Flashlight transforms into submachine gun

Firearm designer Magpul Industries prototyped this flashlight that transforms into a submachine gun. They demonstrated the weapon, called the FMG-9, in 2008 but apparently haven't yet put it into full production. "Fits right in (your back pocket) when you got for a walk. If it gets nasty, you get down to business." Video by Mil-Spec Monkey. (Thanks, Jody Radzik!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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RevGreg

@Severius – Actually ottar was right, the FMP-9 would fall under the “short barreled rifle” designation (as would the RONI-G1 I linked above) even though it seems irrational. Hey, it’s a law written by bureaucrats and interpreted by the BATFE…it doesn’t NEED to make any sense! Adding a foreward handgrip to a pistol would make it an AOW (“Any Other Weapon) which is sort of a catch-all category which contains any arbitrary weapon the powers that be feel is “unusual”. ANY time you add a shoulder stock to a pistol it becomes a short barreled rifle…unless your pistol has a smooth bore.

@All of my moral and intellectual anti-gun superiors – I’ve long since ceased arguing with those who cannot speak about firearms rationally…both those who worship and those who demonize. Molon Labe.
Anonymous

A Glock in a Box? I give it points for cinematic flair. . .here is an archive of more innovative concealed weapons: http://www.dontevenreply.com/view.php?post=84
RevGreg

@Severius – Re-reading my post, I’ll make it clearer. ANY firearm with a rifled barrel where the barrel is less than 16″ in length that is meant to be fired from the shoulder is considered an SBR, how the firearm was assembled and what it was assembled from is irrelevant. There are some C&R (Curio and Relic) firearms that fall outside of this designation (original Mauser Broomhandles) but basically any pistol with a stock added becomes an SBR…although there is a company which makes 16″ long Glock barrels to avoid the $200 tax stamp!
Anonymous

Interesting. I wonder if my concealed carry license covers stuff like that.
Anonymous

Even if it’s not a real gun, why’d the guy keep pointing the muzzle at his own gut while unsnapping it? It’s been years since I took a gun safety course, but I learned you never, never, ever do that, even if you’re certain it’s loaded. The guy in the video strikes me as a total lamer.
Vorn

I like the juxtaposition between this and the Soda Machine Gun case that came up earlier.

…that sounds like a gun that fires soda machines.
SkullHyphy

not exactly what I want to be messing around w/ in the dark during a power outage
Anonymous

“but apparently haven’t yet put it into full production”

He says in the video this isn’t something we are ever going to produce.
Anonymous

Before this post is awash in dire comments by alarmed Europeans,
I’d like to say that I, for one, think this is wicked-cool.

There’s actually been a couple previous attempts at this kind of weapon. Eugene Stoner made one in the 80′s with a modified Uzi, and a Ukranian company tried in the 90′s.
http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg70-e.htm
http://world.guns.ru/smg/smg43-e.htm
Anonymous

If they ever make a flashlight that converts to an RPPG, I’m in.
eriko2

Actually MagPul does not manufacture firearms. The make things like stocks, magazines, grips, etc. They also design some firearms and sell the designs to others. The Masada that has become the Remington/Bushmaster ACR is one of these designs. There is currently a bit of storm of the cost of ACR as it is higher than expected. That said no one has picked up this design yet.
- David Pescovitz
  
  Thanks, made the fix.
zio_donnie

any examples of american citizens “getting down to business” when “things got nasty” and winning? in my limited knowledge of the US of A almost everytime someone uses his registered firearm against people ends either dead or in a shitstorm.

the example of that guy that shot the cops that came into his house with a no knock warrant (in the middle of the night) ending in jail for manslaughter comes to mind.

what’s the point of owning and carrying around a gun if you cannot under any circumstance use it for what it was designed to do? meanwhile criminals and psychopaths have a large selection of guns to choose from.

americans are simply bizarre.

and @ RevGreg :

save Molon Labe for something meaningful, not for your gadget lust. when you make your last stand against overwhelming power it is not about the guns it is about the balls. anyone is capable to stand against an army of a million with a nuke in hand. Molon Labe means that you would make the same stand with a kitchen knife.
gollux

