camo P3AT, both of which have been equipped with Crimson Trace Laserguards, almost every day. (She still doesn’t particularly like the P3AT, but she shoots it well enough, and it fits into her Flash-Bang bra holster. The Ruger is just a tad too big to carry that way.)
I also have a young niece who loves her little pink Cricket rifle, and a sister-in-law who deer hunts with a rifle in that pink ‘Muddy Girl’ camo. Originally the argument was about taking some cheap jam-a-matic, painting it pink, and selling it to women. That I get. A cheap POS is still a cheap POS no matter what color you put on it, but a good firearm is still a good firearm no matter what color it is too! If we guys can buy guns in whatever color or camo pattern tickles our fancy, why should a woman who likes pink not be able to but a gun in pink? Or purple? Or desert tan or any other color she likes?! I love that gun companies are making these pink & purple guns. It’s making a lot of women & girls excited about getting & owning a gun, and that is definitely a good thing!!!
I sell concealed carry guns, the pink Taurus TCP among them. Some girls like them. One 60 something lady sought me out at a show to buy one. I hear many guys walking by my table showing them to their ladies. More of the girls, so “Not for me” than don’t. It’s kinda like the the famous Pink Cadillac, it’s right for some, but not for everyone. What’s wrong with choice? I am surprised some manufacturer hasn’t come out with a blue gun for boys.
There is nothing that gives me more hope for gun rights than seeing a young girl or lady shooting and I can’t think of any better ambassador to the shooting sports and second amendment rights than a 11 year old girl.
I actually bought a funky colored gun myself, It is a Sig Sauer Mosquito with a purple frame, I rather like purple (And I am not ashamed to admit it) and the price was certainly right.
That being said, I like some of the colors the Sig P238 comes in like the purple and the anodized rainbow hues and I’m a 33 y/o man (That loves my wife very much and yes she’s a woman), I guess it’s because it looks aesthetically pleasing much like a nice piece of jewelry or a nice watch…I think there are more men that think that way but are too ashamed to admit it.
My brother likes PINK and he has a beautiful wife and 2 beautiful kids…But he’s not a shooter and I am fairly sure he would have an aversion to them since he is born and raised in the Netherlands.
With so many anti gun laws going into effect, especially anti-open carry of long arms in California on public roads, even during hunting season, you wouldn’t want to offend some family driving by with you Black Death stick, so sadly a pink gun or any other color is less likely to be reported to 911. It’s so sad that the perceived danger of a weapon is how black and bad-ass the accessories look, when an M1A with beautiful wood grain can do more damage than an evil looking AR-15. As these laws get propagated to other states, I think owners will have to disguise their guns more. With regards to kids playing with them, I practice not keeping ammo available and locked up seperate from the gun for double protection. It’s so sad that John Wayne simply had to keep the peacekeep over the fireplace as that is technically out of kids reach too.
.When it comes to firearms you can compare them to cars in many ways.
Manufacturers should make them in every color with all options available in order to fit everyone’s needs.
Color doesn’t make them more or less lethal, the operator dose.
I like many colors for a firearm, but all mine are black.
The women in my life (X 3) like desert colors and black.
They wouldn’t buy pink, but think it should be available.
I’ll take a diamond encrusted pink AK with solid gold hardware & American symbols engraved all over it
Lone Wolf builds a custom pink handgun every month. We try to keep a pink sample on our display shelf at all times. Our pinks are handled as much as any other gun at the major gun shows including SHOT, NRA, Tulsa and SAR.
If the girl or woman likes pink we deliver it and gain another raving fan
I am currently building my 6yo daughter an AR for her birthday, although it will be black when presented she will have the opportunity to accessorize how she wants. She has already said she wants the houge stock, grip, free float tube kit in pink.
I personally don’t care what color her guns are (or anyone else for that matter), she is very smart and knows that it is not a toy regardless of the color.
Me personally I have black, wood furniture, FDE, it doesn’t change the function of the weapon, its just more personalized to what you want/like. I’m sure my jacked up red jeep isn’t to everyone’s taste, but I didn’t build it for them, I built it for me.
If folks buy pink guns the mfgrs will make pink guns. My girl has a pink 10/22 and now shoots with me every weekend. If the stock color gets more women into shooting how can that be bad?
Kids are dying with toy guns made to look real. Removing the colored muzzel indicator or painting it. The last things we or a responding law officer needs is to see a firearm that calls it’s reality into question by any odd color. The ultimate goal of an officer is to go home at the end of the shift. They don’t need the added burden of having made an ultimate decision and been wrong. It should be the responsibility of manufacturers and owners to minimize this hazard.
Doubt that pink gun owners are going to be found in situations where law enforcement has to make that decision… my girl loves her pink 10-22 and shoots with me every weekend. Before the pink .22 she never liked to go. Turns out she is an incredible marksman and but for her .22 she would probably never have enjoyed the sport.
I love to hear stuff like that Jim Lee.
That’s really great to know more young girls are getting into the shooting sports.
Whatever it takes.
My daughter went from deathly scared of guns,( she would tear up at the sound of a SG racking) to being a crack shot.
It turned out that she’s a natural, and now loves them.
Oh brother!
Not even going to waste my time on this view of firearms.
The way I see it is that the anti-gun lobby has convinced the toy manufacturers that to make toy guns “safe” they must be constructed in vivid colors like red, yellow, pink, orange, etc. to distinguish them from real guns. Now the problem becomes how LE officers are trained to know the difference between a brightly colored toy and real gun. I’m thinking it is pretty much near impossible, especially at distance. So the dilemma is exactly how safe are brightly colored guns, whether toy or real? In the split second timing that is required to make an accurate determination of a threat assessment, how does the color of the weapon impact the response? The water is now muddied. My training tells me to assess anything that looks like a gun to be a potential life threatening attack which requires a lethal response. But in my case that may happen one time in ten to fifty years. Not so much the case with LE officers who face this challenge on perhaps a daily basis. They don’t get paid enough to make these life altering decisions, in my opinion. My assumption is that whatever the color of the gun, if it looks like a gun, its a gun. Same assumption that I make with the first rule of gun handling, every gun is loaded.
