Posted on 09/08/2006 9:34:34 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Federal ATF Agents issued an officer safety advisory on what is called the world’s smallest gun after a CBS 2 inquiry. The Alert has been issued both in the New York and nationally to all Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives criminal investigators and will be passed on to other federal agencies.
ATF has confiscated thousands of disguised or miniature guns -- from flashlights that shoot a .25 caliber bullet to pen guns.
The latest miniature gun that is alarming ATF agents is the SwissMiniGun. It’s extremely small -- just over two inches long. It comes with tiny bullets designed especially for the weapon that can penetrate skin. Even in its holster, this gun is so small that law enforcement experts say it could pass for a keychain ornament.
According to William McMahon, special agent in charge of the New York ATF office, that makes it the perfect stealth weapon for a variety of criminals.
“A terrorist, a criminal trying to sneak into bank, all kinds of criminals. I can see no legitimate reason to own this gun. It seems to be just made to be hidden,” McMahon said.
As its name indicates, the SwissMiniGun is manufactured in Switzerland. CBS 2 News reached the company's CEO, Paul Erard, by phone.
He said the gun is a miniature, detailed copy of the Colt Python revolver. He sells it for roughly $5,000 to gun collectors (though he added that most of his guns are encrusted with diamonds and gold, so they can cost $30,000).
He said he has sold 50 miniguns, all to only one area of the world. “Contacts in the Middle East asked me to make a miniature of Colt Python," said Erard.
Erard refused to say which Middle-Eastern countries. His reaction when asked if terrorists might use it? At first he laughed and said, “ Absolutely ridiculous.”
When CBS 2 got him to admit his gun shoots bullets using gunpowder, he then changed his tone. “Of course I am concerned as manufacturers of air guns are concerned. This is not a toy,” said Erard.
A national police organization notes that unlike air guns, SwissMiniGuns can be concealed and shoot with gunpowder bullets that travel at 400-plus feet per second. These bullets could be aimed at the face.
Joe Occhipinti of the National Police Defense Foundation was alarmed by the SwissMiniGun’s potential uses, noting, “In a routine stop, a guy could certainly make a joke, and 'Say see my little gun here?' point at the officer and shoot. It looks like a key chain and [an officer’s] guard would be down."
Occhipinti added, "I could easily see a passenger attempting to go to an airport take out a key chain put in with coins in the little basket. No one would detect that."
SwissMiniGuns cannot be legally imported into the United States because the barrel is less than three inches long -- in this case, a lot less.
No SwissMiniGuns have been recovered here yet, but McMahon admits, “If it came into the United States, it would be a concern.”
This alert is the result of a single officer in Maryland seeing the gun on a Web site and alerting other officers, including the National Police Defense Foundation.
CBS 2 News learned of the weapon and passed word on to the ATF. It is an example of officers using the Internet the way some terrorists do but in this case, to combat them.
2hard,
If I hadn't already bought two pistols recently....great idea man!
Celebrate FREEDOM! Buy a Gun for 9/11 !!!
It might even break the skin and cause a nasty infection!
lol
OH MY GOD!
PANIC, PANIC, run and hide!
A bullet with a weight equal to a speck of sand, propelled at an incredible 400 FPS!
Why, that's slower than the cheapest BB gun on the market, it must be SUPER DEADLY!
You could lose an eye!
(end sarcasm)
Typical BATFE and liberal idiocy, the "gun" has never been exported to the U.S., there is no plan to export it to the U.S., and even if they came in U.S. breakfast cereal boxes the projectile is too anemic to do much more than annoy a victim.
I guess BATFE is concerned about rich thugs spending $5,000 ea. for tiny little guns to rob 7-11's with!
Thugs can easily trade drugs for all the real guns they want, or steal them, this is such a non-problem it's a sick joke that BATFE even responded to the lib's panic.
Yea, had they pulled out these peashooters they'd not even made it past the flight attendant. We'd all be so lucky if terrorist chose this weapon.
ping
A MLB fastball leaves the hand around 140 feet per second. For a non athlete with a more ordinary pitching shoulder, that would be more like 110 to 120 fps.
Throwing this tiny speck of a projectile would seem to be significantly more difficult than launching a baseball, as the bullet has essentially no inertia to balance your throwing motion against. I think 100 feet per second would be an optimistic goal.
At 100 feet per second, the 2.3mm SwissMiniGun projectile would have a muzzle energy (or more properly, a palm energy) of about .044 foot pounds - or 0.7 foot ounces.
A baseball at 140 feet per second has about 100 foot pounds of energy.
What a joke. 400 fps is slower than almost all airguns. Heck, I have one that is 1000 fps, with a MUCH bigger bullet.
This is asinine.
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )
You would have seen the minigun and died laughing on the bank floor. That's how deadly these things are! Thank G*d criminals don't have these...all the busted guts would make for a long cleanup.
Its too late. The image of my insides spilling out from laughter actually made me giggle. It was a very graphic image in my mind, too. I think this site is too addictive for me.
The is so phallic...
Six Finger
Six Finger
Man Alive!
"How did I ever get along with five?"
A friend of mine had one of those. We really had a hard time figuring out our play story line. Not cowboys, not soldiers, but maybe spies. But surely the enemy would notice the extra finger that didn't bend...
Now the Mattel spy guns disguised as a camera or radio, those were way cool. Except when you hit the button, they almost jumped out of your hand.
A national police organization notes that unlike air guns, SwissMiniGuns can be concealed and shoot with gunpowder bullets that travel at 400-plus feet per second.
As always, the emphasis is on the THING rather than the PERSON with violent intentions and no restraining set of morals. They will sure as hell want to ban this thing. Instead, they should ban people with violent intentions and actions. Damn the left!
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