[b]Boy, these guys really are desparate hoplophobes, aren't they?[/b]

[url=http://www.uniontrib.com/news/state/20020309-9999_1n9spudguns.html]The Story[/url]


Those potato guns no laughing matter, Assemblyman says




His bill would ban homemade devices

By Michael Gardner
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

March 9, 2002

SACRAMENTO – Peel away the jokes about half-baked ideas, spud-SCUD missiles and Idaho farmers. At their core, potato guns are simply too dangerous, insists Assemblyman Jay La Suer.

The former San Diego County undersheriff has introduced legislation that would classify the homemade guns as destructive devices – the same category reserved for bombs and grenades. Possession would be a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

"You're igniting nothing more than a bomb out of scrap metal that can hurt several people, including yourself," said La Suer, R-La Mesa.

Although dubbed potato guns, the weapons can fire everything from tennis balls to ball-bearings to M-80 fireworks. Loaded with the M-80 fireworks, they're akin to loading a Molotov cocktail with a range of 300 yards.

A quick Internet search reveals a large subculture devoted to potato guns, commonly called "spudzookas" or "spudlaunchers." Some Web sites offer a beginner's potato gun for $59.99, credit cards welcome. Others include directions on how to build a weapon – and what combustible substances can be used to launch the projectiles – from materials readily available at hardware and grocery stores.

Devotees have submitted dozens of ideas for what to shoot. Most popular are relatively all-in-good-fun items that are noisy and make a mess. More chilling, however, are suggestions for loading dangerous materials.

Law enforcement officials, stymied by district attorneys reluctant to bring charges that may not stick, approached La Suer to get him to introduce AB 2513.

"It's impossible to prosecute," said Paul Curry, a San Bernardino County sheriff's lieutenant and Capitol lobbyist, because current law does not definitively bar spud guns.

There have been few reports of accidents or property damage caused by potato guns, Curry said. However, in 1999 two Santa Clarita high school students were seriously burned when a similar weapon used to fire tennis balls blew up during a demonstration by their science teacher. The school's insurer paid more than $8 million in damages.

That's proof enough the weapons pose an imminent public threat, Curry said.

"In the land of raging fires, you get concerned," said Curry, noting that fireworks are popular projectiles.

A well-known gun-control advocate agrees. Potato guns "are certainly a hazard," said Luis Tolley of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Yet Tolley questions why La Suer opposes limits on many other types of arms that are proven killers.

"It's ironic that he's concerned about a potato gun and not an AK-47," Tolley said.

Said Curry: "They are different genres. This device literally creates an uncontrolled explosion."

This is too funny!  Is it really a public health concern?  How many people have been injured by these stupid things?  

Thanks for the laugh!

spudguns . . . the horror . . . the horror . . .

Next we gotta get slingshots out of circulation.  No one "needs" a slingshot.  Capable of hurling dangerous missles hundreds of yards!  It scares me just to type this!

ban them! and rubber bands too, i was once shot with a rubber band! ban them all! people get hit with golf balls and baseballs, too! ban them!

Isn't it obvious that these things [i]MUST[/i] be banned?  Think of all the drive-by spuddings that will be prevented.

Ban them.  For the children.

Here is part of the Texas Penal Code on this subject.

PC 46.01 Definitions (Weapons)
   (16)"Zip gun" means a device or combinationof devices that was not originally a firearm and is adapted to expel a projectile through a smooth-bore or rifled-bore by using the energy generated by an explosion or burning substance.

PC 46.05  Prohibited weapons Fel 3 - A Misd
 (a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly possesses, manufactures, transports, repairs, or sells:
  (9)a Zip gun.
 (e) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree unless it is committed under subsection (a)(5) or (a)(6),(a switchblade or knuckles),in which event it is a Class A misdemeanor.

It sucks but it is already a felony to have a spudgun in Texas.

[b][size=5][red]Note to the Caliban:

I'll give up my spud gun...

[img]http://members.cox.net/southparkmilitia/images/guns/spud/spudgun1.jpg[/img]

When you pry it from my greasy, salty fingers![/red][/size=5][/b]

Baltimore is going after paintball guns now.

I'm looking for a link to the story.

Said Curry: "They are different genres. This device literally creates an uncontrolled explosion."

If it's uncontrolled, then what is the chamber and barrel all about?  The only thing that's uncontrolled here is the rampant stupidity.

I had an interesting conversation with a staffer for Caliban Assembly member Jay La Seur (REPUBLICAN) who authored AB2513.

She said they are aware that the bill as written would literally outlaw unlicensed potatoes, and that the definition of potato gun needs to be made more specific.

The bill was submitted at the request of the San Bernardino County Sheriff, who claims he's had difficulty getting local DAs and judges to prosecute in cases where gang-bangers have fired spudzookas at each other.  I reminded her that assault with ANYTHING can be considered ADW in California.  She agreed.

She also said the bill had been "misrepresented".  That argument fell apart when I told her I'd read the bill as well as the articles about it.

Here, see for yourselves:

[url]http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/bill/asm/ab_2501-2550/ab_2513_bill_20020221_introduced.html[/url]

And here's La Seur's home page:

[url]http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/77/[/url]

Assemblyman La Seur is very pro-RKBA.  His staffer tried to tell me that the spud gun ban "isn't a gun control bill".  I didn't buy it.

Let Jay know what you think.  I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear from us all.  POLITELY!

I want to make one give me directions or a link. I want one with a Flash suppressor, and folding stock. I will leave off the bayonet lug and the pistol grip. Then I could get around the pre-Spud laws. Really is there a site with directions for one.

Take your pick!  [url]http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=potato+guns[/url]

Or roll your own.

Mine's made from a sprinkler-control valve, PVC pipe, pipe fittings, a car tire valve, two switches, two 9-volt batteries, wire, and duct tape.

ROTFL!!!! I hope they don't go after my garden hose, next. It shoots more water than any super soaker.

What does this mean? "loading a Molotov" or "launching a Molotov" but a Molotov would have more energy than an M-80?????????????????????

Ban Duct Tape...

I can see it now, drive by spudings.
Ban them for the children for god sakes!!!

What a joke!!!!


LOL

I say ban Assemblymen - they're evidently a lot more dangerous than my spudgun!

The really sad part is, as always - someone's taxes are paying his salary!

It's sadder than that.  La Seur is (or WAS) a staunchly pro-gun [b]REPUBLICAN[/b].

"A mind is a terrible thing."

  - Dan Quayle

Don't they have better things to do then to legislate that.......

God if these people knew what I did with carbide in my misspent youth.  Hmmmmmmmm......think I got some around here somewhere......

[size=5][red][b]Did I read this right??[/b][/red][size=5]

15 years in prison?!!?  It’s 10 years for an [b]unregistered Machinegun[/b]!!!!

Lets see… A spud gun is more lethal than a Machinegun, right…
Some moron of a senator needs to have their head checked.  

Actually, this all began when Mr. Potato Head called Jesse Jackson and complained that his peeps were being shot out of a cannon.