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

#201

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 12:14 AM UTC

hga wrote: post #166

glurgh wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You seem to have not noticed how printing presses, and newfangled movie projectors and radio transmitters, were instrumental in arranging the deaths of a quarter billion disarmed people by their own governments in the 20th century. You simply can't achieve that level of mass murder if you're limited to getting up on a soap box, word of mouth, etc.

Let's not be silly. Note how many of the top items on this list predate movies and radio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_and_anthropogenic_...

The An Lushan Rebellion, for example, is thought to have possibly killed 15% of the human population of the entire planet. Hitler and Stalin couldn't dream of such levels of mass murder.

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

#202

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 12:16 AM UTC

hga wrote: post #200

mikeash wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A rational approach would be to find less biased ways of carrying out the research, not simply banning it.

Less biased means not just a different institution, but a different culture, the "public health" culture appears to be totally biased and has published a string of self-refuting junk science papers in the most prestigious journals like the NEJM and JAMA. Who do you suggest?

I don't know, but given that public health is so important, fixing it would seem to be a top priority. If what you say is true, then the situation is far worse than just "some biased people use taxpayer money to criticize gun ownership", and I'm certainly not going to admire anybody who simply defunded one small portion of it to protect their pet issue while ignoring the rest.

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

#203

Post by oijaf888 » Sun, May 26, 2013, 12:47 AM UTC

dfc wrote: post #151

oijaf888 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Yeah open carry of any knife is illegal which sounds like that's what they charged him with.

http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/LAWSSEAF.cgi?QUERYTYPE=LAW... seems to indicate that gravity knives are legal but perhaps there are other laws that apply. http://www.akti.org/action/new-york-city-knife-code doesn't seem to indicate any others though.

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

#204

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:13 AM UTC

ianstallings wrote: post #133

mikeash wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jefferson was gleeful at the thought of armed revolution? Do tell.

Okay, a quote from him: The British ministry have so long hired their gazetteers to repeat and model into every form lies about our being in anarchy, that the world has at length believed them, the English nation has believed them, the ministers themselves have come to believe them, & what is more wonderful, we have believed them ourselves. Yet where does this anarchy exist? Where did it ever exist, except in the sin…

That's an interesting thing to consider. It's hard to judge tone across so much time, but it doesn't seem to me that he is truly gleeful at the prospect, but merely views it as necessary, or useful. It doesn't have the implied "I can't wait to grab my gun collection and fight off the ATF/FBI/police/whatever" that I've seen in other contexts. But that perception could just be colored by my preconceived notions of who Jefferson was.

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

#205

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:20 AM UTC

glurgh wrote: post #147

presidentender wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, the higher-energy cartridges like .303 Brit and .30-06 are used even more rarely in crime than other rifle cartridges. Intermediate cartridges, which came into military favor following the second world war, allow the user to carry more ammunition per unit of weight, and to manage the recoil of the rifle more easily. It's also easier to manufacture an autoloading rifle to reliably fire a cartridge like 5.56…

Ferraris aren't very common as bank robbery getaway vehicles either. My point was that it should be possible to come up with some sort of regulatory regime that reasonably covers the entire range of uses - from personal safety to collection of exotica. This isn't possible if one side's position is 'I get to have whatever I want, because'. You can't buy a thing that plugs into your wall socket that isn't UL certified,…

The great thing about mandatory liability insurance is that the government doesn't need to make any determination at all about how dangerous various kinds of weapons are. You think the threat of Gun Type X is overblown? Great. If that's true, market forces will ensure that the liability insurance for it is cheap.

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

#206

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:21 AM UTC

ianstallings wrote: post #109

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…

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.

I'd recommend testing your theory by taking a loaded gun out in public and pointing it at random strangers while telling them, "You're going to die!" As long as you don't actually shoot them, you've done them no harm, right?

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

#207

Post by glurgh » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:21 AM UTC

ianstallings wrote: post #195

glurgh wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Ah yes, ad hominem attacks. Thanks! I look forward to more intelligent discussions with you sir.

'Ad hominem' is not some sort of magical incantation you can simply call upon to protect you from 'stupid'. Argue your point.

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

#208

Post by sarvinc » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:23 AM UTC

lifeguard wrote: post #63

at-fates-hands wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. Mother Jones is a known Liberal magazine and despite the approach to not insert the authors opinion, you can clearly see the point of the article is we need to have the ability to register guns with the government. I'm constantly shocked at how uninformed gun control advocates are.

@at-fates-hands I bet you didn't know 60 people were accidentally killed by firearms yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that. About 30 people are killed in attacks -- every day. And another thing, why is it gun patriots never give a fig about the other rights in the Constitution, like freedom of speech, religion, and assembly? I think you guys just like to play with guns. It takes a cold dead hand…

Where did the label "gun patriot" come from? I'm always interested with how people label themselves/others. This one is particularly interesting, to me, because I can't figure out where this comes from or why you're using it.

I'm pro-second amendment and I care very much out our liberties. In fact I believe that the same arguments made for and against the second amendment can also be made for and against the others you've mentioned.

Are those in favor of gun control also in favor of controlling speech, religion and assembly?

I own a few firearms and don't play with any of them.

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

#209

Post by mikeash » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:28 AM UTC

Cushman wrote: post #116

knowtheory wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we can quibble about this, but i'm betting you that the vast majority of people in the USA haven't put together a gun from a kit, and most of them probably don't own a gun, or if they do own a gun, probably haven't thought about modifying it. Irrespective of who's right on that point, there is a cultural issue here. People who have not lived with/around fire arms, and who do not hunt, have essentially no reason…

I can understand where you're coming from. Unfortunately, I don't think this article is the explainer you're looking for, for a lot of reasons discussed in these comments, but primarily this: he destroyed the gun . He bought it, he built it, he fired forty rounds through it and then he found it so distasteful that he didn't want it in his life, so he destroyed it. Even after mentioning how much it might have sold for…

I think it's interesting how people who will vehemently defend a person's right to own a gun will turn around and criticize him for destroying his own property, harming nobody in the process. Maybe I'm being uncharitable, but it strikes me as an attitude of "freedoms are great as long as the person does things I like".

I'm reminded of the recent incident in the US Southwest somewhere (Arizona?) where a city started a gun buyback program with the intention of destroying the guns, and the NRA sued them to prevent them from destroying guns that they had legally purchased from willing sellers.

The world is mad, I tell you.

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

#210

Post by hga » Sun, May 26, 2013, 1:35 AM UTC

mikeash wrote: post #202

hga wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less biased means not just a different institution, but a different culture, the "public health" culture appears to be totally biased and has published a string of self-refuting junk science papers in the most prestigious journals like the NEJM and JAMA. Who do you suggest?

I don't know, but given that public health is so important, fixing it would seem to be a top priority. If what you say is true, then the situation is far worse than just "some biased people use taxpayer money to criticize gun ownership", and I'm certainly not going to admire anybody who simply defunded one small portion of it to protect their pet issue while ignoring the rest.

You sound as unhappy as the fund raisers for Republican politicians have been since Newtown when I tell them I'm completely tapped out for political money this year, call me back next year....