It's a medical device?

There is a new hand gun out there. A 9mm that looks a lot like the palm pistols of the old west. In fact, the company calls it The Palm Pistol.

So far, so hoopy. Good idea, get a one round shooter for people who can't hold a regular gun. It looks like it's a derringer with a different handle design.

What gets me though, is that it's apparently been designated as a piece of medical equipment. Now, I understand the reason is for Medicare or something, but that's not the point. The point is that we, as Americans, have decided that guns are medical devices. Not only that, but it looks like tax dollars are going to be used to help buy them. I can hear the hippies screaming now about grandma shooting little Billy with their tax dollars.

The secondary problem is that this is a gun that has to be used because no mugger is going to look at that and think "gun" when some elderly lady is waving it at him. That's the biggest problem defense wise. The best self-defense tools are the ones you don't have to use. You would actually have to fire this and risk killing someone before anyone realizes it's really a gun and not some kind of inhaler or something. And then, to only have one shot, well what if there are two of them? Or you miss? Once you start shooting you kind of have to be able to keep firing because lethal force is normally met with lethal force. I worry this would only create the illusion of protection, which could cause problems in and of itself.

And frankly I can hear the rest of the world now, "Hey! The American's think guns are medicine! Just shoot something, that'll cure your cancer!"

I'm all for gun ownership, which is one of the major things keeping me from being a hippy, but this seems a bit misguided. Either it needs more rounds, or it needs to look more like a gun for defense. I think calling a gun a medical device is just a bad PR move, but I could see an argument made for some people. I guess we’ll see if any thing comes from this.


EDIT: Doh! Forgot the link where they mention it being a medical handgun.