Old Well adorns design for rifle

CHAPEL HILL -- The Old Well, a campus landmark and symbol of UNC-Chapel Hill, appears on neckties, jewelry and other products, but a Colorado company's plans to put it on the stock of a rifle has raised concerns.

Historical Armory, a small company based in Fort Collins, Colo., is advertising a "Historic Orange County" special edition of a .22-caliber rifle. The stock is engraved with images, including the state flag, the American flag, the Confederate flag, a deer, a cannon and the Old Well.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, a 1993 UNC-CH graduate, said placing a university symbol on a gun is not appropriate, especially in light of cases of violence on or near college campuses around the country. Chilton was living in Chapel Hill when law student Wendell Williamson shot and killed two people and injured two others in 1995.

"It sends the wrong message to the public to see university symbols used in that way," said Chilton, who learned of the gun when someone interested in local history e-mailed him an advertisement for it. He wrote to Linda Convissor, UNC-CH's director of local relations, to complain.

The Old Well, which has a water fountain surrounded by white columns and a dome, is a popular destination for campus tour groups as well as students and visitors posing for pictures. The well is among the federally registered trademarks held by the university, said Derek Lochbaum, director of trademarks and licensing at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Lochbaum said UNC-CH has not given Historical Armory permission to use the Old Well image.

"They're not a licensee of the University of North Carolina," he said. "After hearing about this, I passed that along to our legal counsel."

The Collegiate Licensing Co., the university's licensing agent, is investigating.

Paul Brunswig, the owner of Historical Armory, said he had not heard from the university or Collegiate Licensing as of Monday, about a week after the university got word of the advertisement.

"Nobody's contacted us at all," he said. "That's interesting that they could trademark an object."

Brunswig said the company designs special-edition rifles for areas across the country. He said artists on staff develop the images that appear on the guns based on local history.

"If we have to redraw something, we can redraw something right easily," he said. "We're very abiding."

He said no Orange County editions have been produced or sold yet, but the edition would cost about $400. He said the artists design a montage to reflect high points of local history.

"It's all done with the best of intentions," he said. "We just love history."

He said his company included the Old Well as a historical structure and that its image is different from the university symbol.

"If a painter went out there and did a painting of that structure, would they be upset by that?" he said.

"I doubt it."

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