If not, can this be made cheap?

Also, how much can this be scaled up?

I'm not advocating causing people to suffer, but I think that government redistribution of wealth to artists is both morally corrupt and self-defeating.

http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html Anywhere between 800,000 and 2.5 million defensive gun uses per year, with the lower end being a gun-control supporting DoJ. Smoke it ;)