An attendee stands for a photograph while operating a Boring Co. flamethrower during the company's Not-a-Flamethrower Party outside of the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) headquarters in Hawthorne, California, U.S., on Saturday, June 9, 2018.

The New York State Senate passed a bill earlier this month that would make the possession of a flamethrower for recreational activities a felony, with an eye toward outlawing the one made by Elon Musk's Boring Co.

Musk's company sold all 20,000 units of its $500 flamethrowers in less than a week last year, drawing the ire of lawmakers in New York and elsewhere.

"Elon Musk's Boring Company released a new flamethrower which sold out of all 20,000 within days, without any concern to the training of the purchasers or their reasons for buying. Allowing the general public to access this type of machine is extremely problematic," New York lawmakers said in justifying the legislation. "These dangerous devices should not be sold to civilians, and use needs to be restricted to trained professionals."

CEO Musk, who also runs electric car company Tesla, said the Boring Company renamed it "not-a-flamethrower" to avoid regulatory rules that prohibit the transport of anything called a flamethrower.

Musk Tweet

The Boring Company did not respond to requests for comment. The bill would make possessing a flamethrower a Class E felony, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Sponsored by Democratic state Sens. John Brooks and David Carlucci, the bill passed the Senate 48-13 on June 11. It defines a flamethrower as "a device capable of projecting burning fuel a distance of at least three feet." The bill hasn't come up for a vote in the Assembly yet.

It was first introduced last year after the Nassau County Fire Commission reached out to Brooks, said Michael Reid, Brooks' chief of staff. Reid said the "not a flamethrower" was also concerning to emergency medical personnel.

"They were concerned that people were essentially having something that looks like a toy, is being billed as something fun to use, and there was all different stuff coming up on social media showing people really using the device as intended, which is to have fun," Reid said. "Unfortunately, firing out a burst of flame for a number of feet can have some really horrific, unintended consequences."

In the terms and conditions customers had to agree to before purchasing, Boring included a poem that read: "I will not use this in an unsafe way The best use is creme brulee."