Is This a Firearm?

[James N]

Or is it a piece of field gear? Regardless, this flare gun or Leuchtpistole 42 is a late-war example and something of an "ugly duckling", especially when compared with earlier ones. It has metal-stamping parts and molded infused wood grips, but I'm sure as for performance it's perfectly adequate. The only markings are the code wa for the manufacturer and serial number on the frame, plus the Waffenamt stamp with partial number 10.

[Sarge]

Nope, it's just a flare pistol - at least in most of the USA. There may well be some socialist/communist oriented cities/states in the US that would consider it a firearm though.
Sarge

[MAP]

As far as I know, even in the communist state of NY, these are still perfectly legal

[Walkwolf]

I believe the grips are Bakelite.........

[Adrian Stevenson]

Nice LP42.

A workman like item, but they do the job fine.

Cheers, Ade.

[James N]

Nope, it's just a flare pistol - at least in most of the USA. There may well be some socialist/communist oriented cities/states in the US that would consider it a firearm though.
Sarge

Maybe so, Sarge, but I was actually kidding. Since Leuchtpistoles are included with all other kinds of pistol in books like Guns of the Reich and Firearms of Germany I had no real reservation about posting mine here.

[James N]

I believe the grips are Bakelite.........

Though they resemble Bakelite in appearance, my understanding is that they're molded from a different compound that includes wood pulp as a base. They're probably similar to the kind of material used in the manufacture of Nineteenth Century photographic cases for Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes of the Civil War era. Often mis-identified as gutta percha, a rubberlike substance, they're correctly called thermoplastic cases and molded from a plant- or wood-based mixture.