The police said he used a potato gun, a PVC pipe that propels objects with a light accelerant, such as hair spray, that can be ignited by a grill lighter...?
Cool! Where the hell did I put that damn PVC?
If your house was built after 1975~, you may have a nice selection of PVC in the basement!
Potatoe guns are pretty cool. I made mine years ago for about $15.
Just sort of kills the idea of gun control when you can make a relatively effective shotgun at Home Depot.
Back when tennis balls came in metal cans, we’d punch holes near the bottom chime, pour in some zippo-fluid and shake it up.
Used up tennis ball in the top and then “fire away!”. Ball would go hundreds of yards into the air. Bad-luck side was if the ball didn’t jettison...shrapnel everywhere and a trip to the horse-pital.
I must admit to creating an innovation (although not admitting to being the originator). That is, set up the “cannon” and drench the tennis ball in lighter fluid instead of the cannon bottom. Wait a few moments and a FLAMING BALL OF FIRE came from the cannon.
Many local drivers made many reports to LocalPD.
Who says teenagers aren’t invincible?
A friend had a 2” caliber one mounted to the roll bar on his jeep.
He became intrigued when he saw one on the internet.
I’ve see some really sophisticated ones. I’d use ABS over PVC though as it’s less prone to shattering.
My older brother made one of these about 20 years ago, and all of the men in the family had a blast at a family get-together. He did not even mind when someone blew a hole in his handmade wooden fence. Yes, he was a grown man at the time. :)
We used to call them “polish cannons” and made them out of beer cans and electrical tape with WD-40 as the propellant.