- Tell me a little bit about what I'm looking at-
that you have in your hands.
- So, this is a handgun, chambered in .22 long rifle,
that I built out of tourist stuff you get at gift shops.
All the basic components of a firearm are here.
So, squeeze the trigger,
hits the firing pin,
which ignites the primer, and sends the round off.
Hey, I'm Evan, and people think I'm a heretic
because I make guns out of furniture.
- Radicals, dissidents, rebels and misfits.
You can call them whatever you like.
But, what if they're right?
- Hey, I'm Evan. I build cyber ranges for a living.
- What is a cyber range?
- A cyber range is, if you think about a gun range,
it's where you'd go to improve your shooting.
A cyber range is where you'd go to improve your hacking—
so offensive, defensive, digital forensics,
your information security skills.
We test systems as simulated adversaries,
so, um, we can find issues and vulnerabilities
before actual adversaries do.
- The most heretical idea that people
associate with me the most:
that, um, guns are remarkably simple devices,
and they can be made
wherever there's a need for one.
The gun laws right now are
are an absolute, convoluted, hot mess.
Politicians, they write these laws
and it's not based in reality.
And so what we get is a lot of confusion
around what you can do legally.
I mean, there are a thousand ways to go to prison
for the things you have on your firearm, right?
And it changes state to state.
I don't know how to begin to untangle that mess, um,
and so I wanted to see if I could design a gun
that's simple enough, that avoids all of that.
With the process so simple, at what point of that process
can you attach regulation?
How can you possibly make that process illegal?
- What was the purpose of an exercise like this?
You know, building weapons out of things you can buy
after security at an airport?
- At the time, airport security was
sort of trending towards more invasive
and ultimately less effective techniques for screening.
And if it's not effective,
I thought the most effective way to show that to people
was a practical demonstration.
So I reached out to the TSA, initially,
and told them that, you know,
"I believe that I could build weapons
out of things that are for sale at the airport.
And I'll build them at home,
and let you guys know what I come up with."
I basically said, "Look, you know, after 30 days,
I'm going to publish my findings.
Take this time to make any changes that you'd like to make
before this information becomes available."
Didn't really hear back,
and after the amount of time, I just published the findings,
and this way that, you know, if there are vulnerabilities
people can make an informed decision
as to whether or not they want to participate in that.
If you're confronted with the fact
that things in airports can be used
to build weapons that are dangerous, right,
then it's hard for you to
go along with the way things are currently being done
without some serious cognitive dissonance.
- I, too, am very skeptical of the efficacy
of the security theater we see, especially at airports.
But I think, by and large,
people deal with that frustration
by accepting that it probably makes them a little safer.
What's your message to folks who have that belief?
- Hmm.
For me, what I enjoy doing is
pointing out the absurdity in policy, in regulation,
and using that as a tool for people
to ask questions about it,
to, um, to cast doubt.
There was a internal investigation
and I think they failed 94% or 96% of the time
someone tried to smuggle something in.
I think the TSA would probably do well to stop existing.
I think if you allowed an organization to continue
with that sort of failure rate, then I mean,
you're not heading anywhere good.
What do I hope people take away from this:
I think it depends greatly on
your overall position on guns.
If you don't like them,
then you're going to be probably frustrated.
With the realization that
guns can be made quickly and simply,
I think it's a firmware update for people.
The more knowledge they have about, like, what's true,
what's actually demonstrably true, can only benefit them.
And I hope this demonstration around guns
is going to do the same, or have the same effect
around people who write these laws
and propose this legislation,
and to better understand what solutions will actually work.
That make sense?
- That makes a lot of sense.
- That makes a little sense. You're being generous.
This one is made from MDF,
um, that I got out of a little, touristy sign.
I think it said, "I must be a mermaid,
‘cause I want to get my tail to the beach," or something.
Cringe on wood— Is there a genre for that?
I don't know.