(WASHINGTON) -- Law enforcement agencies in the United States have been warned to look out for the latest in a long line of weapons disguised as a harmless object: a gun that looks like a cellular phone.
The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Customs Service report that none of the guns have surfaced yet in this country. They have, however, been reported in Europe.
Rene DeChaine, a U.S. Customs spokesman in Washington, said that INTERPOL, the international police consortium, issued a red flag alert months ago on the guns. Police in Amsterdam reportedly seized a number of the guns during a drug raid in October, and in Slovenia a shipment was seized from a Croatian weapons dealer who was apparently trying to transport them to western Europe.
The guns look like an ordinary cell phone, although they are heavier when held. They are able to fire up to four .22-caliber bullets rapidly, with the telephone keypad serving as the trigger.
John D’Angelo, a spokesman for the ATF, said that disguised weapons have a long history.
“It would represent the latest evolution of a firearm keeping step with technology, he said. You see all kinds of variations on the firearm. We’ve seen pen guns, beeper guns.”
In the early years of the 20th century, the Sears & Roebuck catalog offered mail-order cane guns for a few dollars, D’Angelo added. They were descendants of the sword canes of the 18th and 19th century.
“When you start talking about disguised weapons, they’re exotic,” he said. “They are by no means as common as conventional weapons.”
The ATF has seized disguised weapons both from ordinary criminals and from collectors who enjoy owning something different, D’Angelo said.
DeChaine said that the cell phone guns probably would not be any easier to smuggle in than ordinary handguns or other disguised weapons, since a close inspection by a Customs agent would reveal that they are weapons, not real cell phones.”
He said that U.S. Customs agents have not seized any cell phone guns.