[twoblink]

For some reason, gun crime seems to be on the rise here in Taiwan..

So the cops get a tip about someone trying to assassinate some offical here in taiwan..

So the ransack the guy's apartment, and find a make shift gun.. The cops say the aren't too sure the guy wouldn't have blown himself up, but here's what he had:

He made a rough bipod out of some wooden stick, on it, he affixed a metal pipe, (roughly an inch in diameter) he wrapped crashed glass shards in a cheezecloth (the alleged bullet), and then (in old traditional style) wrapped about a 3cm long tube of firecracker powder wrapped in silk at the other end. His ignition system was just the silk cloth that wrapped the firecracker powder extended and he was going to use a lighter to ignite it.

They had a few comments from the bomb squad about how something this makeshift would have blown him up.. The pipe was about 3-4 feet long.


The bomb squad was called in to have the item removed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My personal observation..

Too bad the guy didn't get a chance to blow himself up.. Stupidity like this just amazes me.. The guy was trying to win a Darwin award..

[TechBrute]

Of course the officials are going to say he might have blown himself up to discourage any copycats.

[C.R.Sam]

He was using the design of his ancestors.
Who, by the way, are dead.:D

Sam

[El Tejon]

Sounds like a Skyhorse gun that Uncle Ed told me about that were big in that part of the world in the '60s.

[4v50 Gary]

Sam, I'm slow. How did his honorable ancestors die? :D

[Cal4D4]

Cops were right. Flash powder is not a propellant. A pile will detonate even unconfined. Proper fusing is the sole of safety and his didn't sound proper. :what:

[Mike Irwin]

If he was paid, I hope he wasn't paid that much. The purchaser certainly wasn't going to get his money's worth.

[Don Gwinn]

Yeah, calling that one unsafe doesn't sound like propaganda to me. They'd have had to pay me pretty well to fire that thing at a paper target.

[twoblink]

Question:

Will slicing open some 100 firecrackers and dumping cracker powder into a cloth baggie really do the trick?

Also, I might have flunked physics, but doesn't the need for a BACKSTOP of some sort, make it all but nigh impossible for this "gun" to fire? I see the powder going pow, the glass flying some 3 feet in both directions, and that's about it..

You can tell the economy is not in good shape by the quality of assassins they hire..:D

My friend commented a Motov Cocktail would have been a better plan..

[DorGunR]

If he was paid, I hope he wasn't paid that much. The purchaser certainly wasn't going to get his money's worth.

Mike.........ya gits what ya pay for.;)

[atk]

twoblink,

A backstop isn't completely necessary for getting a projectile going. It just prevents the explosive forces from traveling backwards, and helps focus the forces towards the projectile. Of course, since backwards travel of the explosion would lessen the force pushing out the projectile, increasing the amount of powder may increase the force pushing on the projectile (it depends upon the characteristics of the powder and the space in which it explodes - stuff I know that I don't know much about :) ).

I'd pretty much agree with your "3 feet in both directions" if the pipe were to hold, and the glass didn't have enough momentum to act as a backstop.



Or, am I just too serious when I read your post, and missing the sarcasm?

[Abenaki]

I hope the dummy was gonna fire it on his shoulder like a bazooka.

I did see a film about a tiger poacher, that made his own muzzelloader.
The barrel was a chunk of small pipe or tubing and he pounded one end flat.
He used match heads as a powder and touched it off with a match.
It worked. He killed a tiger that was in a snare with a head shot.


Abenaki

[JimJD]

Hmmm....
If the "genius" used small nails or ball bearings and a backstop...
Anyway, the wanna-be assassin is a moron.
I used to play with all those great fireworks as a kid growing up in Chinatown. Man... the things that some kids used to make out of them...:evil:

[twoblink]

I was actually asking a real question, (but of course, the sarcasm is always included at no extra charge) :D

How is glass a preferred projectile than say nails??

[atk]

twoblink,

I don't know why glass was chosen. We'd have to ask the would be assassin that question :)

--
atk

[cameroneod]

If this dumb*** was using flashpowder (which is what youd get from a firecracker) he'd have more than likely blown himself up. You need a much slower burning powder (and a backstop, as was mentioned) to propel the cheesecloth/glass shards downrange. .02