Guns N’ Roses is suing a Texas arms dealer for selling lethal weapons under the name “Texas Guns and Roses†because, well, firearms aren’t necessarily the sort of heavy metal that the band wants to be associated with. NME reported news of the lawsuit, which claims the store “selected and adopted defendant’s marks for the purpose of confusing consumers into believing that it was connected or associated with, or licensed by, GNR†to “intentionally trade on GNR’s goodwill, prestige and fame without GNR’s approval, license or consent.†Furthermore, the lawsuit claims that the defendant “espouses political views related to the regulation and control of firearms and weapons on the website that may be polarizing to many U.S. consumers.†For example, the “Firearms News†section of the store’s website encourages voters to call their representatives to vote “No†on assault-weapon bans.
Lest you think this another case of a major, wealthy brand going after an independent business, Texas Guns and Roses calls itself “America’s largest online firearms and accessories mall†and sells handguns, rifles, and shotguns, including dozens of semi-automatic models. The band claims that it gave the arms dealer a cease and desist in 2019, to no avail. The funniest part of this whole situation is Texas Guns and Roses actually sells pretty little arrangements of roses, which the lawsuit claims is just a tactic to justify its name. There are probably a lot of people in this country who are getting their wives a dozen long-stemmed roses for $95 with a Derringer nestled in the middle for Christmas. Also, Axl Rose had a bit of a weapons controversy of his own on December 4, when he threw his mic into an Australian audience and it hit a woman in the face.