A spring-gun is a gun

Gun

A gun is a muzzle or breech-loaded projectile-firing weapon. There are various definitions depending on the nation and branch of service. A "gun" may be distinguished from other firearms in being a crew-served weapon such as a howitzer or mortar, as opposed to a small arm like a rifle or pistol,...

, often a shotgun

Shotgun

A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

, rigged to fire when a string or other triggering device is tripped by contact of sufficient force to "spring" the trigger so that anyone stumbling over or treading on them would discharge it and wound themselves.

Uses

Spring-guns were formerly used as booby trap

Booby trap

A booby trap is a device designed to harm or surprise a person, unknowingly triggered by the presence or actions of the victim. As the word trap implies, they often have some form of bait designed to lure the victim towards it. However, in other cases the device is placed on busy roads or is...

s against poachers

Poaching

Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...

 and trespasser

Trespasser

In the law of tort, property, and criminal law a trespasser is a person who commits the act of trespassing on a property, that is, without the permission of the owner. Being present on land as a trespasser thereto creates liability in the trespasser, so long as the trespass is intentional...

s. Since 1827, spring-guns and all man-traps are illegal in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Spring-guns are sometimes used to trap animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

s.

Although there have been few reported cases, there have been several unconfirmed cases over the 20th century. The obvious implication is that spring-guns are still in use today, especially in circumstances where property of high value is in a remote location that makes other forms of securing it unreasonably difficult to effect.

Spring-guns are often used to protect premises from trespassers. For this purpose, spring-guns are often placed in busy corridors such as near doors. A trespasser opening the door completely would then be shot. Residents which are aware of the trap use a different door or open the door halfway and disconnect the tripwire. To reduce fatalities by using this trap, non-lethal calibers are often used, or the spring gun is fitted to fire less lethal ammunition.

For example in the United States, most spring-guns are loaded with non-lethal caliber

Caliber

In guns including firearms, caliber or calibre is the approximate internal diameter of the barrel in relation to the diameter of the projectile used in it....

 or shot to avoid liability

Legal liability

Legal liability is the legal bound obligation to pay debts.* In law a person is said to be legally liable when they are financially and legally responsible for something. Legal liability concerns both civil law and criminal law. See Strict liability. Under English law, with the passing of the Theft...

 arising from the use of deadly force

Deadly force

Deadly force, as defined by the United States Armed Forces, is the force which a person uses, causing—or that a person knows, or should know, would create a substantial risk of causing—death or serious bodily harm...

 in protection of a property interest. Posting clear and unmistakable warning signs as well as making entry to spring-gun guarded premises difficult for innocent persons, such as high wall

Wall

A wall is a usually solid structure that defines and sometimes protects an area. Most commonly, a wall delineates a building and supports its superstructure, separates space in buildings into rooms, or protects or delineates a space in the open air...

s, fence

Fence

A fence is a freestanding structure designed to restrict or prevent movement across a boundary. It is generally distinguished from a wall by the lightness of its construction: a wall is usually restricted to such barriers made from solid brick or concrete, blocking vision as well as passage .Fences...

s and natural obstacles, are significant ways to reduce potential tort

Tort

A tort, in common law jurisdictions, is a wrong that involves a breach of a civil duty owed to someone else. It is differentiated from a crime, which involves a breach of a duty owed to society in general...

 liability arising from the spring-gun's wounding of a careless or criminal intruder. Important US lawsuit

Lawsuit

A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

s regarding trespassers wounded by spring-guns include Katko v. Briney

Katko v. Briney

Katko v. Briney, 183 N.W.2d 657 , was a famous tort case decided by the Supreme Court of Iowa, in which a homeowner was held liable for battery for injuries caused to a trespasser who set off a spring gun set as a mantrap in an abandoned house on the homeowner's property.Case Brief: Briney...

. Bird v. Holbrook is an 1825 English case also of great relevance, where a spring-gun set to protect a tulip garden injured a trespasser who was recovering a stray bird http://home.uchicago.edu/~rmcnary/briefs/torts/Bird/. The man who set the spring-gun was liable for the damage caused.

A historic use of a spring-gun occurred during the night of June 3 or early morning of June 4, 1775 when a spring-gun set by the British to protect the military stores in the Magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia wounded two young men who had broken in. The subsequent outrage by the local population proved to be the final act of the Gunpowder Incident, leading Governor Dunmore to flee the city to a British warship and declare the Commonwealth of Virginia in a state of rebellion.

Alternatives

Alternative traps are mines such as the crowd control munition, gas mine or the directional mine, such as the SM-70

SM-70

The SM-70 was an East German directional antipersonnel mine developed specifically to combat "Republikflucht" across the Inner German Border into West Germany.-Design:...

, which was used on the inner German border to prevent Republikflucht

Republikflucht

"Republikflucht" and "Republikflüchtling" were the terms used by authorities in the German Democratic Republic to describe the process of and the person leaving the GDR for a life in West Germany or any other Western country .The term...

. Crowd control munition and gas mines can be less lethal, while concussion mines are meant to kill. The latter are thus only used in military perimeter defenses.

In popular culture

Spring guns have appeared in works of fiction such as the video games Max Payne

Max Payne

Max Payne is a BAFTA Award–winning third-person shooter video game developed by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment and published by Gathering of Developers in July 2001 for Microsoft Windows. Ports created later in the year for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and the GameBoy Advance were published by...

, Police Quest II

Police Quest II: The Vengeance

Police Quest II: The Vengeance is an adventure game produced by Jim Walls for Sierra On-Line, and released in 1988. It is the sequel to Police Quest: In Pursuit of the Death Angel and is part of the Police Quest series.- Gameplay :...

, Metro 2033, Fallout 3

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...

 and the film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 Saw

Saw (film)

Saw is a 2004 American independent horror film directed by James Wan. The screenplay, written by Leigh Whannell, is based on a story by Wan and Whannell. The film stars Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Monica Potter, Michael Emerson, Ken Leung, Whannell and Tobin Bell...

.