Re: Car-mounted flamethrowers! (No Q content)

["John Corbishley" <gtr1@traverse.com>]

Bill:
Count your lucky stars that you live in a country where you don't have the
imminent danger of having an AK-47 stuck in your face (or that of a loved
one) 24 hours a day.  Welcome to the law of the jungle!!

John Corbs
-----Original Message-----
From: William Elliott
<CN=William.Elliott/OU=MKE/OU=CORP/O=MMS#064#MMS%lngw@wtgw.corp.mei.com>
To: IPM Return Requested <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>
Date: Thursday, February 04, 1999 11:56 AM
Subject: Car-mounted flamethrowers! (No Q content)


>Car-mounted flamethrower sold as hijacking deterrent
>
>               Baltimore Sun
>
>               February 04, 1999
>
>               Johannesburg, South Africa -- It is the latest device to
join
>the armory of personal security weapons deployed
>               by a nerve-racked citizenry.
>
>               Already, many South Africans will not venture out of their
>high-walled, electric-fenced, window-barred and
>               burglar-alarmed homes without a gun. Now comes the newest,
>hottest deterrent -- and the first person to order
>               the product is a police superintendent.
>
>               The auto-mounted flamethrower's inventor, Charl Flourie,
>insists: "I am the last person to want to burn anyone.
>               But if someone attacks you, they will kill you, they will
rape
>you, and they will maim you."
>
>               The device is built into the car doors, and is operated by
>pushing a button beside the foot pedals. It sends a
>               man-high fireball from the car, engulfing the hijacker
without
>endangering the passengers or damaging the auto's
>               paint.
>
>               Operating the $650 device requires much less movement than
>pulling a gun, and therefore -- theoretically at least
>               -- involves less risk of provoking the carjacker into
shooting.
>
>               "It's a pity one has to resort to such extreme measures,"
>Flourie says. "But if my wife stops in the driveway (a
>               frequent venue for carjackings) and these people attack her,
I
>would rather she has this system than not."
>
>               Carjacking is a common crime here, with the stolen cars
usually
>taken to the depressed townships surrounding
>               large cities to be stripped for parts, illegally
re-registered
>through corrupt officials, or exported to neighboring
>               countries by crime syndicates.
>
>               For every 100,000 South Africans, there were 32.7
carjackings
>between January and November last year,
>               according to official figures -- up from 29.1 over the same
>period of 1997.
>
>               Based on a population of 40.5 million, that translates into
>about 13,000 carjackings in an 11-month period, more
>               than 1,000 a month. Fewer than one in 10 carjacking cases
ends
>up in court, and only one in 50 ends in a
>               conviction.
>
>               Facing such figures, it is hardly surprising that South
Africans
>have given a warm reception to Flourie's
>               flamethrower. He has, he says, received 800 orders for what
is
>appropriately marketed as The Blaster.
>
>               The Blaster works from a canister of liquefied gas, and,
>according to Flourie, is safer in an accident than an
>               auto's gasoline tank.
>
>               "It is used for the specific purpose of saving your property
or
>your life," says Flourie, adding that the flame
>               would administer up to third-degree burns and possibly blind
>someone, but it would not be lethal.
>
>
>What's the world coming to?
>
>Bill Elliott
>Lake Mills, WI
>...only need a flamethrower here for warmth....
>