In 2018, Elon Musk’s The Boring Company launched a bunch of limited edition flamethrowers as a bizarre promotional trick for launching tunnel excavation. Officially said “It’s not a flamethrower” on the company’s own website, the devices could not, as He pointed to CNN at the time, they “threw flames over long distances when igniting flammable liquids,” but they were designed to act more like “large propane blowers.”
Apparently, none of this matters much in the eyes of the law, especially when those same eyes contemplate what looks like an old man trying to get on a “party bus” in Italy with what looks exactly like a flamethrower.
In a excellent writing at TechCrunch, writer Mark Harris easily sinks into the legal snafus faced by dozens of “Not a Flamethrower” owners after police officers had a bunch of giant guns. Among the stories presented are those of the American man (who was later imprisoned in Italy for almost a week) and a man from London, whose house was assaulted by five police officers with tactical equipment.
The military-level aesthetic of the device was enough to provoke Democratic legislators in the New York State Senate to sponsor a bill that would criminalize the ownership and use of the flamethrower.
“Elon Musk’s Boring Company launched a new flamethrower … without worrying about buyer training or their reasons for buying,” the invoice, S1637, reads. “This bill states that the ownership and use of a flamethrower is a criminal act, unless it is used for agricultural, construction or historical collection purposes. These dangerous devices must not be sold to civilians and use should be restricted to trained professionals “.
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Although many of the civilians identified by TechCrunch confiscated Not a Flameth flamethrowers for public safety, John Richardson, the man from London who was assaulted by a rapid response team dedicated to fighting gun crime , finally regained possession of his weapon. He told TechCrunch that he intends to keep a low profile with the device for now, at least until he finds out. you can get a benefit from it.
“I’m happy to be there all the time,” he said. “And if there’s a zombie apocalypse, I have at least one.”
Go to TechCrunch for more details that are surprisingly even more stupid and fun.