JERSEY CITY -- A Manhattan man is urging Liberty Science Center to remove from its gift shop a book that gives step-by-step instructions on how kids can build weapons modeled after real guns.

Michael C. Alcamo, who saw the book during a recent visit to the Jersey City science museum, said tragedy can ensue from teaching kids how to make toy guns, but the museum is refusing to take the book off its shelves, with officials there calling it a "quirky, hands-on" way for kids to learn more about science.

The 256-page book, Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2: Build a Secret Agent Arsenal, published in 2011, is filled with illustrated instructions on how to make a "semi auto dice launcher" made out of a box for playing cards, a catapult to fling breath mints and a blowgun for cotton swabs or toothpicks.

It also includes details on how to use markers to build faux magnums and Berettas that shoot hard candies.

"We shouldn't be teaching children that it's easy to make a realistic-looking Beretta out of things you can find around the house," Alcamo told The Jersey Journal. "That's a way to guarantee a tragedy."

Alcamo is a gun-control advocate. After the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, he became a vocal supporter of tightening the loopholes for unregulated gun sales at gun shows in New York.

He noted the case of 12-year-old Cleveland boy Tamir Rice, who was playing with a replica gun that officers say they believed was real before one shot and killed him in November.

Museum officials say Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction 2 is part of the "maker movement" of do-it-yourself hobbyists. LSC spokeswoman Mary Meluso said its contents are "innocuous" and designed to teach adults and children about science. It's "totally consistent" with the mission of science centers across the globe, Meluso said.

"If a parent doesn't want her child to build a periscope from a toothpaste box or a tongue-depressor catapult that launches mini-marshmallows or a so-called Candy Glock from a balloon, a playing card, and a plastic soda bottle, he doesn't have to buy the book," she said.

The book is part of a series by John Austin, a former toy designer. Austin's other books include Prank University: the Ultimate Guide to College's Greatest Tradition and So Now You're a Zombie: a Handbook for the Newly Undead.

Austin told The Jersey Journal he finds Alcamo's arguments "very subjective and flimsy," and noted that the book comes with a two-page warning urging kids to be safe.

"Even when built, the 'Binder Beretta 92' looks nothing like a real gun or even a toy gun," he said. "A gentleman who is an advocate for stricter gun control is also flirting with being labeled an advocate for stricter literature control. Where does it stop?"

Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.