These were available for general sale when I was considerably younger. They were even advertised in the back pages of comic books.

Since they were for sale during my lifetime, I must note that I am deeply offended by being referred to, even at second hand, as an "antique."

I believe that these pen guns were supposed to be used only with tear-gas cartridges. However, I know that people did use them to fire bullets.
I probably would not do that, were I to come across one of these devices.

Some of these pen guns have trigger buttons, and in some cases the trigger button is actuated by the thing's pocket clip. Some fire only by pulling back, and then releasing, the cocking knob. The little "side track" off to the right of the cocking knob is the safety notch, such as it is.

Ran into these a couple of times during law enforcement days in the 60's. It is a tear gas pen which fired a small .22 cal. tear gas ctg. It didn't take the bad folks too long to figure out how to use them with regular .22's. They also did the same with pot metal .22 cal. "Starter" pistols designed to fire blanks. They would just drill out the barrel obstruction and use regular .22 shorts. Although not recommended, these were a deadly combination at close range and got anyone in possession of either a quick trip and long stay in the slammer.

Had a neighbor in NYC (cop type) that had one in 38 special.
It was his final back up.

Brutal to shoot.

AFS

That's pretty cool. It looks like that one was used quite a bit.

Originally Posted by kg333

Found these images on another site today, and thought it was pretty neat. Apparently the guy who found it thought it was some kind of weird pen and nearly shot himself in the groin with it. To be fair, I consider myself pretty gun-saavy and probably wouldn't have guessed, either.

KG

Photo Album - Imgur

Does anyone have an ideal of the valve?

Also who made it

i have seen about 25 different makers of these including colt, faultless, altas, sterile, willison.... these were sold for $3.50 to $8.00

they fall under the AOW classification of the NFA as gadget gun or a pen gun. they require the tax stamp and registration.

Is anyone still making the tear gas ammo for the 38special.l

since the pen guns have been restricted and off the market since 1968 i am gonna guess and say .... NOPE!