In the wake of the COVID pandemic, a growing consensus has emerged among researchers that masks are at least somewhat useful – and perhaps very effective – in suppressing the spread of the coronavirus.
But in the United States, some have chafed at the idea of committing a minor inconvenience to aid the public health effort. Protestants against masks are nationally inflated, some with ugly racist undertones. Many Americans have thrown tantrums in public after being asked to wear masks in stores. And that’s all happening, of course, because the United States’ COVID outbreak has become one of the worst in the world.
That inspired YouTuber Allen Pan to create a whimsical gadget: a gun that shoots masks directly at the faces of targets.
Pan, a renowned artisan who has made a name for himself, built a variety of DIY flamethrowers, plasma blades, and Spider-Man-style web shooters, rigged a pneumatic launcher to fire masks – from a grip that looks remarkably a firearm.
“This is not a world of fact anymore,” he said in the video. ‘This is a world of opinion and emotion. And if there’s one thing coronavirus protesters really care about, it’s the second amendment. Guns. ”
Pan attached four magnets to the straps on the back of the mask so that they become joined together, and attached strips to the inside of the mask surface for even more adhesion.
First, he tested it on a variety of mannequin heads. Then he tried it on himself. And then he even went to Huntington Beach, CA – a hotbed of anti-mask sentiment – to give the public a chance to try it.
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