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California's Efforts To Restrict Elon Musk's Flamethrowers Go Down In Flames (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A California state bill that would have more heavily regulated the use of flamethrowers has now effectively fizzled out in a legislative committee. In light of this development, there's nothing to stop Boring Company customers in California from receiving the company's sold-out flamethrowers. On May 26, the day after the bill died in committee, CEO Elon Musk tweeted: "About to ship. @BoringCompany holding flamethrower pickup parties in a week or so, then deliveries begin. Check https://www.boringcompany.com/... for details." After Musk said he would be selling a flamethrower dubbed "Not a Flamethrower" to get around customs, Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) authored a bill that would have imposed more restrictions on their acquisition and use.
"I honestly thought it was a joke when I saw the news about this," the assemblyman said in a statement at the time. "This product, in the wake of California's deadliest wildfire year in state history, is incredibly insensitive, dangerous, and most definitely not funny." He added: "There are many times in which technology and inventions benefit society but are not made available to the public. We don't allow people to walk in off the street and purchase military grade tanks or armor-piercing ammunition... I cannot even begin to imagine the problems a flamethrower would cause firefighters and police officers alike."
"I honestly thought it was a joke when I saw the news about this," the assemblyman said in a statement at the time. "This product, in the wake of California's deadliest wildfire year in state history, is incredibly insensitive, dangerous, and most definitely not funny." He added: "There are many times in which technology and inventions benefit society but are not made available to the public. We don't allow people to walk in off the street and purchase military grade tanks or armor-piercing ammunition... I cannot even begin to imagine the problems a flamethrower would cause firefighters and police officers alike."
As far as wacky jokes go, this one is a little over the top.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
After Musk said he would be selling a flamethrower dubbed "Not a Flamethrower" to get around customs
And also for the simple fact that it's not a flamethrower. It's a blowtorch in the shape of a squirt gun.
It has about the same range as a $20 harbor freight propane torch used to kill weeds, which is a couple feet. If yours only does a few inches you got ripped off.
but because CA's had a drought for ages and the last thing they need is numbnuts running around setting stuff on fire for fun (which appears to be the core market for this thing).
I think rich folks in CA are buying flamethrowers for use as a tool in the Great American Pastime of rich folks in CA . . . gentrification!
Knocking down a multi-family apartment building to build a single family tech-oligarchy dwelling is a bit of a hassle. There will be a lot of debris that needs to be hauled away. If you torch the building with a flamethrower first, the families living there will voluntarily move out, and you will have less debris that needs to be disposed of.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
For his children? Yes. For other adults? No, of course not, that's what it means to be an adult. Also, you don't get to treat other adults as children either.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Dang it, messed up the link. Flamethrower, including Elon himself flaming
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I cannot even begin to imagine the problems a flamethrower would cause firefighters and police officers alike."
Just look around. Nothing has changed. Flamethrowers have been legal in CA since before it became a state. And yet to the best of my knowledge there isn't a single instance, ever, of one being used maliciously. (please correct me if I'm wrong)
This attempt at legislation looks more like a some kind of "OMG! Flamethrowers are scary! We have to outlaw them!" type of knee jerk BS I've come to expect from California lawmakers.
And the teenager was selling something to people?
Ezekiel 23:20
Capitalism wins. Look for 'real' nozzles at the same store. Since they're sold separately from the dangerous can, they can be - wait for it - a nozzle. No silly springs, flaps, clamps or pinchers.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
The problem with darwin taking care of this is the amount of potential colatorial damage.
You act like parents aren't constantly hypocritical when parenting, about a great many subjects. Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, sex, driving, curse words, porn, video games, firearms, power tool safety, household chemicals, etc.
All of these things are widely available, and used / abused by parents while those same parents tell their children not to.
It's a wonder that society hasn't collapsed, according to you.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
The good news is, Elon Musk can adjust the flame length OTA depending on the amount of liberalism in the area.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
That isn't a fucking flamethrower, it's an expensive weed burner with a cool shape. You can buy them anywhere. It's compressed gas powered as well, so it's very safe.
These people don't know their ass from a gloryhole in a truck stop bathroom.
Good point, but 'military grade' is widely understood (but vague term) that is used to describe weapons that aren't really useful unless you just want to cause carnage and destruction.
Grenade launchers, fully automatic weapons, crewed weapons, LAW rockets, cannons, Armor-piercing, incendiary, and explosive ammunition, mines and similar devices are probably fair to describe as military grade weaponry. Assault rifles are a bit more fuzzy, but mostly because lax laws have allowed them to proliferate as 'hunting rifles'.
Tommy guns were available via mail order catalogues in the 1920s to the public, but then later went on to be used by the army in ww2. Did the army call them Civilian Grade weapons? Any label you slap on something is going to be somewhat vague and fuzzy, because of the nature of people and language, but I think most people understand basically what military grade weapons means.
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
designed for killing men over long periods of time with minimal maintenance. The latter part is usually what's emphasize in marketing. The former part is what worries people.
Based on what I've read this 'flamethrower' isn't military grade in either sense. Although as other's have pointed out on this thread the problem is that it encourages playing with fire in a state hit hard with drought.
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It's not really a flamethrower is it. It's hardly projecting flaming material 60 feet away, which is surely the basic definition of a flamethrower. Military grade the material would stick to whatever it hits too, which is a bit of a bugger if that's you.