From the Vault: The Manville Gas Gun

Brownells Gun Tech™ Keith Ford is joined by Joel Colander of Rock Island Auction Co. to scope out an oddity. It looks like something built by a plumber, rather than the fine, rare guns usually offered by Rock Island. The Manville Gas Gun is a tear gas dispensing firearm designed by one Charles Manville in 1935. The Gas Gun was marketed to law enforcement, state national guards, and the military. The problem was none of these institutions had money to spend on "extras" during the Great Depression, so Manville's invention didn't take off. After unsuccessfully offering a grenade-launcher variant to the U.S. military during World War II, he closed up shop, disposed of his tooling, and destroyed the blueprints. The Manville Gas Gun was forgotten.... until the movie "The Dogs of War" came out in 1980, starring Christopher Walken, Tom Berenger, AND a Manville Gas Gun in the role of the "XM-18 Grenade Launcher." (Another company built a scaled-up version of the gun for Arnold Schwarzenegger to wield in "Terminator 2.") Manville's "unique selling proposition" was the massive rotating cylinder offering many multiple shots, when tear gas launchers of the period were all single-shot. It's actually a dirt-simple design; Keith explains how it works. "Welcome to Zangaro!"

Christopher Walken and the "XM-18" in action:    • The Dogs of War - Assault on Kimba's ...