How to weaponize office supplies

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JoergS

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A while ago, I was asked by the popular format "Businessweek" to make a "How To" for their series of such articles. My specific task was "How to make weapons from office supplies".

Now an office is paradise for the eager makeshift weapons maker! Lots of heavy, sharp things around. So I started to play a bit - here are the results.

A part of the video - the pencil shooter - was actually published by them, the other weapons have probably been too effective (= scary lawsuit magnets) - they did not use it.

http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2012-04-12/how-to-weaponize-office-supplies

But for my true fans - here is the full "director's cut"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-3SA-y_g4
 
Very Nice!

I don't think I ever would have thought of that flail. Thanks for sharing!

You wouldn't happen to have a video of the Gatling style slingshot at the beginning, would you?

Have a good one

Chris "the Kayak-Man" Johnson
 
Not a weapon per se, but flat-panel computer monitors have been shown to at least slow down handgun bullets. Anything small enough to pick up but with a little weight to it (e.g., coffee cups, staplers, paperweights) could be a throwing object. A pot of hot coffee could be thrown in an attacker's face. A glass bottle of designer water, when broken at the bottom and held by the neck, could be a nasty contact-distance edged weapon. Use your imagination.
 
Thanks Joerg,

May I add,

A rolled up magazine
An electric stapler swung by the cord
A stout ruler, especially those old Computer print out stainless steel ones

For non office WFZ take off your ball cap and jab with the brim
 
Joerg, I have to say, with arms like yours, anything you pick up short of a stuffed animal is a weapon! (and I think you might even find a way to weaponize a stuffed animal!)

Great video. The pencil shooter looks like a fun project I can do with my kids (using unsharpened pencils of course!)
 
We put some very large fire extinguishers in wall mounted storage cubbies throughout our office specifically so the staff would have them for suppressing "problems"
 
Especially for people who work in victim disarmament zones.
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School teacher.

I teach science though, and have a lab, which means I have some 3' long aluminum ring stand rods that go into the lab benches. That's about the best thing I've been able to come up with.

Jason
 
Jason_G said:
School teacher.

I teach science though, and have a lab, which means I have some 3' long aluminum ring stand rods that go into the lab benches. That's about the best thing I've been able to come up with.

Jason
Click to expand...
Schools are a FANTASTIC place to find improvised weapons... All through school, both elementary and high school (and a couple college classes I took) there was one of those huge paper cutting machines... Right there you've got an effective cutlass just by unscrewing that bolt at the end that you've always got to tighten to get it to cut the paper right - Staplers make nice short flails... nobody wants to get smacked with a heavy Swingline stapler, and the sharp pointed things jamming into your skin wouldn't make it any more pleasant... Potentially blinding. Scissors galore - we've seen what Joerg can do with them... they're also decent knives when separated into two parts (the big heavy forged steel school scissors come apart easily). Depending on the seating solutions in your school, a chair can make a decent "blunt object", or a makeshift shield if attacked with a knife or bat. There are usually no shortage of brooms or dustmops in school classroom closets... The handle makes a great improvised weapon. Combined with some other things such as heavy tape and the paper cutter handle, you can create some very effective equalizers.
 
Schools are a FANTASTIC place to find improvised weapons... All through school, both elementary and high school (and a couple college classes I took) there was one of those huge paper cutting machines... Right there you've got an effective cutlass just by unscrewing that bolt at the end that you've always got to tighten to get it to cut the paper right - Staplers make nice short flails... nobody wants to get smacked with a heavy Swingline stapler, and the sharp pointed things jamming into your skin wouldn't make it any more pleasant... Potentially blinding. Scissors galore - we've seen what Joerg can do with them... they're also decent knives when separated into two parts (the big heavy forged steel school scissors come apart easily). Depending on the seating solutions in your school, a chair can make a decent "blunt object", or a makeshift shield if attacked with a knife or bat. There are usually no shortage of brooms or dustmops in school classroom closets... The handle makes a great improvised weapon. Combined with some other things such as heavy tape and the paper cutter handle, you can create some very effective equalizers.
Click to expand...

If something did happen, like (God forbid) an active shooter situation, the typical procedure is immediate lockdown. Classrooms are locked, blinds shut, and we barricade ourselves in the classroom. Any makeshift defense weapons would have to be something procured in the classroom, so that would rule out the paper cutters or anything in a janitorial closet. And honestly, I think a stick is a better weapon anyway. No substitute for a gun, but it's not like they'll ever legalize CCW in public schools. Well, actually I think it is technically legal here, IIRC, but the number of hoops you have to jump through pretty much make it impossible.

Jason
 
If it happens to be high school or above chemistry, then the world is your oyster. Use your imagination.

When I was in school one of the teachers carried a multi-tool and nobody thought twice about it. People just seem to think of them as foldable pliers with screwdrivers. (They always forget about the knifeblades and saw.
 
JoergS said:
A while ago, I was asked by the popular format "Businessweek" to make a "How To" for their series of such articles. My specific task was "How to make weapons from office supplies".

Now an office is paradise for the eager makeshift weapons maker! Lots of heavy, sharp things around. So I started to play a bit - here are the results.

A part of the video - the pencil shooter - was actually published by them, the other weapons have probably been too effective (= scary lawsuit magnets) - they did not use it.

http://www.businessweek.com/videos/2012-04-12/how-to-weaponize-office-supplies

But for my true fans - here is the full "director's cut"!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-3SA-y_g4
Click to expand...
Wow, you're my new hero. I genuinely was extremely impressed by your ingenuity. Thanks for sharing this with us.
 
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