Because of their ease of construction and requiring no tools or expenses, knowledge of how to make zip guns quickly spread from street gang to street gang culminating in fairly standardized designs being adopted. Due to bullets tumbling due to lack of rifling, injuries inflicted can potentially be worse. Such weapons, while being extremely crude are just as capable as inflicting a lethal injury upon a close target as a conventional pistol. From then on it is a simple matter of fabricating a means of striking the rear of the cartridge while ensuring the entire assembly is held firmly together. 22 rimfire, find that such rounds will fit into a section of suitably sized steel tubing, often a section of the salvaged car radio antenna. A mechanically inclined youngster might upon obtaining ammunition, most often widely available.
Closely associated with ‘juvenile delinquency’ of the 1950s, ‘zip guns’ were often fabricated by youngsters who could not afford to purchase or were forbidden from owning the genuine article.