Perfect Drug Lord’s minion weapon. Need to start shipping into Mexico immediately.
Jay Canadian

Just a suggestion – if you need a machinegun to walk the dog, it is either time to move to a nicer neighbourhood or just shoot the damn dog yourself and you wouldn’t have to leave your house to walk it, in the first place.
Brewtown

I’m pretty sure this is one of those projects a bunch of bored engineers at a company design and build, not because it would ever be practical or useful (or even sold), but because they think its funny and cool, and customers at trade shows can laugh about it.

The tongue-in-cheek-iness has clearly been lost on the gun-haters here.
Anonymous

That is a potentially game changing device.
floraldeoderant

What neighborhood is this guy walking his dog in?

“Oh goodness! A situation! Let’s get down to business…”
gollux

Rambo fapping dream, his gated community doesn’t let anyone that meets that description in.

Probably would be useful in a Homeowner’s Association argument about brown spots in the lawn, proper placement of garbage cans on pickup morning or bringing down property values because your car isn’t new enough. Though, maybe he’s one of those people who let his dog dump all over other people’s lawns and doesn’t clean up the mess, so needs a little intimidation factor to quell the yelling.
jonathan_v

In the history of human civilization, and outside of Action Movies, has there ever been a situation in which “problems occur and you need immediate action with” a “folding machine gun” — or machine gun — when someone goes to “walk your dog, take the garbage out, get the mail” ?!?

Someone suggested that it was not meant for normal people, and marketed to professionals — I’m sorry, but in the presenter’s own words in his case study, it’s being clearly and unarguably marketed to the general public.

I’m inclined to agree with #69 — that it was probably a jokey thing that some engineer developed for a fun presentation of the company’s capabilities.

But plain and simple, this is gun fetishism — not about practicality.
MasterSauce

Really? Gonna carry that around when you take your dog for a walk eh? Taking out that trash needs a submachine gun?

imho: Glad it’s just a prototype.
- Anonymous
  
  Umm.. I live in the high country (rural, not resort) of Colorado. When I walk my dogs or take out my trash, I have to worry about mountain lions, bears and coyotes. Needless to say, I always have a flashlight and side arm present.
  
  This seems like a dandy idea; sign me up.
Anonymous

@#68. There are roughly 1.5 million uses of firearms as self defense annually.
Most of those don’t make the news due to sheer number of incidents, as well as lack of newsworthiness overall. Hard to express concern over a dead issue, after all.

I’m willing to credit the US with slightly higher crimerates, as well as higher population than some areas, but even then, you’ve gotta figure on a huge number of un-prevented crimes in other nations.
Heath

Kinda reminds me of the stoners who are always able to find new and innovative ways to make a bong out of whatever they can get their hands on.
Anonymous

I was reading the other comments when i saw that someone said they had seen a toy gun like this prototype…yes you did..”The Man FRom U.N.C.L.E.” toy guns the pistol,the brief case and the machine gun..all folded down (not the brief case of course) or hid a gun(the brief case)…Still freaking cool..i had them and played with them imagining they were real..Not they are!
whomever

Interesting design, but seems like something for which you’d need a special permit. Are there many other commercial examples of disguised firearms? It may be why this design hasn’t been picked up.
Anonymous

Looks kind of like the laptop gun from Perfect Dark. I don’t care if it’s a terrible idea, that’s kind of awesome.
Anonymous

practical and useful, not really, but then again, neither is concealed or open carry in 99.999% of cases. however, as an example of engineering and gunsmithing, this is definitely a feather in the company’s cap. And to the guy who mentioned that he pointed it at himself more than once in the video, can i see a frame by frame of where his fingers are? never once have I ever seen a gun go off by having someone touch the stock.
mjfgates

