Patent Application
20220065593
Not Applicable
This invention relates to devices and methods for the disabling of firearms, and more specifically to mock ammunition which renders a firearm inoperable by non-hazardous, non-harmful incendiary means.
Gun violence is a prevalent issue that affects every level of society in almost every country of the world and has a multitude of contributing factors which have made the effective prevention of intentional or unintentional gun violence currently and historically unachievable.
In the realm of Law Enforcement, officers are at risk of being killed by their own firearm if it is taken during an altercation. This occurs many times each year in the United States.
The presence of firearms can act as a catalyst for criminal behavior such as in domestic abuse situations where the aggressor possesses and threatens use of a firearm. Historically, there have been no effective controls on firearms possession in regards to a person who discretely threatens their family members with gun violence and already legally owns a firearm.
Guns play a dominant role in the suicide statistics that plague our nation. There is not much that one can do if they suspect a person wishes to harm themself with a firearm that they legally possess—but do not wish to relinquish.
A problem also exists where people keep loaded firearms hidden in their home, vehicle or place of work for quick and functional access. This results in many unintentional deaths and injuries being the result of children finding firearms hidden around the home or vehicle.
Weapons acquired by law enforcement through “buy-back programs” or confiscation have absolutely no guarantee that they will not be resold, stolen, or circumvented back onto the street. A safe, user friendly, immediately effective and easily implemented way to ensure a firearm is made inoperable by the irreparable damage of internal components is currently not utilized.
Places where it is known that many firearms are kept, such as gun shops, police departments or police officers' vehicles are targets for gun thefts; according to the ATF Data and Statistics, approximately 12,000 firearms were stolen from gun dealers in 2017 and hundreds of guns are stolen from police officers' cars and homes each year.
People often keep firearms “hidden” in their vehicles, rather than their homes; currently, this results in thousands of firearm thefts each year.
All of the above mentioned scenarios present the risk of gun violence by those people who inflict such violence on others and also by those who wish to do harm unto themselves. There is no easy and effective way to remove these pre-existing weapons from such dangerous circumstances or from useful circulation, which does not pose serious harm to bystanders, and especially if individuals are unwilling to voluntarily surrender them.
Currently, methods for disabling a firearm using sabotage ammunition involves the use of some form of explosive charge or intensely violent exothermic reaction to perform that goal. These methods pose serious harm to the firearm user and bystanders. In most cases, the imitation ammunition is intended to kill the user or bystanders. In war—torn regions of the world, the end user of exploding sabotage ammunition may be in the presence of innocent people and children, or may be a child themself. Current forms of sabotage ammunition cannot be used to address the issue of proliferating illegal firearms in the United States, or on any civilian population plagued with gun violence. Likewise, if one wished to keep a handgun safe from unauthorized use in their home—there would be no recourse if a child were to be blown-up by exploding ammunition.
Current forms of sabotage ammunition contain materials that the enemy can exploit, such as White Phosphorus or C-4 explosive. Forms of sabotage ammunition which employ high explosives or restricted chemicals, if distinguished and disassembled, can be stockpiled by the enemy and the restricted materials used to construct other explosive devices or weapons.
The Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition is a form of sabotage ammunition and is made to the same outward dimensional specifications and aesthetic characteristic as an actual firearm ammunition cartridge; however, when attempted to be fired from a firearm, the effect is a non-hazardous, non-violent reaction, producing heat substantial enough to bond parts of the Mock Bullet Projectile to the inside of the firearm chamber. This action renders the firearm immediately inoperable and irreparable unless the barrel and chamber are professionally replaced. A cartridge is also commonly referred to as a “round” or a “shell” and may have varied shapes, sizes and outward appearances.
The Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition performs the task of rendering a firearm inoperable through the exothermic reaction of a fuel and metal oxide mixture, and sometimes aided by modifications made to the shell casing, which will be discussed later. Depending on the specific application, this mixture is comprised of at least one fuel and one metal oxide. This mixture is a derivative of that which is commonly known as Thermite and for ease of explanation will be referred to simply as “Thermite” or “Thermite Mixture” throughout this description. Examples of metal oxides and fuels that could be used to make the Thermite Mixture are that of Copper Oxide, Iron Oxide, Aluminum, and Magnesium; however, there are a multitude of fuels and metal oxide Thermite Mixtures that are known to produce substantial exothermic reactions. The Thermite Mixture reaction is initiated by an “Ignition Mixture” which is ignited by the detonation of the standard percussion primer cap when struck by the firing pin of the firearm in which the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition is loaded. The Ignition Mix is comprised of a fuel and metal oxide mixture with similar ingredients to that of the Thermite Mixture, but in a finer powder form and in a ratio of fuel and oxide such that it is much more easily ignitable than the Thermite Mixture.
