Pipes, Plumbers, Other Spare Partsk • 39 A Seattle police officer stopped a suspicious man carrying a small piece of plumber's pipe. Lucidly, the pipe was not used, as it turned out to be a loaded, homemade 12-gauge shotgun. The weapon is fired by slamming the hand into the shell cap. (Courtesy of Seattle. Washington. Police Department the shotgun barrel. Apart from banning plumbing pipe, there is little hope of the antigun movement on for that matter, any police state getting the upper hand on the manufacture of these illicit shotguns. As any combat soldier or serious shooter will tell you, a shotgun is far more lethal at close range or in most environments than a submachine gun. Perhaps the most lethal doserange weapon would be the full-auto shotgun. For now, let's consider its poor-side-of-the-tracks neighbor, the plain-folks' homemade scatter gun. Many are short-barrelled and, due to the use of the three-quarter-inch pipe with no taper, have