The guy demoing the device points it as himself at least twice while folding and unfolding it. What kind of idiot is going to buy a gun that’s DESIGNED to shoot you in the gut while you’re pulling it out?
- Anonymous
  
  look again – the times that he points it at himself are just poor moves on his part and not necessary moves by any means. And to correct you – he does not point it at himself when unfolding (in fact, he doesn’t unfold it, it unfolds automatically), he does so when folding and probably out of a bad habit but not because the design requires it
ottar

this would be considered a “short barreled rifle” in the US, controlled under the National Firearms Act of 1934. It could only be made by a specially license manufacturer, and once made, could only be transferred to a regular person with special paperwork and a $200 tax stamp. The paperwork includes a background check, and requires the signature of a “chief law enforcement officer”, typically a county sheriff, who is under no obligation to sign for you. In any event, buying something with a shoulder stock and a barrel under 16″ is a huge hassle and takes months.

disguised firearms that AREN’T short barreled rifles are considered “any other weapon”, and transfer under the same rules, but with a mere $5 tax stamp instead of $200.
- Anonymous
  
  I doubt this would be considered a short barrel rifle. It looks to me like it’s just a stock attached to a modified glock pistol. You could probably get it without the gun included no problem.
- Anonymous
  
  You were correct, my mistake. A pistol with a stock is considered a short barrel rifle.
- Severius
  
  The design uses a Glock upper receiver; it is a pistol with a stock and shroud attached. It would not fall under the short barreled rifle category. I think this thing is freaking awesome. There are many 9mm (and other caliber) pistols that have stock attachments, this just lets you fold it up into a nice small inconspicuous package.
chip

Well what do you know, they’re actually going to manufacture the airsoft version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZi2oIz89yY

Something this pointlessly clever deserves to be made, and I’m glad they’re doing it as an airsoft model instead of a real gun.
snakedart

Someone’s been reading too much Masamune Shirow.
Cruxx

For a moment I thought the title read “Fleshlight transforms in submachine gun”. Shows where my mind is.
- Peter
  
  Considering how some people fetishize their guns, I’m actually rather surprised that’s NOT what it was.
voiceinthedistance

Finally!
My dog’s tired of crapping on the living room rug. Small dog owners have been clamoring for something like this to level the playing field for some time now. Dog walking just got a lot safer. This is a much more intimidating flashlight than a Maglight.
Anonymous

@#17 My thoughts exactly, throw in a little crisis-dispensed adrenaline and you’ve got a great chance of shooting yourself after “you get down to business”. Maybe for heightened device convergence they can wire in a cell phone to auto-dial 911 and let them know that you’ve shot yourself.
Anonymous

I dig the part where he points the muzzle into his tummy.

Jackass.

And this is where we put the obligatory link to the Shrine of the Mall Ninja.
AsteriskCGY

Well my first thought was really “I’ve seen this before.” Since the video came out in ’07 and all.
sickoatze

Eh, what happened to talking? We, the Dutch, do it a lot. We even have a hundred words te describe the concept of talking. Apart from the odd saliva drop, it leaves less of a mess than spraying the neighbourhood with bullets.
- weatherman
  
  Some excerpts from Wikipedia on the modern history of the Netherlands:
  
  “After the Netherlands became the second nation to recognize US independence, the British declared war. This Fourth Anglo-Dutch War (1780â€“1784) proved a disaster [and] “sounded the knell of Dutch greatness.”"
  
  “when the French army invaded and occupied the Netherlands in 1795, the French encountered so little united resistance, William V of Orange fled to England”
  
  “The Netherlands had been neutral for a long time after the Seven Years War since their wealth had grown but their military had done quite the contrary. The Dutch were unable to defend themselves in case of war and therefore chose the policy of Neutrality”
  
  “At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Netherlands once again declared its neutrality. However, on 10 May 1940, Nazi Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands and Belgium and quickly overran most of the country, fighting against a poorly-equipped Dutch army”
  
  When the Dutch stop asking for other countries to help fight their wars, you can do all the talking you want. :)
  - LeFunk
    
    “When the Dutch stop asking for other countries to help fight their wars, you can do all the talking you want. :)”
    
    Yeah, any country that has asked others to help fight their wars, should totally shut up… :)
    
