Posted on 07/15/2002 7:08:58 AM PDT by SLB
WASHINGTON- Several drivers in the nation's capital were hit with sharp projectiles, perhaps darts fired from a blowgun.
Police said the incidents occurred between 9:30 and 11:00 p.m., EDT Sunday in neighorhoods across the city. A handful were concentrated along the District's New York Avenue, part of U.S. Route 50, which serves as the city's main northeast gateway for commuters and tourists.
In three cases, the six-inch long, razor-sharp projectiles had to be surgically removed.
There was no evidence the darts had been tainted with chemicals or toxins, authorities said, and none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries.
Police were looking Monday for as many as three teenagers driving a white Cadillac with tinted windows in connection with the spree.
Metropolitan Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Gentile would not confirm the use of a blowgun. He said the pranksters' weapon of choice might also have been some sort of nail dispenser.
36" accuracy is 100 feet, 200 feet per second
48" accuracy is 150 feet, 250 feet per second.
60" accuracy is 150 feet, 250 feet per second
Every time you add a 24" extension to one of these sizes, you'll be increasing your accuracy by 50 feet and your feet per second by another 150 feet per second.
Yeah -- how about 'Airport Security'?
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
What do I know about "profiling"?
I was taught in public school history class about the menacing tribes of 83 year-old white pygmy ladies in wheelchairs who aggressively defend their turf near and around parts of U.S. Route 50.
Once upon a time, as a young air wing jarhead, I was part of a merry band of young jarheads with more ingenuity on hand than there was official work to be ingenious at. So we came up with the blowgun from Heck. It fire parachute rigger's needles (those things are BIG) using compressed nitrogen from a NAN-2 cart as the propellant. The weapon had a trigger group (actually a valve release) made out of brass in the jet engine shop. We used cut-up IBM punch cards as a combination fin and sabot. A Tasco rifle scope from the Marine Corps Exchange finished off the weapon.
We were bagging rats at 100 meters with our toy...
Nice penis gourd.
...pen is mightier than the gourd...(he ducks)
But it's not just the weapons themselves! We've got control the propellants!
Require a license to breathe!
Or do they already do that in D.C.?
You need to build the thing up yourself, just like we did. You'll need a nitrogen bottle, hi-pressure hose and valve, a tube that will hold pressure, parachute rigger's needles, IBM cards (cut into cones and glue to the end of the needles), and a valve to regulate discharge.
Where the rats in the open, out in a field, in a hangar?
In the hangar. We had the absolute WORST rat problem you ever saw in our hangar.
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