From: Richard Steven Hack (richardhack@pcmagic.net)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 08:58:20 MST
At 12:52 AM 2/26/02 -0800, you wrote:
>Anyone know what kind of legislation governs the private production of
>directed energy weapons, hipower lasers, or directed emp weapons?
>On a related note, does the legislation on automatic and explosive firearms
>cover privately developed, prototype, or handbuilt non-commercial weapons?
>
>Justin
The definition of a firearm under Federal law is (paraphrasing) any device
which uses a chemical reaction to propel a projectile. It is VERY
general. The only weapons that tend to be ignored are old black powder
pistols and rifles. Interestingly, the statute also states as a separate
paragraph: "or any dangerous weapon" - which I assume allows a prosecutoi
(subject to case law, I guess) to call ANYTHING a gun if he thinks he can
get away from it. Especially anything that increases its rate of fire by
mechanical means (automatic - except I think hand cranks). As for
explosives, I knew a guy in the Federal pen who built a couple of pipe
bombs to blow up a beaver dam on his property. He made the mistake of
letting someone else in on it - got about four years. We called him
"Beaver" :-}
Richard Steven Hack
richardhack@pcmagic.net
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