A handheld firearm designed to be easily concealed from observers along most of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Projectiles would probably be a combination of boron and epoxy, with the propellant ignited by piezoelectrics.

Although such a weapon could possibly be reloaded, firing projectiles from the already-used launchercould overstress the ceramic body, causing it to explode. (Much like making a shell of clay around an air bubble, and attempting to bake it in a kiln.)

Seems to me that you'd have better luck using epoxy or spun glass. Ceramic would have to be pretty bulky to contain the pressures required and not be frangible under normal carrying stress, to the point where it'd be hard to conceal and/or aim properly. Perhaps save ceramic for the projectile, which needs to be as massive as possible in order to allow a slower speed to be useful. This would allow lower pressures and lower-energy propellant to be used.

I'd hazard a guess that an epoxy-resin cylinder with fiberglass shrouding to assist it in holding pressure (and perhaps extended past the muzzle to muffle noise) with a ceramic projectile and an epoxy firing chamber would be more efficacious.

As John Malkovich's character in In the Line of Fire decided, it's probably more efficient to simply put two barrels on the thing á la the Derringer than to try to reload it.

As noted in the original node, ceramic handguns are a myth. Ceramic technology has come a long way in recent years, particularly with ceramic knives. Ceramic technology has not yet produced an all-ceramic gun, but the idea persists, driven by anti-gun politicians and sensationalist media.

When Glock handguns were first imported into the United States, the aforementioned scaremongers had a field day with the concept of a "plastic gun" and how it might be used to slip past airport security checkpoints. They ignored the fact that only the frame of the Glock is polymer and there is still more than enough metal in all of their guns to set off even the weakest metal detector. Furthermore, there is enough metal in even a single round of 9mm ammunition to set one off.

Some speculated that the metal parts of the handgun could be fashioned from ceramics instead, thus creating a "stealth gun". Around this time, anti-gun California Senator Barbara Boxer proposed legislation banning possession of any handgun which melted when subjected to 800 degree fahrenheit heat.

To feed the ignorance frenzy, Bruce Willis's character in the movie "Die Hard" thwarted some terrorists at the beginning of the movie and discovered one of them was carrying a "Glock 7" (which was actually a Glock 17, there is no Glock 7). The Glock 7 was supposedly a "ceramic gun" and was the terrorist weapon-of-choice for avoiding airport security checkpoints and hijacking planes.

Incidentally, the movie "Die Hard" is believed to be the first studio movie ever to feature a Glock.

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