Obama didn't restrict the USE of anything. The white house announced new restrictions on police departments from OBTAINING military-style equipment FROM the federal government. If the local police want bayonets, grenade launchers, etc. they are still free to purchase them elsewhere.

"We need to get rid of all this heavy weaponry and armour. The APCs, the grenade launchers. All of that junk. What other kind of things are the police parading around with?"

"Tanks, Obama"

The bit where the launcher connects to the head breaks fairly quickly which leaves you with a working head but no way to propel it.

It's a cheap toy that is available in junk shops like The Reject Shop (in Australia at least), made in China of course. Seems to entertain the kids and drug smokers of course. ; )

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's primarily an anti-satellite missile system. They've built those before, but if it's the launcher itself they're putting into LEO, from there maybe it can fire sub-munitions that can hit something useful like geostationary satellites.

The description from one of the other slingshot rocket launcher vids is:

Launching rockets in Germany requires all kinds of permits and licenses nobody ever gets. But for just 48 hours each year, the rules change. During these two days, every adult person is allowed to blast away with rockets and fire crackers!

The Slingshot Channel MUST take advantage of this once-in-a-year time slot. This time, we built a 2,5 meters high rubber based launch tower, capable of launching an unlit rocket about 50 meters up in the air! Add these 50 meters to the 60-80 meters that the rockets achieve by means of their powder charge, and you get some serious total height.

Of course many things can go wrong. The flimsy wooden shafts are not made to endure the stress of 50 kilogramms (110 lb) of a draw force applied by the rubber bands, and can break right in the barrel of the launcher. Also, if the timing of the fuse is bad and the charge ignites when the nose of the rocket is already pointed downwards, then the rocket will be propelled downwards and explose at ground level - effectively a surface to surface missile.

The Slingshot Channel tests all this... come and see the results!

Lead Launcher
Palm Cannon
Thumb Buster (.45 revolver)
Gut Cutter
Blue-steel hole-filler

this is going to encourage people with miniguns, rocket launchers and super cars to go out and do these things.

http://books.google.com/books?id=UOIDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA819&dq=Junkers+stratosphere&hl=en&ei=4KgNTb33B8S4ngeYq9WjDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&

☚☚(from a 1930's Popular Mechanics article, a gauss gun)
Chances are good, that if there was a practical application for the military as a personal combat weapon, it would already be here. Wait for tinier more powerful batteries maybe? But by that time, a walking DarpaBot with a minigun and grenade launcher will have replaced puny human infantry fleshbots..

I dunno man, 140 mm Ogon launchers 2 x 22 with 132 rockets or a 30 mm AK-630 Air Defense Gun Mount 2 x 6 with 6000 rounds makes for a pretty robust Navy vessel insurance policy, besides that...... seamen are safer on beetches !

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Tank, Machine Gun, Rocket Launcher, Slow Motion, Clear' to 'Tank, Machine Gun, Rocket Launcher, Slow Motion, Clear, mortar' - edited by xxovercastxx

Fun note here: the missile launcher on the tripod towards the end is 'wire' guided and you can see the wire unspooling. It is attached to the missile all the way until impact to steer it.

It was a confiscation policy. All guns that were banned HAD to be handed in. This was easily enforced by our mandatory gun registration laws in most states (except in Tasmania where the massacre that trigger this scheme occurred). People could hand in any gun they wanted even if it wasn't banned. I am not sure if there was compensation involved.

One stupid outcome was that many antique and rare guns were destroyed rather than rendered inopporeable or transferred to museums etc. My neighbour handed in a very valuable double barrell shotgun that was destroyed despite it being legal. He didn't want it anymore and like manny citizens took advantage of the amnesty to dispose of it.

You can still own pump action and semi-auto guns. You just need a special license for them. To get the license you need an especially good reason to need such weapons. There are strict regulations surrounding their storage and use. That said, my brother got a job as a pest controller for a class D license which enabled him to have grenade launchers if he wanted.

tl:dr - Australians have a very sensible approach to guns. You didn't see any whining about self protection in this vid did you?

Your video, The Situation Room: L.A. gun buyback yields rocket launchers, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.