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Concept
Improvised firearm
Summary
Improvised firearms (sometimes called zip guns, pipe guns or slam guns) are firearms manufactured other than by a firearms manufacturer or a gunsmith, and are typically constructed by adapting existing materials to the purpose. They range in quality from crude weapons that are as much a danger to the user as the target to high-quality arms produced by cottage industries using salvaged and repurposed materials.
Improvised firearms may be used as tools by criminals and insurgents and are sometimes associated with such groups; other uses include self-defense in lawless areas and hunting game in poor rural areas.
Zip guns are generally crude homemade firearms consisting of a barrel, breechblock and a firing mechanism. For small, low-pressure cartridges, like the common .22 caliber rimfire cartridges, even very thin-walled tubing works as a barrel, strapped to a block of wood for a handle. A rubber band powers the firing pin, which the shooter pulls back and releases to fire. Such weak tubing results in a firearm that can be as dangerous to the shooter as the target; the poorly fitting smoothbore barrel provides little accuracy and is liable to burst upon firing. The better designs use heavier pipes and spring loaded trigger mechanisms. Larger zip guns, such as homemade shotguns called tumbera (Argentina), bakakuk (Malaysia), or sumpak (Philippines) are also made of improvised materials like nails, steel pipes, wooden pieces, bits of string, etc.
File:Wooden toy gun.JPG|Improvised firearm used during WWII
File:Zip-gun with interchangeable barrels.jpg|Improvised zip-gun with interchangeable barrels.
File:Zip Gun.jpg|Zip gun
File:A_Crude_Indian_Homemade_"Gun".jpg|A very crude yet functional homemade gun made by a man in India; it is constructed mostly out of plumbing material
File:Zip guns, selection.JPG|Collection of Zip guns
Pen guns are zip gun-like firearms that resemble ink pens. They generally are of small caliber (e.g., .22 LR, .25 ACP, .32 ACP, .38-caliber, etc.) and are single shot.
Official source
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