Although Elon Musk has previously blown our minds with his rocket, Tesla cars, and tunnels, this time he is selling fire-breathing weapons. The business tycoon announced that his tunneling startup known as The Boring Company is selling flamethrowers and is officially accepting pre-orders.
Founded in 2016, The Boring Company is an infrastructure and tunnel construction company. Prior to Elon Musk’s announcement, The Boring Company has been teasing the public with videos about the flamethrower and Musk has showcased the device on his Instagram account.
Courtesy of The Boring Company
Interestingly, the same company, digging traffic-skipping tunnels, is now offering its customers a weapon that breathes fire. Priced at 500$ each, they are said to be safe. The company even calls them “The world’s safest flamethrowers”, but just to be extra safe, you can also buy the branded fire extinguisher for 30$.
Elon Musk received 7,000 pre-orders in a total of 20,000 flamethrowers less than a day after the product had been put up for sale. This means he’s close to making $4 million.
Although the company will not start shipping the products before spring, they gave their buyers a glimpse of the flamethrowers in action via this video which plays on the company’s official website. Additionally, Musk himself is promoting the product on Twitter and keeping his followers updated.
However, there is a catch. They are technically not considered guns. the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) says that any flamethrower that has a flame shorter than 10 feet is not officially considered a weapon.
To know more about Elon Musk’s crazy ambitions, check out this article: “Elon Musk Sets a New Vision for Our Future Cities”.
Questions about what motivated The Boring Company to sell legal weapons remain a mystery. However, it seems like the flamethrowers form a good source for funding the tunneling startup.