I think I have stumbled across my WTF moment for the month.

Constitution Arms (how's that for a name) claims that they have received federal approval to market a handgun as a medical device - because it has been designed to be used by the disabled and by seniors.

According to the New Scientist article I discovered this in, Constitution Arms hopes that the US Food and Drug Administration will reimburse seniors who buy the 9-mm handgun, called the "Palm Pistol", the $300 it costs because they are, apparently, allowed to call the firearm a "medical device".

Personally, I think this is sick.

While it is possible for many medical devices to cause bodily harm through malicious or incompetent use they are, as a group, designed to heal. A point that can not be applied to a firearm no mater what the circumstance.

Matthew Carmel, president of Constitution Arms, claims that the Palm Pistol is "something that they need to assist them in daily living" and that "the justification for this would be no more or less [than] for a [walking aid] or wheelchair, or any number of things that are medical devices."

Rubbish. You do not need a firearm to "assist [...] in daily living", you need: food, clean water, shelter, etc. Yes, safety and justice are basic human needs too but a single shot pistol is unlikely to provide a senior citizen or a disabled person with either of those.

This would seem to be nothing more than an attempt to find and leverage a loop-hole to get a handgun reclassified as a medical device and, if their application for Durable Medical Equipment is successful, then even made available on prescription.

However, I note that this thing doesn't actually exist yet; it's just a patent and a marketing plan.

When asked, FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey denied that the FDA had classified the handgun as a medical device and that Bill Maisel, Director of the Medical Device Safety Institute, observed that "The FDA doesn't make a determination about a weapon, they make a determination about medical products that are designed to help people and improve their health."

Perhaps good sense will prevail.