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So the consensus seems to be that owning a flame thrower is legal.  Is it legal to make napalm to use in said flame thrower?

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nobody can make a guide for building one with some steel pipe and a welder that runs on diesel fuel?

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There is no law against making thermite so probably not.


Lessons learned from WWII suggest the flamethrower man was the first target nearly always also that bullets and pressurzed accelerants do not mix well.  Great way to get people out of bunkers though.  I'd love to have one but would be afraid to use it given how easily fire spreads.

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As far as practical use goes, flamethrowers are a mixed blessing.


Pros:

While getting shot is an abstract fear for most people (they know they don't want it to happen, but they've never BEEN shot), being set on fire is a MAJOR fear that 99.9% of people have. Huge psychological impact in combat.

You can cook infantry alive AND douse vehicles in burning napalm. Molotov cocktails don't deliver enough payload to affect most modern tanks, but hit a tank in the right spot with an extended burst from a flamethrower and you just choked the engine and blinded the crew. And if you can get a burst INSIDE the vehicle, even with a fire supression system it's going to be hard to put out, you're going to severely injure at least some of the crew, and you may cook off some ammo inside.

Kiss that fucking bunker goodbye. If they don't burn, they suffocate.

You can arc the flame to go over obstacles or into foxholes/trenches that line-of-sight weapons can't hit.


Cons:

Heavy as shit to carry around. Then again, our troops carry 70 pounds or more of equipment, and if you're dragging a flamethrower around then you're not toting a rifle and ammo at least.

You can't carry much fuel.

Limited range and utterly useless against aircraft.

EVERYBODY on the battlefield will know you've got a flamethrower, especially at night. This could be good or bad, depending on how they react to it.

While flamethrowers don't explode when shot like in the movies, because of that aforementioned fear of burning alive and flamethrowers being really obvious targets, whoever's carrying that thing is a bullet magnet. If the enemy doesn't flee or surrender out of fear of being burned alive, EVERYBODY is going to be gunning for your ass so you can't come after them with that thing.

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My question is, where does the bayonet go?

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Just underneath the silencer.

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Thermite is not napalm.

Thermite is rust and aluminum powder.  It has to be ignited by something REALLY hot, but once ignited will not go out until it's fuel has been exhausted.  You cannot smother it, as it carries it's oxygen with it.