Utter Nonsense

You might put an eye out, but the extravagant claims by an expert in this Daily Mail article are ridiculous.

The SwissMiniGun is the size of a key fob but fires tiny 270mph bullets powerful enough to kill at close range.

Officially the world's smallest working revolver, the gun is being marketed as a collector's item and measures just 2.16 inches long (5.5cm). It can fire real 4.53 bullets up to a range of 367ft (112m).

The stainless steel gun costs £3,000 although the manufacturers also produce extravagant, made-to-order versions made out of 18-carat gold with customised diamond studs which sell for up to £30,000…

…Jonathan Spencer, consultant forensic scientist and firearms expert, said that although the gun, which fires bullets at a speed of 399 feet a second, was tiny, it could still prove fatal and in the eyes of the law was as dangerous as a machine gun.

He said: "The general threshold for perforating the skin is about 330 feet a second.

"Apart from bone, skin offers the greatest resistance to penetration. If it can pass through the skin it is potentially lethal, even if the bullets are small.

"If you shoved something 3mm across into someone's chest you could kill them. It's the same with these bullets, they could penetrate the heart.

"It is capable of killing someone. Under section 5 of the Firearms Act it would be a prohibited weapon. It would be on the same scale as a machine gun."

According to the firm's website , the tiny bullet delivers 0.7154 ft-lbf of energy when fired. A .22 caliber long rifle bullet delivers 104 ft-lbf. The bullet weighs 1.9753 grains versus the .22 LR's 40 grains. By comparison, the Red Ryder BB gun yields a whopping 350 fps but delivers a .177 caliber pellet compared to the Swiss bullet with a massive .09 caliber. 

I'd rather take a SwissMiniGun bullet than a BB.