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I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

motherjones.com

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Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#101

Post by minamea »

Taylorious wrote: post #88
minamea wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? How is this not a disgrace? This article means that practically anyone anywhere in the US can have an AK-47 with no licensing. How is that supposed to make me feel safe? What if I sneak into my GF's house and her dad tries me right then and there, and decides that the punishment for fucking his daughter is death. Oh, and what do you know? He has an AK-47 for it so all my hopes of running away are dashed. People…

"People shouldn't have the power to kill other people so easily - not unless they're the police or army." And why should some some 18yo kid in the army have that right but not a middle aged adult? Because some other army guy yelled at him for a few weeks and gave him a uniform? You mention a father could go crazy and kill you for sneaking in to screw his daughter, but what if you were a rapist sneaking in to rape his…

What, aside from the obvious reason? Someone in the military follows orders and serves the nation while someone with a gun will probably do whatever he/she feels with it and nothing actually useful. How is that?

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#102

Post by unimpressive »

minamea wrote: post #98
unimpressive wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should know that, unless you have a 24/7 guard watch (and maybe not even then), if someone truly wants to kill you, there's nothing stopping them. I mean, courts will try them afterwards, but that's no consolation to your corpse. Yes I am aware that the parents example would probably fall under "crimes of passion". The man would still want him dead for more than long enough to make it reality.

Wow! Why have any protection against getting killed at all?! Let's just let everyone murder everyone else at will and then we'll try them afterwards! After all we can't stop them if we wanted to. Great logic!

You thought I was talking about guns there? Oh no, that was general life advice, for your safety.

The idea that you can go around getting people so angry that they want to kill you more than a few times without ill effect is silly.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#103

Post by mikeash »

Cushman wrote: post #87
mikeash wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had no clue that it was legal to build an AK-47 from a kit. I doubt I'm alone.

Sure, but you don't know about that because you're not interested in guns. Like, how many people know you can legally build and fly an RC drone from a kit? Or that you can legally build and drive a car from a kit? There are enthusiasts, and there's everyone else. The things you don't know may be interesting to you, but that doesn't make them news. But, sure, you could see a piece in Vanity Fair about my trip across t…

Are you proposing that "news" should only count if it's something that a person who already follows the field closely wouldn't know? Is "news" only current events, and not reporting on old facts that are not well known?

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#104

Post by [deleted] »

asynchronous13 wrote: post #23
jstalin wrote: post #6

Considering that rifles are used to kill fewer people in the United States than knives, fists, hammers, or bats, Mother Jones' attempt at scaring people about those who build their own guns rings a little hallow. But I get it, AK-47s look scary and so we should all be outraged. https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/...

Here's a summary of the 2011 data from the linked statistics: 8,583 - Homicides by firearms (all types) 323 - Homicides by rifles 1,694 - Homicides by sharp objects (knives, etc) 496 - Homicides by blunt objects (clubs, etc)

[deleted]

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#105

Post by angersock »

Cushman wrote: post #62
knowtheory wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people on Hacker News (or hell, in the US in general) do you think have built a rifle from a kit? How many of them do you think understand what a receiver is, or what the difference is between an automatic and semi-automatic? If you genuinely think this is information that more people should not know then say so explicitly. There is a debate about guns going on in the US, whether you like it or not. The ques…

> How many people on Hacker News (or hell, in the US in general) do you think have built a rifle from a kit? Order... hundreds of thousands? Millions, maybe? It depends how you define a kit, I guess. It's quite common to put together uppers and lowers and barrels and triggers et cetera when building a rifle, and I imagine most of those who do so understand the rules that govern it. Frankly building an AK from parts i…

Statistics from 2008-2009:

http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publicat...

Basically, ...and the estimated total child population:

http://www.childstats.gov/americaschildren/tables/pop1.asp

Around 74 million at that time.

So, this is whitenoise from population standpoint; .004% of the population of kids.