    Oh the irony.
    - weatherman
      
      TouchÃ©. Though to be fair the main reason the US gets cooperation from other countries in Iraq and Afghanistan is political/diplomatic cover. And the US has more troops in Europe than all the European countries combined have in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nadreck

Big deal! I had a “Man From U.N.C.L.E.” transforming hand-held radio that transformed in exactly the same way. Of course, it only shot plastic bullets….
Protheros

Maybe they should check this out – thought it looked very familiar I had a toy version of this in the 1960′s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MP3sR2PU-o
- normd
  
  and it looks nicer.
DoktorFaustus

You Europeans think Americans are crazy for having so many guns, but when the zombie apocalypse happens we’ll see who had the right idea.
- Daemon
  
  You think guns work against zombies? You watch too many bad movies. Why would a few bullet holes stop a walking corpse that’s already missing half it’s torso?
  
  It’s all about the dismemberment. Battle axes, swords and, of course, chainsaws – if you can keep ‘em fueled.
- _nb
  
  > No, no, it’s just that it’s still too big for a european-size backpocket. It’s OK for an american-size backpocket.
  
  Jokes aside: people are always geniuses when it comes to creating weapons. It’s a bit sad isn’t it?
Mr_Voodoo

“Honey, what happened to my flashlight?”
“Junior took it on his Boy Scouts camping trip.”

Will definitely make telling ghost stories around the campfire a lot more interesting. Kids can earn their Cleaning Brains Off Your Uniform and Coping with PTSD merit badges.
Anonymous

Make love, not war: Fleshlight FTW!
markbellis

Wouldn’t it be safer to have a flashlight in hand and a gun in a holster like the police do? That way you wouldn’t be pointing a loaded weapon at everything in your path.
voidmstr

YouTube – Mobile Phone Gun – .22 caliber gun disguised as cell phone http://bit.ly/OVLmY

YouTube – UC foldable concealable submachine gun http://bit.ly/aPa4J4
Anonymous

Robocop 2.
Ryanwoofs

I have, on more than a few occasions, carried a sidearm and a flashlight to go fetch the mail. I live in Alaska and the mailbox is 3/4 of a mile away from the house, with any number of moose and bear in between. Usually I take the car, but I have to walk it after a big snow or during melt-out, when the driveway becomes an elongated moat.

That being said, I don’t point a gun at anything I don’t intend to shoot (so far, a bunch of paper targets and a very threatening milk jug have met their demise by hot lead, hopefully that will be all), so having the potential to shoot anything I try to see with the flashlight is not something I want.

Of course, an angry moose wouldn’t be deterred even if it saw me carrying a bazooka, so conceal-ability is not really a priority in my neck of the woods anyway.
Anonymous

Hah, awesome. Generally impractical, but awesome.

I eagerly await the day we get a submachine gun that can collapse down to the size of a pen.
Jack

Guns, schmuns. When is one of these geniuses just going to come up with something that will let me think about harming someone and then *KAZOW!* it happens.

Darth Vader can choke people by just thinking; why can’t us Americans!
- Felton
  
  Jack, you obviously aren’t familiar with the scanner community.
holtt

Heckler & Koch, Glock, Beretta, Benelli, Mauser, Steyr – all really well known gun brands that your average rabid Counter-Strike playin’ 14 year old male knows by heart and thinks are uber-sexy. All made by European companies.

The EU knows how to make ‘em, the US knows how to market ‘em.
- zio_donnie
  
  the US knows how to market them at civilians maybe. i have used HKs (7.62) Berettas and Glocks during my army service. good hardware for what it is designed to do but by all means dangerous and unnecessary overkill for everyday life.
  
  unless you live in an extremely bad neighborhood you don’t need an HK11 or G3A3. even cops are better off with a taser.
Anonymous

Wow, it’s like they made a deliberately terrible copy of the Ares-FMG or Russian PP-90 and then hot glued a flashlight to the top of it…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_FMG

http://www.kbptula.ru/eng/str/strelk/pp90m.htm

This is neither a technical breakthrough, nor impressive in the least.