Depending on the specific Thermite Mixture recipe used and the available space presented by the caliber of ammunition being replicated—shell casing modifications may be employed to ensure that the heat energy produced by the Thermite reaction is able to melt through the shell casing wall and cause bonding to occur with the walls of the chamber of the given firearm. The preferred modification to the shell casing is the intentional reduction of wall thickness in local areas by removing material from the inside surface of the shell casing wall. These thinly walled areas are unnoticeable from the exterior of the shell casing. Shell casings can be made with this thin-walled feature included in the manufacturing process by using specially designed dies; alternatively, the thin-walled feature can be added as a retrofit modification to existing ammunition shell casings by using a cutting tool such as an end-mill or small grinding wheel to remove material from the inside walls of the shell casing. An alternative modification to the shell casing is to produce the shell casing from an alternative metal or alloy with a melting point lower than that of normal brass or steel shell casings, in order to facilitate the bonding of material to the chamber of the firearm.
As the Background of the invention suggests—there are a multitude of applications where the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition is may be used. The application of the invention may be easily summarized in two respects; the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition may be employed wherever one wishes to keep a legal firearm safe from use by unintended person(s) and also that the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition may be used wherever one wishes to covertly remove firearms from useful circulation within a targeted area or group.
In the latter respect, the scope of use may include law enforcement targeting a particular city or community where gun crime is prevalent or a specific organized gang, to which the covert introduction of Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition, lacking any identifiable markers and made to look identical to normal ammunition, would be used in order to reduce the quantity of illegal firearms present within that community or group. A similar application in which the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition may be used to covertly disable firearms could include use by the Military. For example, if the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition were to be distributed behind enemy lines prior to, or after, a planned military invasion—the number of weapons available to rebels or insurgent groups is greatly reduced. Distribution techniques vary by circumstance. The Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition can save the lives of domestic citizens in crime-plagued areas and can save the lives of military servicemen abroad.
Another opportunity for the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition to save lives through the disabling of firearms is through implementation by those who wish to keep a firearm safe from use by unintended person(s). This includes individuals who are responsible for the safekeeping of loaded and unloaded firearms, such as police officers, gun shop owners, and private citizens who keep loaded firearms unlocked and available for immediate use around the home. A police officer may carry a sidearm for both defensive and offensive purposes, but when confronted with close quarters physical altercations, that firearm can be taken from the officer and used against him or her. Every year multiple officers are killed by having their own guns wrestled away from their possession by a criminal and used against them. Within the scope of securing a legal firearm, the Mock Ammunition may be produced to possess an identifiable marker. Such a marker can be printed on the exterior of the shell casing; the primer or shell casing can be produced with a color that is nonstandard, or a unique embossment on the bottom of the shell casing can be used as a visual marker to allow the user to identify the Gun Disabling Ammunition from normal ammunition. By intentionally loading the first round of their magazine with a Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition, if someone takes an officer's gun and attempts to fire it, the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition will immediately disable the firearm and leave the criminal with a useless weapon. However—if the officer needs to use their sidearm, they will know to eject the first round as they raise their weapon to aim, therefore avoiding the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition they previously loaded in their magazine. In the instance of private citizens who keep loaded guns in hidden but accessible places—the risk of a child or criminal finding the loaded gun is very real. The same implementation tactic of making the first round in the magazine a Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition can be used, therefore denying a criminal a useful stolen gun or saving a child from accidently shooting themself or accidentally shooting someone else. As the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition can be made to be virtually or absolutely visually undetectable—The Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition will disable a stolen gun when the criminal attempts to use it.
While gun-disabling sabotage ammunition is not new, what is unique about the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition is that it is not able to injure any people and accomplishes this through the use of non-hazardous and commercially available incendiary components. There is no opportunity for individuals to gain access to restricted or illicit materials by dissecting a Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition.
The non-hazardous and subtle nature of the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunitions functionality allows for its use in any domestic civilian environment, by law enforcement for protecting themselves from their own guns and for targeted reduction of gun crime in specific communities, while also having a useful function through military utilization in the battlefield. When someone attempts to fire a Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition, the result is a slight discharge of smoke from the ejection port and barrel of the firearm, the immediate blockage of the barrel and immediate destruction of the chamber of the firearm; there is no loud noise, no shockwave, no projectile, and no violent heat discharge capable of injuring the user.
In the following description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof and which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition according to the disclosure herein. The drawings and the preferred embodiments of the invention are presented with the understanding that the present invention is susceptible of embodiments in many different forms and, therefore, other embodiments may be utilized and structural, and operational changes may be made, without departing from the scope of the present invention.
A Gun Disabling Mock Ammunition (9), shown in
2.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/299,136, filed on Mar. 12, 2019. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/299,136 claims benefit of Provisional Application No. 62/650,415, filed Mar. 30, 2018.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 16299136 | Mar 2019 | US |
| Child | 17497118 | US |
