A county councilman in Ohio has announced plans to ban the retail sale and display of gun-shaped novelty lighters, arguing that the products can create dangerous confusion in public encounters, especially involving children and young people.
Gun rights YouTuber Liberty Doll covered the proposal in a recent video and described the measure as a “solution in search of a problem.” Her criticism centered on the idea that Cuyahoga County Councilman Michael Houser is targeting novelty lighters that minors already cannot legally buy, while invoking the name of a tragic police shooting involving a very different object.
According to Liberty Doll, Houser has named the proposal the Tamir Rice Act, referencing the 12-year-old Cleveland boy who was fatally shot by police in 2014 while holding an airsoft gun. She said the tragedy was real and awful, but argued that using Rice’s name to justify a ban on novelty lighters does not fit the facts of what happened.
The Proposal Targets Gun-Shaped Novelty Lighters
Liberty Doll said Houser’s press materials showed the type of lighter he wants to regulate, and she repeatedly argued that the items pictured looked more like odd novelty products than realistic firearms…