It's truly the age of wonders when a civilian can obtain a flamethrower. Whether this is a good idea or not, will not be discussed in this article, but maybe some of you sane people can secure your own flamethrower, before loonies get all of them :)
A what now? A flamethrower? It all started last year, when Elon Musk announced the sale of the "most Boring hat" via the Boring company.
The total market cap (see what i did there) of the hats was 1 million, with 50,000 hats for sale at $20 each. The sales went quite well, but the pace really picked up in December 11th, when Musk tweeted that if the 50K hats sold out, the Boring company would start manufacturing and selling flamethrowers next. Talk of "challenge accepted". The hats sold out only in 13 days and the promise was made.
Via Twitter
At this point, let's recap, what the heck is The Boring Company. No they're no boring at all. It's the company that drills the tunnels for underground fast travel. Musk is not the one low on innovation. But he is not the one let a market opportunity go to waste and apparently, people are running hot for the mechandise of the company, so here come the hats and the flamethrowers.
So, on January 28, the flamethower pre-orders made it's debut. Consider all the 50K boring hats being sold out fast, imagine how the flamethrowers will do. Musk added to the exlusivity of the product by mentioning, that the flamethrowers sales will max out at 20,000 pieces. At a price of $500 per unit, there has already been sold more than 10K of these roasting machines, which means more than 5 cool million USD in sales.
But meet the flamethrower itself:
On the same website, you can also pre-order a highly-priced Boring Fire Extinguisher, to go with the flamethrower. Considering the nature of the product, this might actually be a good idea.
Via Twitter
But what does the ATF have to say on this? Citing Musk himself:
Musk said that the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allows any flamethrower with a flame shorter than 10 feet, and said he would be "way more scared of a steak knife."
So don't expect any World War style killing machines, rather than a glorified deodorant + a Zippo lighter. But a novelty product nevertheless and which one of us lads hasn't dreamed of owning one :)
Assemblyman Miguel Santiago, CA, on the other hand, has already issued a statement, promising to fight flamethrowers on the Streets of California.
Watch the short promo video of the flamethrower on The Boring Companys website here
Sources used in this publication:
CNBC, Techcrunch, The Verge
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