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.
Scary: Evan Booth of Greensboro hosts a website
where he demonstrates how to make, among other things, a gun (pictured)
out of items available for purchase in airport terminals past the
security checkpoint
‘I think people have kind of been suspecting that the type of things I’ve built are possible,’ Booth tells Fast Company. ‘I just don’t think anyone’s 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 you’re 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.
Ingenious: Booth says he got the idea to when he
realized he could buy lithium batteries, which cause a hot chemical
reaction when combined with water. 'If I wanted to build something very
potent, I would probably go toward lithium,' he says
Aromatic: The lithium and water create enough heat to blow up a 1oz can of Axe body spray
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.’
KERPOW! The can of Axe body spray explodes in a cloud of fire
Serious business: Using a handful of change as
the projectile, the gun Booth dubs a BLUNDERBUSiness Class blows a hole
larger than a quarter in a drywall target
Moonlighting: Evan Booth works with computers by
day but calls himself a 'security researcher' by night, which is when
he tinkers with his airport weapons at his home in North Carolina
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 you’ve 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 funds—and shield himself from unfriendly investigators—Booth notified the FBI, CIA, and other agencies of his activities prior to posting them on the internet.
‘It would have been awesome if I’d 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.
Getting medieval: Booth also found a way to make
a crossbow out of airport items. A Galaxy Grabber is hand-operated
robotic toy claw.
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