A California company called “Zombie Industries” that makes life-like human zombie mannequins is under attack from gun control advocates who believe that one of their products, called “Bleeding Gun Control Lobbyist,” is offensive to those who have suffered gun violence.
Bleeding Gun Control Lobbyist resembles a jaundiced, 40-ish man in a gray suit, blue tie, and blood around its mouth, chest, and forehead. When the mannequin is fired upon, it bleeds. On Wednesday, Connecticut Democrat Sen. Chris Murphy said he had written a letter to Zombie Industries calling the gun control lobbyist zombie “incredibly offensive,” and asked for the mannequin to stop being sold.
[Gun violence victims] have suffered in a way that is difficult for anyone to internalize, and their losses are impossible to truly understand. To trivialize these experiences and attempt to portray such knowledgeable, passionate people as villains is a shameless and despicable ploy to make a few bucks.
Zombie Industries refused to stop selling the mannequin. CEO Roger Davies said it is “just a zombie target” that is “entertaining and designed to engage the youth shooter.”
“We are sensitive that people have been lost in mass shootings. It’s really funny that a small company in San Diego can get the attention of a congressman,” he said. “I don’t see how my target does anything to promote violence.”
Zombie Industries said that the mannequin represented a man who “spends his day milling around Washington D.C. distorting the truth about guns [and] violent crimes.”
Po Murray, vice chairman of the Newtown Action Alliance which was created after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, claimed that the mannequin is meant to look like Colin Goddard, a victim of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting who works with the Washington-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
“It is something that is despicable, to target someone who has been a target of a massacre,” Murray accused. “I would love to take it off market.” Newtown Action Alliance and other groups are trying to stop the manufacture of the mannequin.
Photo source: Zombie Industries
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