What Is the Palm Pistol?
The Palm Pistol is a single-shot handgun that was designed for people with medical conditions -- such as arthritis -- that can affect manual dexterity and hand strength.
The ergonomic Palm Pistol fits in the palm of your hand with its barrel sticking out through your fingers. With the Palm Pistol, you push a button to fire the gun rather than pull a trigger.
Is the Palm Pistol Currently Available?
No -- there are currently no Palm Pistols available. They are expected to be ready for purchase around 2010. Until then, Constitution Arms (the maker of the Palm Pistol) is in pre-production and planning a "limited initial production run." The retail cost of the Palm Pistol is expected to be $300.
A Palm Pistol can be reserved by making a credit card deposit of $25. Sales of this special handgun are being restricted to U.S. citizens who are residing in the U.S.
Is the Palm Pistol a Medical Device?
Constitution Arms registered with the FDA as a medical device facility and listed the Palm Pistol as a "recreational adaptor." But, as it turns out, "registering" was not the same as the FDA granting approval of the facility or the product as a medical device.
Initial reports said the FDA had approved the Palm Pistol as a medical device -- but those reports were inaccurate. The FDA revoked the registration and issued a final determination that the Palm Pistol was not a medical device.
What Is a Medical Device?
According to the FDA, a medical device is "an instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance, implant, in vitro reagent, or other similar or related article, including a component part, or accessory which is recognized in the official National Formulary, or the United States Pharmacopoeia, or any supplement to them, intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals, or intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals, and which does not achieve any of its primary intended purposes through chemical action within or on the body of man or other animals and which is not dependent upon being metabolized for the achievement of any of its primary intended purposes."
Some who fought for the Palm Pistol to be classified as a medical device believed the elderly and disabled would enhance their safety by owning one. The FDA concluded though that the Palm Pistol was not a medical device, and insurance such as Medicare would not cover the item. The FDA stated that there has never been a category under Medicare for "weaponry." If you want a Palm Pistol, plan on covering the entire cost yourself.
Source:
What Is the Palm Pistol? PalmPistol.com. Accessed December 16, 2008.
http://www.palmpistol.com/
