This is a TNB Public Service Announcement. Don’t flout NY flamethrower laws.
We at TNB were not aware this message needed to be provided. We were wrong. It seems that some people in New York state enjoy fire just a little too much.
Our first recent indication came from none other than Elon Musk. In the time period between trying to self-promote by pressuring for the use of a personal submersible in a rescue of a boy’s soccer team in Thailand and arranging to have his plants make some needed ventilators for hospitals during the COVID-19 crisis in exchange for keeping them open (only to deliver fairly worthless sleep apnea ventilators instead), he was involved in a New York effort to prevent banning flame-shooting attachments for recreational drone users.
The devices… originally billed as flamethrowers when the first 20,000 of them were sold in early 2018… were quickly targeted for restriction in many states, particularly New York and California. It was felt by lawmakers that having untrained people flying drones capable of launching a seven foot flame might not be the wisest public safety move. New York warned Musk not to sell drone flamethrowers in their state.
Musk’s reaction was to rename the devices “not-a-flamethrowers”. The lawmakers were not amused, and banned them in 2019.
The state’s hard stance against the devices was lost on rapper Dupree G.O.D. In November he decided to produce a “guerilla video” as a tribute to a band he loves, the Wu-Tang Clan. To make the video he jumped from roof to roof of moving vehicles during a NYC rush hour. This was very dangerous, although considering how slow traffic can be at the time it might have been a calculated risk. What was considerably more dangerous was shooting a flamethrower into the air and at the ground behind the bus.
Arguably, it was safer for him to be on top of a moving city bus shooting a flamethrower around than it would have been for him to be sitting in the bus, as the video shows the vehicle was fairly full and many of the passengers weren’t masked. 2020 strikes again.
If you’re curious, here’s the video, which came out three days ago:
Dupree G.O.D. is a fairly unknown name… but under his prior handle, “WordSpit”, he was a successful contestant on America’s Got Talent and was featured in a McDonalds commercial.
Famous or not, if you really want to use a flamethrower, go to someplace like the previously Owl-featured Drivetanks in a somewhat barren area of Texas where experts are ready to provide guided instruction. New York, and the Owl, will thank you for it.
Question of the night: What’s your most memorable experience on public transportation?