-RTM
avraamov

that’s nothing. with a rapid zoom-out of your camera, this flashlight turns into a destroyer:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2475/3744235506_35099ce2e2_m.jpg
Anonymous

For those who think such a weapon is overkill for suburban walkabouts, I guess none of you have seen Hot Fuzz.
harpdevil

@20 It’s impossible to read too much Masamune Shirow :P
KremlinLaptop

I’ll be frank, the majority of the guns I want? I want them because they’re just cool. Along the lines of Mateba Model 6 Unica, Walther WA2000, Schofield Model 3, etc. My reasons for wanting one of these is the whole ‘Wow, that’s cool!’ factor. It’s probably why I own 90% of the stuff I do anyway, why not be honest about it.

I’m just trying to think of actual application for this outside of the whole ‘walking my dog, get jumped by roving slavers in the wastelands’ scenario. Home defence? No, a concealed gun in that application is just silly. Bodyguards, private security? Maybe. I suppose it is more compact than the actual Glock pistol the mechanism is based on – especially with the extended magazine.

I can see the folding out action being potentially useful in some situations, similar to why certain police choose to carry telescopic batons for the whole psychological effect.

Other than that? Useful in that it sort of resembles the heavy pistol or submachine gun from Mass Effect, I suppose.
benher

Sneakier than a Sprite case!
Anonymous

I am waiting for the machine gun that transforms into a bong.
lewis stoole

please be sure to visit instructables for my .22 caliber, semi-automatic popeye pez dispenser
lewis stoole

hey, i found a posting glitch.

hey, i found a posting glitch.

don’t hit the back button.

don’t hit the back button.
- arkizzle / Moderator
  
  Lewis,
  
  It isn’t a glitch. If you press the back button after you comment, you are resending the form. That’s why there’s a handy “Head back to the original entry” link on the comment-exit page.
  
  Don’t hit the back button! :)
robcat2075

I see Floyd R. Turbo accidentally shooting himself in the chest while he’s folding and unfolding that thing.
Anonymous

hey, don’t mess with the dutch ;)
Ernunnos

Magpul’s folding subgun can’t come up as a topic of conversation without someone pointing out that an earlier version of this from the ’80s (the UC M-21) was featured in Robocop II. (Disguised as a boom box, not a flashlight.) I guess that someone is me.
Blaine

And where I’m confused is (and I know nothing about guns):

It looks like a body kit for a Glock handgun. They rapid prototyped the folding frame around it? They had to make the magazine so it hinges, but otherwise it’s an add-on to a handgun. A fully automatic Glock at that.

Handgun would fit nicely in a back pocket as well.

From an industrial design stand point, I think it’s awesome. On the remote chance I’d buy a gun to take up target shooting or what have you… I’d bite.
- KremlinLaptop
  
  They also needed to make a trigger assembly that folds up with it along with the grip/magazine. From a few pictures I found there really is no wasted space in there and the opening mechanism operates rather impressively in the video.
  
  Also giving the user a shoulder stock and front grip means increased accuracy compared to a normal pistol.
Nand the Mountingplus Man

The item is interesting. I’m just wondering if it’s possible to connect accessories scopes like AR 15 Scopes, huros vision and the like.
hbl

Magpulight? This seems like science fiction. Already mentions of Perfect Dark and Masamune Shirow. I’ll add the kid with the toolbox machine gun in Robocop 2. If I was at Magpul, I’d have a whole division creating sci-fi weapons like this to sell to movie companies and video game developers for inclusion in their product. No one dies! Hurrah.
Anonymous

My first thought was that you could take it with you while you went to reconnect the emergency power, but the velociraptors would have you in pieces before you’d a chance to open it….
RevGreg

