The Pen is Mightier • 13s know it was loaded!' yelp of a hole-in-thc-hand or lost fingers mishap. Sometimes, penguns do more than just bite the hand that feeds them. In one case reported in the forensic literature in 1978, a conventional 6-inch pengun firing a.45 cartridge exploded, driving both the barrel and the bullet through the filer's eye and into his brain, causing a painful, lingering fatality. The weapon was a straight production penguns not a modification of a tear gas device, i.e., it had both a serial number and caliber markings, and thus was obviously not homemade. Commenting on the use of large-caliber handgun ammunition for small, lightweight penguns, the medical examiner in this case. Dr. D.W. Oxley, noted, 'In a small, smooth tubular weapon, devoid of conventional grips and weighing only a few ounces, Newton's Third Law can, as it did in this case, easily convert the weapon itself into a lethal missile.' In Hong Kong, then-Maj. Richard Keogh reported on another sort of pengun problem. Late in 1975, he passed along a story of a Hong Kong restaurant employee having his life saved when a shot fired by a robber's small-caliber gun hit a I I I A modified. 45 ACP pengun, shown assembled and disassembled, which malfunctioned, killing its owner. (Courtesy of David W. Oxley, M.DJ