Taking a cue from the popular yellow bike project, where donated bikes are painted yellow and left in various locations to be freely used on the honor system by citizens, a gun-rights group in Columbus, Ohio has attempted to do the same with handguns.

Dubbed the “Yellow Gun Project,” the Columbus Citizens for the Second Amendment (CCSA), obtained over 100 handguns, sprayed each with a bright, day-glo yellow paint, loaded them with ammunition and dropped them off at busy street corners throughout the Columbus metropolitan area. The gun group hoped that a criminal would quickly use a yellow gun in a crime he would commit anyway, then drop it off on a sidewalk or in a park for the next would-be felon to use. The group’s idea was that since criminals often use stolen guns, providing a ready supply of free ones might result in fewer gun thefts.

“They’re gonna do that crazy stuff just the same, so if we give these people the guns they need, that may help dry up the market for stolen ones,” claimed Art Trevethan (right), President and Grand Poobah of CCSA. “We got our members to offer up some cheap, crappy, but functional guns they no longer wanted - old .22s and such, and set up the project. A couple cans of Krylon and some ammo and we were in business! Maybe if the bad guys get in the habit of using those, they might quit breaking into law-abiding gun owners’ homes to steal our good ones.”

“Our guns are yellow, but our idea is green,” added Trevethan. “Think of it as a new form of recycling as they pass those old revolvers and automatics from one crook to the next. Hell, they might even shoot a few of each other with our yellow guns. It’s win-win!”

But the program backfired in epic proportions, despite its good intentions. Local merchants started noticing an alarming increase in armed robberies from perps brandishing the tell-tale yellow pistols. Pedestrians and bicyclists reported several muggings by yellow-gun-wielding robbers, and a recent spate of home invasions by a group of three men with brightly-colored .38s, has locals on edge.

In the wake of the yellow gun crime spree, worrisome city leaders had had enough.

“This is not a realistic solution to our escalating crime rates,” exclaimed an exasperated Michael B. Coleman, mayor of Columbus. “We’ve got bright yellow Saturday night specials floating all over the place. Those gun nuts are only fanning the flames here.”

The mayor called on the gun group to “round up all those damn guns and get ‘em off our streets.” But there was no putting that genie back in the bottle, as every one of the decoy guns disappeared from the streets of the city in a matter of days. Reports of the guns achieving collector’s status were confirmed when a few of them turned up for sale on Craigslist.

The gaffe is one the membership of the Columbus Citizens for the Second Amendment doesn’t wish to make again.

“I guess it’s back to the ol’ drawing board,” sighed Trevethan. “No good deed goes unpunished, I reckon.”