At SHOT Show in Las Vegas last month I got to handle and photograph the FMP-9 prototypes and talk with one of the designers. The prototypes were created using a KWA Glock-18 Airsoft slide, no live fire versions were EVER made (despite what the guy in this video seemed to imply, not that the story may have changed for whatever reasons) and they have no plans to make a live fire version. While the Airsoft Glock and the real thing look VERY similar, in order to satisfy the ATF there are plenty of changes which make converting the current FMP-9 design to handle a real Glock slide challenging (besides which the materials used in the prototypes are NOT rated to withstand the increased forces which would be present in a live fire weapon.) I also think the claims that it looks like a flashlight and will fit in your pants pocket (it’s a bit heavy for that) are a bit exaggerated…it is HIGHLY concealable though and surprisingly solid and stable when deployed. Kinda disappointed they aren’t making them…would have liked to have cobbled together a Glock 18C (full auto) and popped it in one of these (and, yes, as I work for a Type 7 FFL we could do this legally.)

The best conversion I’ve personally played with is the EMA Tactical RONI-G1 (http://www.ematactical.com/viewProduct.asp?ID=267&catID=376) which I got to shoot at SHOT 2010 Range Day…very stable and the ergonomics were surprisingly good. Not anywhere near as concealable as the FMP-9 but likely a better platform in actual usage.
- Rich Keller
  
  This thread with over 100 comments is actually about a video of an airsoft gun? I can’t see the video because I’m at work right now, but I hope the guy has his goggles on. I just read a post on an airsoft forum that a knock-off conversion kit is available. The discussion on that board is quite a bit like the one here.
LX

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bt ths hmn frdn flrs wh wnt t pnt t tht thrtnng s nthr ptnl s: f y rlly ddn’t ntnd t s t, t wld b n thrt, whch brngs s bck t hrt nd kll gn.

ll ths lds t trrbl cnclsn: t mny hmns n ths plnt hv rl sss t rfrn frm vlnc. smll hnt: Frrms r n sy wy t nt slv ths.

Grtngs, LX
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  And everyone was being so grown up until this point. Well, it’s at least a bit of novelty for me to bring the hammer down on anti-gun trolls.
  - dragonfrog
    
    I don’t recall LX’s comments, but I’m not quite sure how omnivore’s comments qualify as trolling – they’re on point, discussing what the posted video says about the culture that produced it, and I don’t recall there being any insults in them.
    
    Granted, some people might get insulted by them because of the point he’s arguing (how dare anyone disagree with me?), but that seems like their problem, not omnivore’s.
  - JoshuaTerrell
    
    Frankly, I don’t understand what omnivore was guilty of, but I suppose Antinous knows what he’s doing.
    
    @Anon 62 “Professionals with the legal authority to carry weapons do not need to conceal them.”
    
    Um, the thousands of plain clothes and undercover police officers on America’s streets would disagree with you. Having a weapon concealed is a legitimate requirement for many professional gun carriers whether in private security or law enforcement. IMO, a Glock 18 is already an excellently concealed machine pistol, and doesn’t really need all that extra crap they added to it’s outside. Nonetheless, cool.
- KremlinLaptop
  
  Well since I think I’m the only one who mentioned possible psychological effects in deploying this I’ll just assume you’re calling me a ‘human freudian failure’. Which at first glance sounds very intelligent, but… does it actually mean anything? I suppose the insult is just too high brow for me to understand.
  
  Police, security, etc often draw weapons to threaten and subdue. It doesn’t mean they intend to use their weapons, it just says they’re ready to do so which tends to have psychological impact. Fact is, the sort of people who are employed in professions that could possibly see use from a concealed weapon like this are also likely to be the ones in the way of someone with intent to hurt or kill and the target of that intent.
  
  Also on that note it’s fairly impossible to gauge whether or not a person intends to use a gun when they have it pointed at you. Personally I’d rather not take the risk and call their bluff. Just this whole… self preservation thing I’ve got going on.
  
  Well look, I didn’t even throw any insults about. How odd.
Anonymous

Not as much fun as the old highschool shop project, nested-metal-tubes-and-a-nail zip shotgun.
JoshuaTerrell

I just want to point out that this sort of thing is not marketed to or intended to be sold to private citizens in a non-proffessional context. This sort of product is designed and marketed to private security contractors and other operators that require firepower in a concealable package, think Uzi in a briefcase and you have the right idea. So, the anti-gun types can calm down, this is a product designed for professionals to use in a defensive setting and not for gang members to blow each other away.
- omnivore
  
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  Y r mst wlcm.
  - JoshuaTerrell
    
    In this specific context, you should be aware that Magpul doesn’t sell it’s restricted products (this would be an example of a restricted product) to anybody but government contractors, military, and L.E.O. customers.
    
