In 2018, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company launched a series of limited edition flame-throwing devices as a bizarre promotional trick for the tunneling startup. Officially dubbed “Not A Flamethrower” on the company’s website, the devices could not, as CNN pointed at the time, they “spewed flames over long distances lighting flammable liquids”, but were designed to act more like “big propane torches”.
Apparently, none of that matters much in the eyes of the law – especially when those same eyes are looking at what looks like an adult man trying to get on a “party bus” in Italy holding what looks exactly like a flamethrower.
On a excellent writing at TechCrunch, writer Mark Harris plunges into the legal turmoil faced by dozens of owners of “Not A Flamethrower” after law enforcement officers took a load of their giant firearms. Among the stories presented are those of the aforementioned American man (who was later arrested in Italy for almost a week) and a London man whose home was invaded by five policemen with tactical equipment.
The device’s military-grade aesthetic turned out to be enough to get Democratic lawmakers in the New York State Senate to sponsor a bill that would criminalize the property and use of the would-be flamethrower.
“Elon Musk’s Boring Company launched a new flamethrower … with no concern for training buyers or their reasons for buying,” the bill, S1637, reads. “This bill establishes that owning and using flamethrowers is a crime, unless it is used for agricultural, construction or historical collection purposes. These dangerous devices must not be sold to civilians and their use must be restricted to trained professionals ”.
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Although many of the civilians identified by TechCrunch had their Not a Flamethrowers flamethrowers confiscated by law enforcement authorities due to concern for public safety, John Richardson – the man from London who had his home raided by a rapid response team dedicated to fighting the gun crime – finally regained possession of his weapon. He told TechCrunch that he plans to keep a low profile with the device for now – at least until he knows that can profit from it.
“I am happy to sit on it for so long,” he said. “And if there is a zombie apocalypse, at least I have one.”
Go to TechCrunch for more details that are, unsurprisingly, even more stupid and funny.