I'm not going to suggest giving up access to pistols for the nation because of statistical outliers.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#106

Post by bcl »

Note that it is not legal to transfer a receiver built like this to anyone else. You cannot sell or give it away, it is yours forever. You are still subject to your local laws, and cannot built a fully automatic weapon.

You can also do this with AR-15 receivers, there used to be a couple of places that would sell you an 80% aluminum casting and you would finish the machining yourself.

If you don't want to go to the trouble you can always buy a stripped lower receiver from a dealer (this is the part that carries the serial # and is considered the gun by the BATFE) and assemble the rest yourself. I wrote an article on this back in 2000 - http://www.brianlane.com/build-an-ar-15-rifle.html

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#107

Post by angersock »

minamea wrote: post #94
angersock wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if your girlfriend's dad decided to run you down in his car--again, running away is dashed. Hopefully she can find a mate who has more spine and isn't cowed so easily by the thought of other humans with possession of means of force. Seriously, you can either live your life afraid of every damn thing, or accept that while there are dangerous devices out there the odds of ending up on the wrong side of one can be…

I'd like to see your brave Kratos face with an AK-47 in your face. Every point you make is wrong: I'd have a decent chance of getting away from a car, I wouldn't from an AK-47. A car has other legitimate uses. Guns outside of the police and hunting, don't imo. I wouldn't say being afraid of firearms counts me as having no spine and afraid of "anything". I just think you're kinda full of crap and would cry the most if…

You ever shot at something outside of a video game? Especially with an old semi-auto assault rifle? While it's running away from you? It's hardly a decided matter--try skeet shooting sometime.

Are you afraid of cars? Of lathes or mills? One misstep with those and you're going to lose a digit, more likely than not.

Weapons are tools, and you can't go through life being afraid of tools. You respect them, you treat them carefully, but you shouldn't be afraid of them.

Why is the idea of someone else being able to kill people at will so distressing to you? It shouldn't be an issue, right, if you haven't put yourself in a position to deserve it--after all, that's the position you're wishing on those who would go against the military or police.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#108

Post by minamea »

unimpressive wrote: post #102
minamea wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! Why have any protection against getting killed at all?! Let's just let everyone murder everyone else at will and then we'll try them afterwards! After all we can't stop them if we wanted to. Great logic!

You thought I was talking about guns there? Oh no, that was general life advice, for your safety. The idea that you can go around getting people so angry that they want to kill you more than a few times without ill effect is silly.

The idea that someone can kill me because I got them angry is sillier. There are the police and courts and the like.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#109

Post by ianstallings »

glurgh wrote: post #67
presidentender wrote: post #3

This has been legal for a very long time, and is the cause of approximately no violence. Much as with the discussion of 3d printed firearms, it's not so much that the behaviors of gun owners and gun builders has changed as it is that the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The author refrains from espousing an opinion in the piece, but only just, and frankly I disagree with him. The…

the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The prevailing argument of gun advocates, at least in the US, is that "it's not our guns. it's those other, bad people's guns". It would probably help their case if they stopped arguing that owning a potentially deadly piece of gear is some universal human right not subject to regulation like, say, owning a car. Most car owners cause approxima…

Some of us believe that we shouldn't need to convince you of anything. There is no such thing as "pre-crime". I have the liberty to do as I please as a human being on this planet so long as it doesn't hurt you. Simply claiming that I might hurt you or someone else might hurt you with a rifle is dubious logic at best.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#110

Post by angersock »

unimpressive wrote: post #102
minamea wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow! Why have any protection against getting killed at all?! Let's just let everyone murder everyone else at will and then we'll try them afterwards! After all we can't stop them if we wanted to. Great logic!

You thought I was talking about guns there? Oh no, that was general life advice, for your safety. The idea that you can go around getting people so angry that they want to kill you more than a few times without ill effect is silly.

There's no helping this one...they seem hell-bent on their own impotence and likelihood of destruction.
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