Elon Musk, the mastermind behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, has another innovative product up his sleeve: a $500 flamethrower.
Musk announced the flamethrower on Saturday, after weeks of teasing a possible flamethrowing product for his newest venture, The Boring Company. The Boring Co.’s mission is to excavate a low-cost, but fast-digging tunnel through Los Angeles to help alleviate its notorious car traffic.
Musk’s announcements on Instagram and Twitter about the flamethrower have all been in tongue-in-cheek tone, but his legions of followers have lapped up the chance to buy a flamethrower from The Boring Co. More than 2,000 people have pre-ordered the device so far, according to Musk on Twitter.
Pre-orders are expected to ship in the spring, according to The Boring Co.’s website.
“When the zombie apocalypse happens, you’ll be glad you bought a flamethrower,” tweeted Musk. “Works against hordes of the undead or your money back!”
The California Health and Safety Codes 12750 to 12761 outline that owning or selling flamethrowers is illegal without a permit granted from the state fire marshal, joining Maryland as the only two states in the country to have flamethrower regulations.
California has defined flamethrowers as “any nonstationary and transportable device designed or intended to emit or propel a burning stream of combustible or flammable liquid a distance of at least 10 feet.”
But since The Boring Co.’s flamethrower emits fire less than the defined 10 feet, it did not have to get a permit to sell, according to the company’s spokesman.
“Flamethrowers that shoot a flame over 10 feet long require a permit in (California),” the spokesman said in an email. “This flamethrower projects a flame that is shorter than 10 feet and as such does not require a permit.”
Not everyone, however, found it funny. California Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, and Lou Paulson, President of the California Professional Firefighters, issued a statement on Monday afternoon denouncing Musk’s flamethrower sale.
“Joke or not, this subject matter, in the wake of the state’s deadliest wildfires in history, is incredibly insensitive, dangerous, and most definitely not funny,” said Santiago. “Absolutely no public good could come from the sale of this tool.”
From The Boring Co. — which began after Musk’s Twitter rant about Los Angeles car traffic — selling 50,000 company hats, Musk has built a reputation for spouting tomfoolery and then following through on it.
But some on social media are speculating this is a mere April Fool’s joke, considering the flamethrower is expected to ship in spring. On last year’s April Fool’s Day, Musk tweeted that chemtrails were actually a “message from time-traveling aliens describing the secret of teleportation.”
When asked whether the flamethrower is a joke, the spokesman said this is no practical joke.
“It is real,” he said. “You can place an order on the website, and we will start shipping in the spring.”