The TSA Is No Match For This Mad Scientist And His Gun Made With Junk From Airport Stores Evan Booth hacks together working weapons--like a shotgun, a grenade, and a crossbow--with purchases anyone can make after they go through security, to show that the TSA is more spectacle than real protection. And the FBI is taking notice. Programmer by day, “security researcher” by night, Evan Booth has built, tested, and demonstrated not just a shotgun, but a whole comically named arsenal of DIY weapons, made solely with items purchased in the airport--after the security screening. “I think people have kind of been suspecting that the type of things I’ve built are possible,” says Booth, “I just don’t think anyone’s ever taken the time to do it.” The object of the research is a demonstration--half silly, half disturbing--that weapons are everywhere and that the "security theater" of the TSA is not doing that much to keep us safe. "If we're trying stop a terrorist threat at the airport," says Booth. "It's already too late." The project began after the introduction of body scanners. “It just seemed so invasive, really expensive,” he says. “And if you’re going to go through all that trouble getting into the terminal, why is all this stuff available in the terminal?” The “stuff” Booth uses isn’t necessarily what you’d expect. Recurring ingredients include dental floss and magazines, Axe body spray, and condoms. The deadly weapons these ingredients become arise from a combination of “MacGyver-esque” creative thinking and good old-fashioned research. To figure out how someone might build a bulletproof vest to protect against an air marshal's gun, Booth, says: “I specifically Googled ‘roughly how many pages can a 9 mm FMJ penetrate,'” he says. “I think it was around 500.” The early weapons are low-tech. On his Terminal Cornucopia website--and in hilarious talks at security conferences--he shows how magazine-and-fridge-magnet “Chucks of Liberty” nunchucks can shatter a coconut, and a crossbow (“Cerrsberr”) made from umbrella ribs can put an arrow through a watermelon. But some weapons pose what seems like a genuine threat. “That really only happened recently,” says Booth. He realized that airport stores sell lithium metal batteries, which, when combined with water, create a chemical reaction with enough heat to explode a bottle of Axe. This is what powers his “Blunderbussiness Class” shotgun, which he demonstrates shooting $1.33 in pocket change through a piece of drywall, as well as his “Fraguccino” thermos grenade. “Right now if I wanted to build something very potent, I would probably go toward lithium,” says Booth. Before you call the FBI or the TSA, you might be slightly comforted to know that Booth says he’s been sending both agencies reports before putting any of the data online. So far the TSA hasn't called, but the FBI did come by for an unannounced visit. “That was really the first time that I knew someone had looked over the material and put together a report on their end,” he says. “That was encouraging.” He says their questions centered on whether he had actually assembled any weapons at the airport; he hadn’t. (He does his work in a garage and home office in Greensboro, North Carolina.) Booth took the opportunity to ask them for research funding, but was told there was nothing available. “It would have been awesome if I’d had access to, like, a cockpit door,” he says. He plans to continue as a freelancer, and has some chemicals as well as a stun gun in mind. But for now he's on hiatus, at least until his daughter is born in December. After that, he may have to figure out a new location for his work. “It pretty safe to say when I'm in build mode, my office is the least kid-friendly place on Earth,” he says. The TSA Is No Match For This Mad Scientist And His Gun Made With Junk From Airport Stores | Co.Exist | ideas + impact
More people are killed each year with hammers than guns. A weapon, is anything you could use for an advantage.
I think Bruce can comment further on energetics and such, and as I am no expert, I will leave that to him. I am wondering how creating what amounts to be little more than a nuisance equates with actual weapons of mass destruction. Oh, that's right --we live in a tyrannical police state. Trust the media, and trust your government...riiiight. I am sure on a pressurized airplane, ideas such as what Booth described and demonstrated could prove to be harmful to a degree, but does this deserve an FBI investigation and what could amount to stripping airport stores of batteries and water? Since agencies of government have been proven to be inclusive in virtually every terror attack, then why do we not simply ban government? That sure would makes a lot more sense than banning water to prevent terrorism.
I , for one am delighted to have had @tulianr 's post to to read. It shows that people are not as safe as they precieve and that death and or injury is just lurking. Serious , I did have a broad smile reading this. Have found the whole concepts of improvised devastation interesting... Should have gone EOD in the Corps..
Lithium Batteries are pervasive thru out the electronics world today, in every Laptop, cellphone, notebook, notepad, kids toys, Etc.... Are the TSA "Really" going to " Ban" all Lithium Batteries, from ALL Aircraft. I wonder if that includes the Lithium Batteries that are in all Aircraft backup Electronis, including All the Comm, and Nav Gear, and most othe electronic Timers in the Galleys. Just Wondering....
shoot…there ain‘t no g--d-n lithium batteries in no g-d---n C47s…bring back the good ol‘ g--d---n Dakotas so the g--d----n travelling public can feel g---d--n safe in the g---d---n air!..same goes for g----d---n hot air balloons!
Well the problem with 'airport security' is that A: if someone really wants to kill you, they will find a way, and B: they only institute new 'regulations' after a failed attempt, like the would-be shoe bomber. Newsflash, after a plan fails, generally speaking, people will not try it again. And they don't like for certain signs that the person is a threat, they're only looking for (possible) weapons.
