I downloaded my entire reddit activity and have been going through it slowly, changing all my comments to links back to themselves. Today I got this:
Hello, You have been permanently banned from participating in r/funny because you broke this community’s rules. You won’t be able to post or comment, but you can still view and subscribe to it.
If you have a question regarding your ban, you can contact the moderator team by replying to this message.
Reminder from the Reddit staff: If you use another account to circumvent this subreddit ban, that will be considered a violation of the Content Policy and can result in your account being suspended from the site as a whole.
That’s a stupid reason for banning people, but weren’t those just propane torches? You can buy one at any hardware store and tape it to a nerf gun to make a similar toy. While they do “throw flames”, I wouldn’t really call those flamethrowers, which usually utilize liquid fuel and are actually weapons.
The flame is something like an inch thick, around or maybe even over 6 inches long, and the thing actually does look similar to a Nerf gun.
You really think that kids won’t get their hands on these things and do something stupid?
We were doing stupid shit with regular propane torches as kids. Doesn’t mean those were flamethrowers tho.
Did you know flamethrowers are actually legal in 47 out of the 50 states, last I checked anyways? They’re considered as work tools to melt tar for roofing and road work and such.
But yes, any which way you spin it, it’s a really stupid reason to get banned.
I guess that depends on your definition of a flamethrower. To me, a flamethrower is primarily a weapon. And what you are describing is a roofing torch. Googling it now, I can’t seem to find anyone calling them “roofing flamethrowers”. Flame gun — sometimes — but never actually a flamethrower.
So the legality is probably an issue with not being specific enough with the tool/weapon differentiation. I don’t think actual flamethrowers should be legal.
Any tool can be a weapon if you have the right mindset.