Those who fear 3D-printed plastic guns take note: a Tennessee man has demonstrated that a deadly firearm can also be made completely out of items available from airport retail stores. Web developer Evan Booth of Greensboro, North Carolina moonlights as a 'security expert' and can make projectile weapons with things like hairdryers and Axe body spray--all of which you can get after you make it through security. While he has an airport crossbow, blowgun, and spiked club, it's Booth's hand-built gun--which he calls his BLUNDERBUSiness Class--that seems most worrisome. I think people have kind of been suspecting that the type of things Ive built are possible, Booth tells Fast Company. I just dont think anyones ever taken the time to do it. Booth, who attended East Tennessee State University and earned a degree in digital media, says he embarked on the startling project after airports began to introduce body scanners. It just seemed so invasive, really expensive, he said. And if youre going to go through all that trouble getting into the terminal, why is all this stuff available in the terminal? To Booth, whose speaking engagements include hacker conferences across America and abroad, that stuff equaled a disturbing possibility.
So he began tinkering with the range of seemingly innocuous items available in airport shops that line the terminals on the wrong side of security. And he found that not only was he able to create a gun, but he could also make a range of potentially deadly weapons, all of which he demonstrates on his website Terminal Cornucopia. If we're trying stop a terrorist threat at the airport, says Booth. It's already too late.
The idea for his BLUNDERBUSiness gun came to him after he realized airports sell lithium batteries. When mixed with water, that lithium can create enough heat to turn a can of Axe body spray into aromatic ammunition.
Combine it with a hollowed out hair dryer, some gossip magazines and other sundries and youve got yourself a gun. Right now if I wanted to build something very potent, I would probably go toward lithium, says Booth. His YouTube demonstrations show his DIY gun propelling a handful of pocket change powerfully enough to blow a quart-sized hole though Sheetrock. In an effort to win some research fundsand shield himself from unfriendly investigatorsBooth notified the FBI, CIA, and other agencies of his activities prior to posting them on the internet. It would have been awesome if Id had access to, like, a cockpit door, he says. Booth continues to tinker away at his airport terminal weapons and tells Fast Company he has a stun gun and others in mind already.
Click for Pictures, Designs and Videos!
Poster Comment:
This Booth guy is a real live MacGyver.
If the TSA had creative minds like his we'd be in real trouble.