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Elon Musk wants to sell you a flamethrower for $500 — and it seems to be legal in California
Elon Musk, the mastermind behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, has another innovative product up in his sleeve: a $500 flamethrower. Musk announced the flamethrower on Saturday, after weeks of teasing a possible flamethrowing product for his newest venture, The Boring Company. The Boring Company's mission is to excavate a low-cost but fast-digging tunnel through Los Angeles to help alleviate its notorious car traffic.
Musk's announcements on Instagram and Twitter about the flamethrower has all been in tongue-in-cheek tone, but his legions of followers have lapped up the chance to buy a flamethrower from The Boring Company. Over 2,000 people have pre-ordered the device so far, according to Musk on Twitter.
Pre-orders are expected to ship in the spring, according to The Boring Company's website. "When the zombie apocalypse happens, you'll be glad you bought a flamethrower," tweeted Musk. "Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!"
The California Health and Safety Codes 12750 to 12761 outline that owning or selling flamethrowers is illegal without a permit granted from the state fire marshal, joining Maryland as the only two states in the country to have flamethrower regulations. The state has defined flamethrowers as "any nonstationary and transportable device designed or intended to emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10 feet." But since The Boring Company's flamethrower emits fire less than the defined 10 feet, they did not have to get a permit to sell, according to the company's spokesman.
At time of this story being posted, the pre-order count had climbed to 10k.
Update: One California lawmaker wants to ban the flamethrower. But it's puny compared to other flamethrowers.
Also at CNN, MarketWatch, and CNET.
Related: Elon Musk Claims to Have "Verbal Approval" to Build New York to Washington, D.C. Hyperloop
NY-Philly-Baltimore-DC Hyperloop: Not Vaporware?
Elon Musk's Boring Tunnel Near Los Angeles
Elon Musk to Compete for High-Speed Rail Loop in Chicago
(Score: 2) by Spook brat on Tuesday January 30 2018, @06:20PM
Despite being the one who came to the defense of the California Legislature in a previous discussion, [soylentnews.org] I'm going to call them out on this one. California seems to have a strong legislative culture of "protecting citizens from themselves", and its citizens seem content to have their liberties stripped away in pursuit of increased safety. [npr.org] Despite the fact that administrative controls are the least effective safety measure, California Lawmakers take an attitude of "the only tool I have is this [ban]hammer" and want to treat every possible source of danger as it it were a (metaphorical) nail. And disregard the fact that flamethrowers are already banned in California, apparently this NEW threat requires NEW legislation.
Perhaps they'd be happier re-organizing as a new government where anything not explicitly permitted is automatically forbidden. That's almost the exact opposite of the American ideal of the People retaining all rights not delegated to the government, [usconstitution.net] so they'd probably need to secede from the Union to make that happen.
Don't get me wrong, they have every right to make what laws their citizens feel necessary, within the confines of the U.S. constitution. I just have a massive philosophical disagreement with them, and you couldn't pay me enough to live there.
Travel the galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... And kill them [schlockmercenary.com]