    And whether or not “mercenaries or drug dealers” happen to use Magpul’s products is completely irrelevant to your supposed “Americans love fantasizing about killing people” narrative.
    
    Using evidence that American companies make innovative firearms as evidence for American gun-fetishism or whatever you’re talking about is shaky at best.
    - omnivore
      
      “sng vdnc tht mrcn cmpns mk nnvtv frrms s vdnc fr mrcn gn-ftshsm r whtvr y’r tlkng bt s shky t bst.”
      
      xcllnt pnt. mrcn gn-ftshsm s th bst vdnc f mrcn gn-ftshsm. Whch tks th frm f cncctng lbrt fntss bt whn y mght nd mchn gn, whs rsbl sxl sbtxt bt fr, mstrst, pwr nd mptnc s th sllng pnt hr, nd tht s wht ‘m tlkng bt.
      
      Th S sppld th Tlbn (n thr prvs ncrntn s hrc ppnnts f Wrld Cmmnsm — mr mrcn Mstrbtry Vlnt Fntss) wth Stngr mssls fr chrst’s sk. f Stngrs gt ls, ths srt f ppgn wll t. Th Tlbn fnncd thr nxt rnd f ctvts by sllng sm f thm: t th C, wh sppld thm: r t th hghst bddr. nd n dbt mng f th bddrs wr Nrth Kr, rn, Chn nd s n. Gvn yr lttl rvrsl f ffrs wth yr mjhdd pls, wld sy tht yr rssrncs r nv n th xtrm. Ths wll b sld — f thy g nt prdctn — t whvr y’r spprtng nw. n 5 yrs thy my b lss mnbl t S sggtns, nd cngrtltns, y r nw fcng th xstntl thrt tht y crtd th wpn t cntr.
      
      Th vst mjrty f mrcns lv ldcrsly sf, brng, lmtd lvs. Ltrlly bllns f ppl wld gv grt dl t b s sf nd brd. Bt hvng chvd th cndtn whr cvlzd ppl cn crt, ntrct, lrn nd prspr, crtn nmbr f thm sqndr thr tm cncctng ncrsngly lbrt fntss bt hw nsf t ll s, xpldng ncdts nt nhlst vrdcts f scl dysfnctn. Th spnd thr tms tllng thmslvs hw dsprtly thr lvs rqr cnstnt vglnc nd prtctn. Thr xstntl fntss jstfy th sdlnng f bsc hmnty, nd t f ths th mrkt fr ths symbls f prcvd ndqcy mrg.
      
      Tht’s wht ‘m tlkng bt.
omnivore

blv tht ths gt n f th vry hghst MVF, r mrcn Mstrbtry Vlnt Fntsy rtngs.

prfr t thnk bt grls myslf. Bt thn, dn’t lk lk, drss lk, styl my fcl hr r thnk lk th sd lnly frfl gntlmn tht s dmnstrtng t.

Crxx (#21) ws n th rght trck.
Vorn

If I had one of these, I wouldn’t want to use it as a regular flashlight. Rule 1 of firearms: Don’t Point It At Anything You Don’t Want Killed.
Anonymous

Design Flaw: When folding up the gun, the company rep points the barrel at himself.
Anonymous

Just a quick note on the professional uses of such a (very cool) weapon. Professionals with the legal authority to carry weapons do not need to conceal them. Professionals without that legal authority are called criminals. So who would actually use a gun like this?
t3hmadhatter

I’m no gun buff, but I catch enough to know that there are good guns and there are shitty guns. Glocks are like McDonalds, you always know what you’re getting, but it’s not gourmet by far. With all the extra crap on it, I wouldn’t be surprised if the thing barely operated. Another thing, it seems to me that you could just carry that thing unloaded and still scare the shit out of any mugger.
George William Herbert

