Security Experts Are Watching for Guns Disguised as Mobile Phones

Jan. 25, 2004

From the Feb. 02, 2004 issue of TIME magazine
By ADAM ZAGORIN

Don't be surprised if you're asked to whip out your cell phone and make a call next time you go through airport security. A mobile phone that masquerades as a gun may sound like a device concocted for 007, but it's the latest hidden weaponry to show up on the radar of law-enforcement folks.

Sources tell TIME that cell-phone guns, some of which have been seized in drug raids in the Netherlands, England and Germany, have been cited in several federal security alerts over the past year, the most recent just over a month ago. Though heavier than normal phones, the lethal ones look nearly identical. The hollowed-out devices, made in Croatia, are fired by punching buttons on the keypad and can shoot four .22-cal. bullets in rapid succession. 

Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/ 0,9171,1101040202-581402,00.html