When I was in 5th grade, our class went on a field trip that included a stop at the Pennsylvania State Police Training Headquarters. They had a museum there of homemade weapons that they had confiscated over the years.
They never should have shown these things to an active 11 year old mind with unlimited curiosity.
The one that really caught my attention was a 12 gauge Rat Trap Shotgun
It was a 1x6 about 10 inches long, mounted vertically to a piece of 2x6 that lay flat on the on the floor. There was a piece of 4 inch piece of 3/4 inch black steel pipe drilled into the vertical 1x6, a piece of homasote board covering the backside of the 1x6 with a roofing nail through the board to act as a firing pin, lined up to hit the primer of a 12 gauge shell placed in the pipe.
A rat trap was mounted on the homasote board so that when it went off, the clamp hit square on the roofing nail, driving it forward, causing the shotgun shell in the pipe to go off.
A piece of monofilament fishing line connected to the trigger on the rat trap to cause it to go off.
What an educational field trip for a 5th grader.
I wonder if older people who saw the Dustin Hoffman Straw Dogs or younger ones who saw the remake, were inspired to build man-traps.
We can use them now in schools, churches and especially synagogues. Would be “moderate” because the perps are held for their due process and days in court before a leftist judge lets them go.