King Kabuki said:
Hey Greg, check this out:
My ex-fiance's Uncle is a blacksmith, and was in the Military forever. He works now as an Airline mechanic, but makes metalwork in his off-time. For Christmas three years ago he made his mom (who is German) a miniature replica of a WWI (I think) Canon. Crazy part is this thing actually fired with the power of a 44 Magnum.
I told him he should start a website and sell that stuff, he said it's something he's always wanted to do. I'd sure as shit buy one, and sit it pointing right at my front door. lol
I think there may already be craftsmen who make something like that, at least that fire powder but no shot. Might be an interesting idea, though he'll need to peruse gun legislation and, quite frankly, it may be worth hiring a lawyer to look his idea over.
American gun laws, in their attempt to be clear and unambiguous, are often irritatingly so. Example: federal firearms legislation defines a "sawed-off rifle" as a firearm with a shoulder stock with a barrel shorter than a certain length (I wanna say 18"). That's it, pretty much end of story, not much in the way of loopholes to wiggle through. This is, of course, intended to crimminalize the act of chopping down a rifle barrel to make the weapon more easy to conceal for crime.
However, because of this, the Thompson firearms company wound up in court battling over the legality of its popular Contender single-shot pistols (which have an optional shoulder stock upgrade) which are highly popular with game hunters and competitive marksmen and not, to my knowledge, ever used in the commission of any crime as a single-shot pistol makes a shitty weapon to use for drive-bys or holding up a mini-mart (plus, they cost a lot). I think they won, after making some concessions.
I know this because an idea a friend and I (like me, also an enthusiastic marksman with the funds to amass a collection that punks my modest one) to create a carbine-style upgrade for handguns that the same law rendered not do-able. Before we could think around the restriction, someone came up with a better idea.
Conversely, the Assault Weapons Ban-- a piece of legislation whose very name is a fucking joke since it bans under its expansive umbrella a profusion of weapons that nobody knowledgable about firearms would ever call an "assault weapon"-- crimminalized military-style weapons by legislating against flash suppressors, bayonet lugs, high-capacity magazines, and pistol grips. Arms manufacturers removed the bayonet lug and the flash suppressor, replaced the pistol grip with a thumbhole stock, and shipped them with low-capacity magazines...*voila*, the evil military assault death weapon is now a "sporter" rifle. Crimminals remain unaffected, while law-abiding shooters put up with louder reports during firing, dust anoyingly kicked up while firing prone, and reloading more often. In exchange for this, the likelihood of an innocent American dying in a senseless gang-related bayonetting was seriously reduced.
I'd almost bet there's a law stating that "A _____ -sized device firing a ________ or larger projectile with a muzzle velocity equal to or greater than _______ feet per second" is a deadly, and illegal, weapon even though common sense dictates that nobody is going to walk into the Circle K at one o'clock in the morning and knock it over using a tiny replica connonade for a weapon.