This was given to me by a friend today, who had visited a recent Mardi Gras parade. His girlfriend found it while randomly scavenging around.
It originally had a red rubber band on it, but that ended up cut and lost, hence the regular rubber band to keep it closed. Thankfully it was never used though.
Well my dad works at Nintendo.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US4926834A/en
I still posess the prototype, the bows are made from repurposed leaf springs from an old Volkswagen Beetle.
Here’s a folding crossbow from the 1930s.
https://share.google/kkAVf3d3f3zo4Q0x7
I don’t feel like searching, but I’m pretty sure there are examples going back to ancient China. Just because your dad submitted a patent for something doesn’t mean he invented it.