Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

201–210 of 344 posts

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#201

Post by pjkundert »

barnaclejive wrote: post #191
pjkundert wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a large overlap between any serious engineering discipline and firearms enthusiasts. The engineering and physics involved in building/tuning guns and shooting accurately is very interesting. Furthermore, the "renegade" spirit required to reject the status-quo and push the envelope in science and engineering attracts quite a few of the same types of people. Finally, the idea of "banning" guns -- which every b…

That is an interesting anecdote. Here is another - No engineers I've worked with cared about guns at all.

Unfortunately, most of your “conservative” coworkers have also learned to keep their non-woke beliefs to themselves, lest they lose their job.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#202

Post by HideousKojima »

moate wrote: post #138
linksnapzz wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last person to successfully invade Switzerland was... Napoleon? Likewise, while it may not be to your taste, Afghanistan's polity has spent the last 200 years stubbornly being Afghan, to the surprise and annoyance of the British, Russians, Americans, etc.

Point of order on both nations: They also have protective geography that helps a great deal. The Afghani culture and being very well armed does contribute though, but IDK that we can say it's the sole reason. Switzerland has been a neutral state during the entirety of modern aerial warfare era, so I'm going to put that less on the guns and more on the "why would I want to attack Switzerland?" attitude of the last ~10…

Belgium was neutral in WW1 but that didn't stop the Germans from invading it im order to try and circle around the French frontline. Switzerland being a mountainous hellhole (from a military perspective) is probably a big part of why, but it's also perfect terrain for an armed insurgency.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#203

Post by thom_nic »

goatinaboat wrote: post #47
Spooky23 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue it's still a little high, most of these companies are on the wane. Guns in the US are near saturation from a market perspective and regulatory changes will eventually kick the floor out. Time to cash out... It's like when Phillip Morris bought Kraft and General Foods in the 80s to spin them off later when tobacco regulation came.

Guns in the US are near saturation from a market perspective The statistics show record gun sales. More and more Americans are becoming firearms owners for the first time, and existing owners are expanding their collections.

From my anecdotal observation this is true. Gun sales are also growing among demographics not typically associated with gun ownership (non-white, non-conservative.)

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#204

Post by chordalkeyboard »

jbob2000 wrote: post #128
lutoma wrote: post #102

Honest question: How is this relevant to Hacker News? As a non-American i was rather bewildered to find this here. Is there a serious overlap between gun enthusiasts and the IT community in the US?

I’m so torn on guns. If you had asked me about them when I was younger, I would tell you that I don’t think they have a place in society and that we should ban them. But as I’ve aged, I see class structures and the power of the elites much more clearly. I see how systems can be more violent than people. And that individuals do not have a lot of power these days because society is filled with so many systems. Owning a…

> Owning a gun returns some power to the individual. I don’t want my power for defense given to the police, I want to control that power. I don’t care if the situations I want it for will never happen, I want the comfort of having that power.

This, exactly. But also:

> we should ban them.

That “we” does a lot of heavy lifting to obscure that fact that the prohibition of guns consists of people with guns telling other people when they may and may not have guns.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#205

Post by philwelch »

kec wrote: post #187
philwelch wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glock is a fairly obvious one.

The Glock 17 was introduced 39 years ago, not quite 50 years but still. It's also worth pointing out that while the manufacturing techniques used by Glock were new the actual design is essentially identical to the browning hi-power.

Materials are an incredibly significant element of design. Some of the most significant innovations of the AR-15 were in terms of materials. The Hi-Power also uses a single-action hammer rather than a striker, so I'm not sure how the striker-fired Glock is "essentially identical" to it.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#206

Post by pauke »

emteycz wrote: post #151
notahacker wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But they're not "meaningless", because the average person in Europe and Australia has no interest in owning a gun, never mind figuring out how to print one, and even the average hardened criminal has to consider the possibility that since it isn't necessary for them to preemptively shoot anybody who challenges them, possessing guns might not be worth the risk of additional penalties. Those are much bigger factors in…

Every tenth adult in Czechia carries a gun. Last time I checked, Czechia was safer than UK.

Nope on the first part. 8M adults, 300k gun permits. And that's including almost 100k active police/military. As for the latter part, maybe, but there is way more guns in US than in CZ. And last time I checked.. Let's say I don't think there is any correlation between the two statements.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#207

Post by chordalkeyboard »

kec wrote: post #187
philwelch wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Glock is a fairly obvious one.

The Glock 17 was introduced 39 years ago, not quite 50 years but still. It's also worth pointing out that while the manufacturing techniques used by Glock were new the actual design is essentially identical to the browning hi-power.

> essentially identical to the browning hi-power.

BHP is hammer-fired, Glock safe-action is striker-fired.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#208

Post by ggreer »

barnaclejive wrote: post #191
pjkundert wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a large overlap between any serious engineering discipline and firearms enthusiasts. The engineering and physics involved in building/tuning guns and shooting accurately is very interesting. Furthermore, the "renegade" spirit required to reject the status-quo and push the envelope in science and engineering attracts quite a few of the same types of people. Finally, the idea of "banning" guns -- which every b…

That is an interesting anecdote. Here is another - No engineers I've worked with cared about guns at all.

Are you sure? Most gun enthusiasts at tech companies are in the closet. Had I known just how much my bosses hate guns (all the way up to the CEO), I would have kept my mouth shut about my hobby.

It would be an amazing coincidence if none of your coworkers were interested in guns. Around 30% of Californians have at least one gun in their home. Naively extrapolating: that means if you have 15 coworkers, there is a 99.5% chance that at least one of them owns a gun. Even if only 10% of bay area techies have guns, the odds that at least one of your coworkers has a gun is still over 80%.

When my hobby became publicly known at work, I suddenly discovered I had quite a few coworkers who liked guns. They were quiet about it at work because they were afraid (rightfully) of hurting their careers.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#209

Post by emteycz »

pauke wrote: post #206
emteycz wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every tenth adult in Czechia carries a gun. Last time I checked, Czechia was safer than UK.

Nope on the first part. 8M adults, 300k gun permits. And that's including almost 100k active police/military. As for the latter part, maybe, but there is way more guns in US than in CZ. And last time I checked.. Let's say I don't think there is any correlation between the two statements.

You're right about the stats, the news article I was referring to was wrong. It's not including police/military service permits though, the 300k is purely private permits (which can have overlap with police/military - they can't use guns for private purposes without a private permit); and there are 900k private guns.

Re: Czech gunmaker CZG buys Colt in cash and stock deal

#210

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #174
da_big_ghey wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Population continues to grow, and there are many Americans who don't own guns who represent a big market. Many have purchased their first in the past year. And yes, lots of people like collecting a shooting a wide variety of guns. Most of then do it for reasons other than or in addition to prepping. The new firearms market is not going to die; the idea that it will is fudd nonsense.

The point is that manufacturers aren't really producing a wide variety of guns. I wouldn't be surprised if 3/4 of new guns in the country are black polymer-and-aluminum AR-15s or black polymer-framed tilting-barrel striker fired pistols.

There's a reason the tilting barrel polymer fired pistol is basically universal.
Post reply on HN