Elon Musk's latest venture, The Boring Company, is offering up presales on a new branded “flamethrower,” accumulating some 10,000 orders in just two days. Musk promises the device is legal and not eligible for regulation by the ATF, but one California politician doesn't want them in the Golden State.
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Back in December, Elon Musk declared that if his new venture, The Boring Company, managed to sell 50,000 branded hats, it would offer up a new product – The Boring Company flamethrower.
Welp, guess what – the company sold 50,000 hats, and now you can preorder The Boring Company flamethrower for $500 on its website here. Shipments are scheduled will kick off in the spring time.
On the same web page, you can also grab The Boring Company fire extinguisher for $30, a price that the company admits is “overpriced.” However, the extinguisher does come with “a cool sticker,” so there's that.
Apparently, the company will sell a maximum of 20,000 units of the branded flamethrower, half of which are already spoken for, netting The Boring Company a total of $5 million in presale cash.
Naturally, a few curious fans pondered the legality of buying a flamethrower. Musk replied on Twitter that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) did not regulate flamethrowers that produced flames less than 10 feet in length. Further social posts from Musk indicated that the device was designed to provide “max fun for least danger” and that he's “way more scared of a steak knife.”
However, that hasn't stopped some from voicing their concern. At the forefront is California Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles), who says he wants to introduce legislation that would ban sales of the flamethrower in California. “I honestly thought it was a joke when the article was read to me,” Santiago said.
In a statement, Santiago condemned the latest Musk-backed product, saying, “Like most Americans, I am in awe of Mr. Musk's genius – the brains behind Tesla, PayPal, SolarCity, and Space X. But as President Truman and Stan Lee have taught us all, 'With great power comes great responsibility.' 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.”
He added that he “entrusted Mr. Musk to alleviate a real public policy problem here by executing a tunnel under the city to help alleviate traffic”, but that “This deviation feels like a real slap in the face.”
All things considered, that's a pretty understandable reaction when you think about the number of extremely deadly and destructive fires that afflicted the state last year. Still, The Boring Company flamethrower is more or a glorified Aim'n Flame than a true weapon of any kind. There's really nothing “military-grade” about it.
Of course, we here at TopSpeed are all for The Boring Company flamethrower, just so long as it's used intelligently. Of course, in the end, this whole thing might just be a big hoax to draw extra attention to The Boring Company. You never really know with Musk – he's a bit wily, that one.
References
Read more about The Boring Company.
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