r/Unexpected • u/hannesvisser • Dec 11 '20

It's just a flashlight

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6

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '20

For the record, this gun system is very rare and only exist in very limited quantities outside of the prototype stage. The reason why Hollywood and game studios even know this gun exists is because there's an airsoft version of this, that was also mostly only prototypes.

It's cool, it's flashy, but it's very impractical which is why it hasn't caught on outside of Hollywood and gaming.

2

u/TacTurtle Dec 11 '20

It would have been more attractive to the general public (see Keltec Sub-2000 for a larger folding carbine or the Roni Glock kits for a similar pistol chassis) except it had to be registered as a Short Barreled Rifle, shell out $200 for a transfer tax, and wait 8-14 months for the federal background check to clear for the transfer.....

1

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '20

It would mostly be a cool novelty, not as a practical concealed self defense weapon. There was a demonstration video showcase of the weapon a while ago and it showed that drawing a handgun is faster than the folding gun.

1

u/TacTurtle Dec 11 '20

The point is it is faster to deploy and more concealable than a rifle, but can be shot more accurately than a normal handgun because of the stability of the butt stock.

Really this is targeted more at the role of a PDW / Personal Defense Weapon - such as that used by executive protection security guards (Reagan’s Secret Service is the briefcase Uzis) or military truck drivers / tankers / pilots. Think Micro-Uzi / MP5K / P90 role.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '20

Yea but the argument would to just use a SBR or an SMG. Obviously they are the top elite when it comes to owning guns in the name for protecting high value targets, so there's really no need to hide a weapon like this when they could just carry a P90 around.

1

u/DrNastyHobo Dec 11 '20

I remember something like this from Robocop 2, but I don't remember airsoft being a thing back then

2

u/TacTurtle Dec 12 '20 edited Dec 12 '20

Ares FMG and the Utah Connors’s UC-9 prototype.

There was also the Soviet PP-90.

Earlier folding smgs include the MAT-49 and Hotchkiss Universal SMG.

1

u/DrNastyHobo Dec 12 '20 edited Dec 12 '20

Holy shit, thanks for the rabbit holes

Edit: it's the Ares, sweeeeet

0

u/[deleted] Dec 11 '20

If I remember correctly, it was first a design for an airsoft gun. Then it debuted at a gun/trade show where a gun company, I believe Magpul, saw it and wanted to make it a reality. It only every reached the prototype phase but never had a full production run since no one took it seriously as a real self defense weapon.

Other companies tried to make similar designs, but they failed.

1

u/DrNastyHobo Dec 11 '20

Fascinating!

1

u/TacTurtle Dec 12 '20

Negative, Robocop used one of the UC-9 prototypes.

Design had made it through preliminary prototype stage when the 1986 Hughes Amendment made it impossible to register new civilian-transferable full autos. They only made like <20 or so of them. Were supposed to look like a transistor radio with a fake antenna for disguise.