I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by dfc » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:05 PM UTC

oijaf888 wrote: post #136

pragone wrote: post #43

One more reason why guns laws won't do anything without more information on what exactly they hope to achieve by passing them. I personally enjoy living in a city that bans knives and guns. I find it comforting to know that it's not likely for someone I pass to have a gun. I also can't go a single day without passing a dozen cops. However, there is plenty of data telling us there isn't enough data to make arguments o…

If you live in NYC only blades greater than 4" are banned in public places unless being transported for a legal purpose. Otherwise all knives seem to be legal to possess.

This is not true. The NYC DA has made a fuss over gravity assisted knives:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/suit_sticks_it_to_manhatt...

I also think there is a restriction that pertains to open carry versus concealed (even if concealed means a spyderco clipit hanging inside your pocket).

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

#152

Post by sjtgraham » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:07 PM UTC

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…

Do you need a license or insurance to own a vehicle? Likewise do you need those to operate a vehicle on private property for private i.e. non-commercial purposes?

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

#153

Post by stevewillows » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:09 PM UTC

hga wrote: post #142

glurgh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Your whole premise is false: keeping and bearing arms is much safer than driving cars. I can go into details as to why I believe that's the case, but to start with, whenever I walk outside the door I put my carry gun into a holster, and then never take it out until I return home. So it's just sitting there on my hip under my shirt or vest, not much of a danger to anyone as long as I keep it away from an MRI machine's…

While your stats are true, people typically aren't aiming their car at someone.

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

#154

Post by hga » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:10 PM UTC

jacalata wrote: post #114

hysterix wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, where to begin with biased posts like these? >A lot of people interested in gun culture have severe inefficiencies in their cognitive abilities. First off you start off insulting a large group of people, painting broad strokes of assumption. You've already lost the majority of all your credibility (what little you had that is) at this point. >gun culture represents a small and decreasing minority of Americans Th…

The absolute number of guns may well be higher, but the percentage of Americans who own one is presumably far below what it was during colonial times, for instance. It is quite possible that the number of guns is rising but either a) new gun owners are not increasing as fast as the number of people or b) the number of gun owners is not increasing at all but existing owners are collecting more per capita than they use…

Errr, we're wealthier, manufactured items are a lot cheaper, and it's a lot easier to keep a gun in working condition now that we're using smokeless powder and non-corrosive primers. Crime's a lot higher, I gather, so city folk have a greater need to be armed.

I don't have figures, and most of academia was delighted to celebrate a fraud who claimed very very few owned guns in colonial times (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arming_America) so data is probably hard to come by, but I wouldn't presume that at all.

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

#155

Post by glurgh » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:12 PM UTC

hga wrote: post #142

glurgh wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Your whole premise is false: keeping and bearing arms is much safer than driving cars. I can go into details as to why I believe that's the case, but to start with, whenever I walk outside the door I put my carry gun into a holster, and then never take it out until I return home. So it's just sitting there on my hip under my shirt or vest, not much of a danger to anyone as long as I keep it away from an MRI machine's…

I think you might be arguing against something that I didn't actually say.

The operative words in "concealed carry license" and "hunting license" is "license", which was exactly my point.

The number of printing press deaths in the US, and likely worldwide is probably quite small.

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

#156

Post by leot » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:14 PM UTC

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…

Do guns absolutely need to be lethal? If so, why? Would you (assuming you own a gun) forego all your lethal guns if someone gave you one with comparable stopping power, but which was much less lethal?

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

#157

Post by hga » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:16 PM UTC

garbowza wrote: post #85

djahng wrote: post #66

Please excuse my ignorance on this matter, but why are people so concerned about "untraceable" guns (i.e. guns without serial numbers)? IF a gun is used in a crime, how important is it that there's a serial number stamped on the receiver? As opposed to, say, ballistics showing that a particular gun was used in a crime because of the rifling marks found on the bullet fragments and the firing pin indentation on the she…

Because they can side-step background checks and be resold to anyone.

Background checks examine the person, not the gun!

You may not know this if you've never bought a gun at a gun store, but they call in your identifying information, they say nothing to the Federal government about the gun or guns to be bought except if they include handguns as I recall.

There are forms to be filled out that do include recording the serial number, but that came long before the national background check system (1968 vs. mid-90s).

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

#158

Post by angersock » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:17 PM UTC

cstross wrote: post #117

angersock wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"All drivers need a license and insurance." One wonders, why? At least in the case of licenses and insurance, we see folks all the time (anecdotally illegal aliens doing work, though I'm curious how well statistics actually back that supposition up) drive with neither, usually to no ill effect. Insurance usually doesn't seem to help very much in the case of a totaled car, and mostly just seems to be a captive market…

The point about insurance isn't so that the driver gets a new car if they wreck it -- it's so that if they kill or injure, or damage the property of, someone else then that someone else is covered. Driving licenses are "a seal of approval of your driving prowess" in many countries other than the United States; American drivers frequently can't drive for shit. (Sorry, but I live in the UK, with approximately half the…

"...and requiring those who do to carry third-party insurance in case an accidental discharge ends up injuring someone is an absolute minimum."

The thing here is that accidental discharges don't happen if you properly maintain your weapons and ammunition, and if you handle them properly.

As an example, I wouldn't store any weapons with a round chambered, wouldn't store weapons loaded, and wouldn't use any rifle or pistol rounds in an apartment for self-defense because of over-penetration concerns. The case where you have an accidental discharge and it hurts someone or something is entirely preventable using common sense, and so I don't believe that we should require insurance against what is honestly improper and unsafe tool usage--that burden should rest on the person who caused the accident.

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

#159

Post by glurgh » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:19 PM UTC

ianstallings wrote: post #141

glurgh wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the liberty to do as I please as a human being on this planet so long as it doesn't hurt you. No, you don't. There is such a thing as exposure to risk. Otherwise anyone would have the liberty to build a toxic waste processing plant by your back yard because, hey, that's not hurting you. Yet. Strangely, this is not the established way of things in any actually functional society.

The beauty of liberty is I don't care what you think about me exercising it. That's kind of the point I was trying to make. That whole "give me liberty or give me death" thing really means something to some of us and we really don't care what others think. They have a name for us actually - Americans.

No, those are caricature Americans. No thinking Americans, starting with the founders, made it a point of pride of ignoring what other people think. They may have arrived at different conclusions but the notion they did so because liberty is some function of willful ignorance is idiotic.

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

#160

Post by travisby » Sat, May 25, 2013, 7:19 PM UTC

leot wrote: post #156

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…

Do guns absolutely need to be lethal? If so, why? Would you (assuming you own a gun) forego all your lethal guns if someone gave you one with comparable stopping power, but which was much less lethal?

Yes.

I certainly do not want to kill anyone, but my safety comes first. If my safety would not be any more in jeopardy (aka, same stopping power), I'd be fine with it. My only concern is ME living.

I'm sure most pragmatics would feel the same way.