My wife, a soldier for 20 years, when she saw her first pink rifle said, “That’s just wrong!” She did say it with a smile but my dead-shot Kentucky girl wouldn’t have one.
I don’t really care. If my granddaughters wanted pink firearms I’d be happy to supply them so they could join us at the range.
The women/girls I’ve seem on the range with a rainbow of colors for their firearms know that their guns are not toys and from my experience they seem to “get” the safety aspects of handling and shooting better than lots of guys who think since they are male they don’t have to take the classes or learn the rules.
The idea is to get boys and girls and men and women out to learn to shoot and and to have fun (safely).
Semper Fi!
Personally, I don’t care for pink. lilac or any other similarly colored guns for the simple reason that they look weird. But, if someone else has different tastes, so be it. It does concern me that such may make a non-traditional colored gun look more like a toy and more attractive for children to want to play with. All the more need to keep it secure and away from kids.
On the other hand, if one were to pull a pink gun on a bad guy, he may be so astounded that it will give an extra second or so to aim better before commencing to fire.
If there is a market for this, it is stupid not to provide what the market wants. There are a lot of things people do to guns I do not like that has nice steady markets. Who am I to police what others can do to personalize their guns?
I can laugh at it but certainly not deny them.
My wife’s Ar is Pink (forend and stock), the receiver is anodized Purple and the hand grip is black with the punisher emblem in silver. Even the men like it when she brings it out. It doesn’t matter the color or colors, if the shooter/owner is happy with it and is safe with it, more power to them! Im not going to knock someone’s choice of color of thier car either, even if it does suk, I don’t drive it!
My daughter was given a choice between a black 22 lr and a pink one, she choose the black rifle. This was an on the spot choice at the gun counter. Also as far as my wife is concerned, pink is for toys and girls dresses. I told her I was going to buy her a pink handgun, her reply was “you’ll look awfully funny walking around with it shoved up your arse”
My wife is 60 and when I showed her the pink guns, she told me emphatically – NO PINK. She said “DO NOT buy me a Pink Gun!” She has two guns now – a Ruger LCP and a Springfield XD-9 sub-compact – both black. She carries the Ruger, and used the XD in a four-day Defensive Handgun course at Front Sight Academy and is comfortable with both. She just hates Pink! Especially for a gun!
Here’s a clue… The burglar, rapist, murderer, or the animal you shoot with it won’t care what color it is. Like Girls/Women (or boys/men, if you look at it from the other direction), it doesn’t matter what color they are, as long as they’re good at what they do.
My wife of 21 years, who owns several guns of her own, was looking in Shotgun News over the weekend and made a comment about an add for pink guns. She doesn’t like them because it makes them look like toys. I had never thought about that but she is right. It would make young children want to play with them more then respect them. In a time when everyone is watching how we handle ourselves and our firearms, we don’t need children thinking that they are toys by the way they look. I agree that we need to teach them to respect them but you can’t always be there. I am a gunsmith and between my wife and I own close to 50 firearms, non of which are colored in any way other than blued and stainless.
That goes for funky dark earth and green and brown… Guns look their BEST in BLACK or satin/polished stainless (NOT brushed or bead blasted). The only colors that look good on guns are NATURAL wood on grips and stocks. It’s simple and elegant, not flashy and toy-like.
Why do females like weird vibrant colors like pink, lavender, purple, etc? I think it is because they are trained from early childhood to believe that those colors are “Best” for them. Same for the loopy style of handwriting – they are trained by peer pressure to like and do these things. I could hardly tell my mother’s handwriting from my father’s, and my sister writes pretty much the same as I do. It’s the fashion influence. We are “old school,” of course; out of high school in the ’50s.
I know many girls and woman that think it’s great and it makes them feel more comfortable to own a firearm. I personally have a pink camo Mossberg 500, far from my taste but it is the right size for me and well, the cost was right.
I guess when it comes down to it, if it gets more women and girls into the sport of hunting and more guns sold we should in the long run all be happy.
I’m sure the backside of gun making and marketing is well established.
However it seems to me that this is a primary case where color choice could be a “build-my gun” component of a given gun manufacturers website. Much like the car buying model. You pick and design your gun and when it’s built, it gets shipped to your local dealer. Simple on the surface.
Colors, especially loud colors on guns could be argued to give an inherent safety factor due to their visibility. I’m not fan of pink on guns only because I haven’t seen one done to my liking. I think it may matter how it is painted, lines/outlines and so forth.
After I painted my M&P with a simple FDE scheme, my wife wanted her’s painted. Color? Canary Yellow. Left the stainless slide natural and simply worked the color onto the polymer. Leaving the backstrap black, etc.
Doesn’t everyone like choices?
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I don’t like the idea of pink guns. There’s nothing feminine about what guns do. To make a gun pink to appeal to women and girls makes no sense at all. Why try to make a gun cuter, or more girlie, or less serious looking. Cognitive dissonance.
Well there are pink tasers and pepper spray so why not pink guns? Guns come in a plethora of different colors nowadays and I like the fact there is choice out there for the wide diversity of shooters.
My 25 year old daughter wants a pink carry pistol with a stainless slide. End of story. Shotguns and rifles? Maybe not so much.
The color of gun doesn’t matter as long as the carrier likes it and is safe with it. Nuf said.