Guns of the Week: Air Guns

Guns of the Week: October 27 – 31, 2014

Air Guns

Unloading the Myth – Perception is Often Reality
Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? Is it a Tommy Gun? No! It’s an Air Gun

Take a look at this gun. At first glance, many may think it a machine gun, specifically a Thompson. Because of its appearance, this firearm could receive all the stigma that comes from the public about such firearms, but upon closer examination, it is actually an air rifle. This is a Feltman Pneumatic Fully Automatic BB Machine Gun, modeled after the Thompson. This particular air rifle was used at Coney Island, New York as an arcade game.

Unloading the Myth – Hate to See that Gas Bill

In the 1850s, a man named Paul Gifford patented a pneumatic gun that featured a pump and a cylindrical air reservoir. He took out an additional patent in 1872 that could use removable cartridges filled with compressed air and liquefied gas to fire the gun. But in the 1880s, he would receive a patent for the first official CO2 guns.

Gifford’s patent guns like the one pictured here were manufactured in many forms, predominantly by manufacturer Francais d’Armes et Cycles de St. Etienne. Gifford believed CO2 guns were the future and even convinced Colt to spend $1 million to have the rights to produce them in America. Unfortunately for both Gifford and Colt, the investment turned out to be full of hot air.

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