A warning label is seen on a toy gun at a news conference at which U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) announced its 25th annual Trouble in Toyland report, in Washington November 23, 2010. (File/UPI/Kevin Dietsch) | License Photo

The owner of a New York City tourist shop is filing papers to block a $60,000 fine from the city for selling lighters shaped like small pistols.

An inspector arrived at US Camera & Computer Inc. in Manhattan and told Fred Shayes the $10 lighters were illegal, reports the New York Post. The bronze-and-silver colored 3-inch butane lighters were shaped like guns with black handles and red tips.


“I took it off the shelf right away. I sent it back, and I showed them the invoice that proved I returned it,” Shayes said. Still, Shayes lost in a hearing at the Department of Consumer Affairs’ appeals board, and went to court.

“We don’t have the money,” said Shayes, 49, who owns US Camera & Computer Inc. “I would have to take a loan out from the bank to pay that,” he said. He was fined $5,000 for each of 12 lighters, and says the cost could put him out of business.

Under city law, toy guns must be bright green, blue, red or a neon color, and be stamped by a manufacturer in order to be sold in the city.

Although the gun-shaped lighter is only about the length of an ordinary lighter, the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs decided in 2011 that the lighters could reasonably be confused with a real firearm.

Over the past seven years, city officials have seized more than 7,200 illegal toy guns from stores and levied $2.4 million in fines, officials said.

“Merchants who trade in this illegal merchandise must be held accountable,” said a spokeswoman for the city’s law department. “Imitation guns that are not easily distinguishable from real weapons pose a real and significant danger to public safety."

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