42 * Zips. Pipes, and Pens extract it. Of course, if it swells abnormally, the filer is out of action. Within the extremes of the 12-gauge shotgun and the .22-caliber zip gun, there is a great deal of middle ground in the so-called raw materials people use to turn out improvised firearms. For instance, some of the firearms I've seen have no barrels as such. Naturally, any weapon can fire its deadly load without a barrel (e.g., for extremely close work, a revolver barrel may be cut off totally or unscrewed and left at home). Upon seeing such a weapon, a police officer noted, 'Something like this would surely give the forensic investigator some true pause for concern!" Some penguns and subcaliber devices either have no teal barrel, or the barrel is more of a gutter guide than a close-fitting bore. The British ground spike pistol, although technically a booby trap and alarm, has been used as a hand-held firearm, and dischaiged when pressed against a victim. Leslie Smith, a noted forensic scientist, has done extensive research on modified and improvised firearms. His case histories are legion, as any student of this science knows. He reports one instance where a taxi driver was killed by a man carrying a stockless .22 autoloading rifle with the barrel cut down to about 5 inches. The fast-firing weapon was simply a trigger group, receiver, magazine, and stump of a barrel. A similar weapon, known popularly as a 'boot gun,' was recovered by a Florida sheriff after a youthful buiglar wounded the lawman with the gun. It was a .22-caliber single-shot rifle with the stock and trigger guard removed and the barrel cut to about 2 inches. The overall length was 7 inches. According to Smith, 'This type of gun is often carried in a boot or a side pants pocket. They often turn up in gang fights, sometimes with a modified pistol grip.' Former police lieutenant Dr. Joseph Bogan, now an esteemed criminologist, has done a great deal of research into juvenile gang warfare and reported, 'For some reason the punks really go in for the sawed-off weapons, which is a bit ironic, considering how overrated they are."