As is pointed out by multiple others, the Ares FMG of a couple of decades ago was the most direct inspiration for this. That was in part inspired by the H&K MP-5K Suitcase gun:

http://www.hkpro.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91:mp5k-series&catid=9:the-submachine-guns&Itemid=5

To answer those who ask what the point is of these guns – there are very few valid uses for that concealable of a submachinegun. However, very few is not zero. Certain government bodyguards carry concealed submachineguns. Some such weapons may be used for covert paramilitary operations by intelligence agencies. If you have a serious odd-situations police or counterterrorism tactical team, and most countries do, they are likely to want to be able to put an assault team in “civilian clothes” out there to sneak up on a target without being identified as a bunch of cops / special forces on first look. And last but not least, if you’re the armorer for a major police or special military or security unit, and you have a “R&D” and testing budget, you’re probably the sort of gun enthusiast who would buy one to have it on the organization’s shelf, on the odd chance it might come in useful in a way you’d never thought of.

All of these add up to a fairly small total market – all of which in the US need to be agencies or organizations who can legally purchase new manufacture machineguns, which roughly limits it to larger police, government, and special military, plus a very few special security companies involved in national security and nuclear facilities work. The current sales prices on such things support production runs of a few tens of weapons in some cases, though every manufacturer would love to sell more.
- RevGreg
  
  You’re spot on concerning the sales possibilities of this category of weapons…tens is pretty accurate. Two “overrun” pieces came on the market a couple years ago, two 9mm Thompson Contender pistols with matching suppressors. These are single-shot pistols with very, very quiet wipe-based suppressors which have no sights on them. The info we got on these was that about 13-15 were produced and the feds bought all but a few. You can imagine the extremely limited utility of such a weapon and the VERY specific nature of it’s usage…hence the very limited quantity produced.
  
  Actually I’ve handled both and the Magpul is a far superior design to the Ares FMG…the action on opening is more positive, it is far more stable when deployed and has better ergonomics. The major issue with weapons of this type is that they introduce multiple points for failure over just using a handgun or a light PDW and are really only useful in situations where you would need to “hide the weapon in plain sight” but it would not be inspected close…which reduces it’s utility (and market) to virtually nil (less than the 9mm Contender I’d say.) While it is interesting as a curiosity and design/manufacturing exercise, it’s an evolutionary dead-end for a firearm.
  
  As for his “walking the dog” example…stupidity. The first guy I spoke to at SHOT Show when asking about the FMP-9 worked in their shipping department and said some pretty stupid stuff about it…I managed to buttonhole one of the guys who actually worked on it and got the real skinny on it…THEY don’t feel that it has any commercial viability and most of the work was done by volunteers just for the hell of it (then again, some jackass fed might take a shine to it and manage to dump a ridiculous amount of cash in their laps to produce items that will end up sitting in a safe somewhere unused.) As I said, it’s a curiosity and nothing more…unfortunately misrepresented by the video above.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    RevGreg,
    
    Stick to the subject of the post, please.
    - RevGreg
      
      NP…if zombie talk is considered relevant and defending yourself against narrow-minded attacks because you actually have first-hand knowledge of the subject, have handled the object in question and spoken with one of the designers isn’t then I won’t bother posting.
Ratdog

This guy must have watched too much of Red Dawn as a child. What is he expecting will happen during a walk with the dog? Enemy troops to parachute into the neighborhood?

There should also be a disclaimer: “gun only fits in back pocket if you have a pant size bigger than XL.”
Crashproof

@ #10: only if it has an Apple logo on it.
Anonymous

People do understand that the ‘take the trash out, walk the dog, get the mail’ thing was not meant seriously, right?
Anonymous

By day, I’m an ordinary man with a flashlight. By night: Agent J!
donniebnyc

In the interest of accuracy please change title to:

Flashlight with VHS-size Folding Machine Gun Attached

Thank you.
Anonymous

Oh we do crazy real good!