In 2018, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company released a bunch of limited edition flame throwing devices as a bizarre promotional trick for the tunnel digging startup. Officially called “Not a Flamethrower” on the company’s own website, the devices could not, as CNN pointed out at the time, they “threw flames over long distances by igniting flammable liquids”, but instead were designed to act more like “large propane blowers”.
Apparently, none of this matters much in the eyes of the law – especially when the same eye looks at what appears to be an elderly man trying to board a “party bus” in Italy taking what it looks like. just like a flamethrower.
a excellent writing at TechCrunch, writer Mark Harris easily throws himself into the legal mess faced by dozens of “Not a Flamethrower” homeowners after law enforcement officers received a load of their giant firearms. The stories presented include those about the aforementioned American man (who was later imprisoned in Italy for almost a week) and a man from London whose home was attacked by five police officers in tactical equipment.
The military aesthetic of the device was ultimately enough to persuade Democratic lawmakers in the New York State Senate to sponsor a bill that would criminalize the ownership and use of the future flamethrower.
“Elon Musk’s boring company has launched a new flamethrower … without any concern about training buyers or their reasons for buying.” invoice, S1637, read. “This bill stipulates that the possession and use of a flamethrower is a criminal offense, unless it is used for agricultural, construction or historical collection purposes. These dangerous devices should not be sold to civilians and their use should be limited to trained professionals. ”
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Although many of the civilians identified by TechCrunch were confiscated by Not a Flamethrowers law enforcement for public safety reasons, John Richardson – the London man who was raided at home by a rapid response team dedicated to combating gun crime – in the trace regained possession of his weapon. He told TechCrunch that he intends to keep a low profile with the device for now – at least until he knows it. can make a profit from it.
“I’m happy to stay on it no matter how long,” he said. “And if there’s a zombie apocalypse, at least I have one.”
Go to TechCrunch for more details that are surprisingly even worse and funnier.