And of course, it is not an AK, but the AKS look-alike. The AK is a Class 3 select-fire weapon, a model popular with the ~250 thousand legal machine gun owners in the USA.

As a thought experiment, the "Hello Kitty" theme - assuming the company has purchased the rights to offer that brand in a semi-automatic rifle - does point out the absurdities of assigning emotional values to a gun. "Good" and "evil" are properties of humanity, not machinery.

There has been a critique of the idea that the way a gun looks really matters up for years. Check out a-human-right.com/looks.html. Yes, the little girl and her pink AR-15 appear in a few other places. I wonder how many people insist she should remain totally ignorant of firearms?

...I by no means expected to see a real gun, plastered w/ Hello Kitty logos, upon clicking the link. I thought you were playing with words or something. Wow.

I thought you were kidding too. o_O As pretty-in-pink as it is, though, I wouldn't want one in the field with me, it's too cute and too many people would see it and know where to aim! Give me cammo any day.

"Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill?"

HAH!!! I forgot all about that movie...o_O

Ha! I was expecting to see this. I think it is great when people take an interest in learning to handle weapons responsibly. An armed society is a polite society. I think every 14 year old should have a gun safety certificate and a marksmanship trophy. But I don't think the hello kitty AK knock-off is doing anything for responsible gun owners.

It would be hilarious to bring that gun to the outdoor range in Alabama where my brother and I go shooting when I visit.

Does anyone know if the Sanrio people licensed Hello Kitty for this?

You live in San Fran but visit Alabama regularly? That's fascinating somehow. One imagines an extra level of cabin depressurization as you descend... And if something goes wrong during the flight, an Utne Reader will be released from the overhead panel. "Please read your magazine before helping the passengers seated next to you read theirs. Though your spirit may not actually inflate, liberalism willbe flowing...."

Crid, I hope you're kidding. San Franciscans are just as adamant about what you can and cannot do as any Bible-thumping backwater Alabaman. Of course the stereotype is wrong. The Tide advertises the most academic All-Americans of any university in the country.

Everyone has language indicating that someone else is a stranger and therefore a barbarian. Thanks for the colorful reminder.

You live in San Fran but visit Alabama regularly?

Yup. Grew up in the South, lived in California (LA and now SF) for the past 8 years or so. Now I'm some weird cultural hybrid. I can cook perfectly seared Ahi steaks, I thoroughly enjoy shooting high powered guns, and I find both fundamentalist Christians and hippy dippy new agers tiresome.

Have to say though, I'd seriously consider jumping from the plane before partaking of the Utne Reader. Now there's an example of just how unfun orthodox liberalism can be.

Bugs Bunny was a member of the Marine Corps during WW2. He even had his own real serial #.

A Bugs Bunny M1 Garand, now that would be cool.

A Bugs Bunny M1 Garand, now that would be cool.

I'm a Daffy Duck M1918A2 BAR man myself.

Give me Marvin the Martian's PU36 Dilithium Space Modulator any day! o_O