What’s a great way to raise breast cancer awareness? How about a pink gun? — UPDATED

What’s a great way to raise breast cancer awareness? How about a pink gun? — UPDATED February 3, 2012

Seriously.

The good people at the Susan G. Komen Foundation — ever heard of them? — are offering the pink pistol below:

Discount Gun Sales has teamed up with the Susan G. Komen Foundation to offer a pink version of its popular Walther P-22 handgun in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The Komen Foundation, which sponsors pink-ribbon walks and other events to raise money for breast cancer research, is embroiled in controversy following its decision to defund Planned Parenthood.

An undisclosed portion from the sale of each Walther P-22 “Hope Edition” will be donated to the Seattle Branch of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The gun retails for $429.99.

The Hope Edition has “an exclusive DuraCoat Pink slide in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness month,” according to the promotion. “Utilizing the same reliable controls and firing mechanism that has made the Walther P-22 America’s top selling handgun, the Hope Edition will be a limited production pistol offered exclusively through Discount Gun Sales.”

Read more.

UPDATE: A reader alerted me to this item, indicating Komen has no connection to this scheme:

The extent of the partnership between Komen and Discount Gun Sales was initially unclear, particularly since the gun seller misspells the name of the charity on its website. Yet Andrea Rader, the director of communications for Komen, told HuffPost Friday afternoon that the two groups are not actually affiliated at all.

“We do not have partnerships with any firearms manufacturer. Nor does our Seattle Affiliate receive donations from this manufacturer,” said Andrea Rader, who works in the public relations department at Komen. “As you noted, they even got the name of our organization wrong.”

A spokesman for Komen’s Seattle chapter, meanwhile, told The Huffington Post that his group was completely unaware of Discount Gun Sales’ “Hope” gun and hadn’t received any donations from the company.

“This fundraising scheme is not sanctioned by us; we had no knowledge of it…”


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