Tochigi Man Arrested over Homemade Coilgun

Tokyo, Nov. 19 (Jiji Press)--Tokyo police arrested a man on Tuesday on suspicion of possessing a handmade handgun.

According to investigative sources at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Nobuaki Usui, a 29-year-old resident of Nasu, Tochigi Prefecture, made a coilgun more than 10 years ago and posted a video on YouTube explaining how he made the gun using electromagnets to accelerate a magnetic projectile. The video, which had been viewed 3.5 million times before being deleted, also showed bullets ejected by the gun piercing a cardboard box and aluminum can.

The police searched his house and seized the coilgun in October.

Currently, owing a coilgun is not illegal. But the department also found that the gun is capable of firing a real bullet and lethal.

Usui is charged with owning a revolver as of Oct. 5.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]