If you ever take a CCW class with me, one thing I show is a slide of Mark’s Deadly Sins. These are things I advise every day gun owners and permit holders of what they should not do. There are a ton of accessory upgrades for firearms these days such as night sights, triggers, grips and etc. One of the new trends is putting on after market dust covers on AR-15s with symbols on them, such as the American flag, Punisher skulls and more. There are also after market back plates for Glocks which have the grim reaper. These accessories are available for most modern firearms. People also do after market paint jobs that sometimes have symbols as well.
Here is one of my deadly sins for guns owners. Do NOT put stupid symbols on your defensive firearms! One I can use is an an example would be a grim reaper back plate for a Glock. Here is a link to an amazon as a example. Why shouldn’t I put a cool after market back plate of my defensive handgun? I want it to look cool, right? Here is a list of why you shouldn’t put stupid stuff on your defensive firearms.
- If you are involved in a shoot with that firearm, the police will take it as evidence until the investigation is over. They will send it off to a professional armorer who will go through the firearm with a fine tooth comb and fill out a report. Ultimately, that report will reach the DA’s discovery. Depending on the DA, they might see this as malice intent of you wanting to kill people because of the the grim reaper represents, which is death.
- If this ever goes to criminal trial, the DA is going to present your firearm as evidence which happens in every case. The DA is going to show the jury that firearm and whatever modifications have been done. This includes that “cool grim reaper back plate”. Though the jury might not think its cool and will likely question your intent. Especially that widow I talk about, which is 85 year old marge who has never shot a gun in her life and does not like guns. She also watches too much fake Police TV shows.
- In affirmative defense cases, you will most like be taking the witness stand in defense of yourself in the case. In your fight for freedom, the DA is going to as as many questions as they can about why you put that plate on the first place. They are going to try to make you out as a monster for putting that on there. You are going to have to come up with an articulate reason of why you put “death” on that back of your gun. I would say good luck to you.
- I always highly advise against doing any of your own gunsmith work unless your an armorer yourself. Always have a professional do all your gunsmithing. This is for safety reasons and also legal reasons as well.
Overall stay away from putting stupid symbols, stickers, paintings on you gun. There was actually as case where a police officer was charged for 2nd degree murder where he had “you’re fucked” on the dust cover on the AR-15 when it flipped open. It played a role in his charges. Please, stay away from doing this stupid stuff.
Mark Schneider
NRA Certified Instructor
