I hear about firearms fairly frequently in my work as a police and breaking news reporter, but I was surprised this morning when I heard that the weapon that discharged last night, injuring a Port Hueneme police officer was a "zip gun."

I think the last time I had an extended conversation about zip guns when I was a little kid and I was reading "West Side Story" for the first time. One of the members of the Jets gang expresses concern that if they have a rumble, the members of the rival gang might bring knives or zip guns.

I had to ask my father to explain what a zip gun was. As I remember it, described them as simple, homemade firearms that were basically a tube and a firing pin.

That's not all that different from the weapon Sgt. Robert Gager of the Port Hueneme police told me about this morning when I asked about the gun that wounded officer Jesus Chavez.

He said it was a single shot, cylindrical firearm that kind of looked like a flashlight. These weapons, he said, are illegal in this state.

When I looked up zip guns on the Internet, this is what I found that matched Sgt. Gager's description:

http://www.lawdogs.8m.com/catalog.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_gun


Here's a link to the first web version of the story on the shooting incident:

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/25/no-headline---nxxfcmorningreport26/