Pipes, Plumbers, Other Spare Parts • 43 He's right. Most sawed-off shotguns make great assassination weapons when the target is in a telephone booth or a narrow hallway. But beyond that, well, perhaps an anecdote will scratch away the glamorous facade of sawed-off weapons, exposing the tarnish of inaccuracy. A police report noted that a young man accidentally shot his sister-in-law while she was using a rustic outhouse at the family camp. The young man was on a backyard range testing his freshly sawed off .22 rifle. According to the report, 'He was firing at a target some 50 feet downrange and about 15 or so feet from the outbuilding. His shot missed the primary target by some 12 feet and hit his sister-in-law, who was in the outbuilding. Both the victim and the police are totally satisfied the shooting was accidental. The man was charged with having an illegal weapon though.' No sawed-off weapon is intended for ranges beyond 10 feet or so. They are arm's-length killing weapons, effective in small rooms, alleys, or into car interiors. The sawed-off firearm's only serious use is where concealability or point-blank murder is the major factor. Period. Except for those two prerequisites, the sawed-off belongs to television and pulp fiction. U.S. Customs officials always turn up interesting weapons during their searches. Indeed, weapon smuggling has become so creative since the new security regulations at airports that one Customs official remarked, 'Some of the stuff we get makes James Bond's exotic arsenal look like so many boutonniere water squirters.' One such device was dubbed 'Secret Sam's Pipe Shooter" by agents. It was an ordinary tobacco pipe, capable of being smoked and of firing a .22-caliber short cartridge from the base of the bowl. The user has only to bite °n a hidden pressure trigger in the stem to fire the weapon. At New York' s La Guardia Airport, a young lady was arrestfd for trying to carry aboard a small, German-made autoloadmg pistol hidden in a radio. Meanwhile, at JFK, agents seized a Pseudo-blindman's cane that contained a firing device. Motorcycle gang members often use these hidden modified weapons, too. For example, a young man was arrested in