IJ...when I was a kid, I had some friends from the "city" (it had 25,000 people...not exactly Chicago) show me how to make zip guns from clothes pins. That's what we called them anyway, apparently not the right name. You just took those old wooden spring loaded clothespins apart & inverted them somehow & then used the spring as the launching device on the wood. You loaded an old self-striking farmers match & it would shoot a flaming missle 25'. I can see where this device would've led to problems also.

Certainly no recoil considerations though.