Is a potato gun a zip gun as defined by the penal code? Has anyone run into this / what was your solution?

Your question intrigued me, so I went on LEXIS and ran searchs on "potato gun" and "zip gun" as well as a search using the Penal Code section (46.05(a)(9)). Nada! Apparently, no appellate opinion has been issued on the issue of zip guns or potato guns--at least not one that LEXIS considered worth including in the Texas database. However looking at the definition of a "zip gun," wouldn't a device designed to propel the potato as the projectile be a zip gun if it (a) had sometype of smooth or rifle-bore barrel and (b) used some type of explosive or burning material as the propellant. In other words, if the device used a BIG rubber band []or compressed air as the propellant, it probably wouldn't qualify as a zip gun.

My former colleague, David Boatright, always used potato guns as examples of a zip gun.

Janette Ansolabehere