tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post7186851273190648510..comments2024-03-28T14:52:13.218-05:00Comments on Stonekettle Station: Bang Bang Crazy, Part 7Jim Wrighthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.comBlogger100125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-83453358582638444422013-07-09T12:05:45.182-05:002013-07-09T12:05:45.182-05:00I thought I should add a bit of clarification here...I thought I should add a bit of clarification here. I do not think it especially likely that the government would be the one to release the defective files. The firearms industry has gotten used to a certain level of sales. However, due to the expense of ammo and the fact that many of us have lives to lead and work to endure, a lot of the firearms are purchased just-in-case or, stupidly enough, as an investment. Those weapons are rarely fired. If the industry thought they were going to lose all of the j-i-c sales to 3D printing, I doubt they would have any compunction at all about sabotaging that effort. <br /><br />The thing about my scenario that makes it so likely is that there need not be any large cabal or broad consensus. One guy with the tech skills could do the deal. It would probably be a money guy and a tech guy but, as you well know, small groups acting in isolation are nearly impossible to stop on the front end. Plus, in this case, the government would have a vested interest in remaining ignorant. Ignorant is the one thing the government does really really well.<br /><br />As I say, I know just enough to be paranoid.CAFKIAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09886621192762936265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-73853017646602637412013-07-09T03:08:38.977-05:002013-07-09T03:08:38.977-05:00During my first tour of duty at NavCommSta Rota, o...During my first tour of duty at NavCommSta Rota, one of my supervisors, an E5 or E6, had a gun collection. We got to be pretty friendly and on one occasion he was showing off some of his pieces. One of the more rare pieces was a crudely made .45. It was made with 5-7 rounds and was not designed to be reloaded once they were gone. The story he told was that the weapon was made for the Philippine Insurrection and they were air dropped. He said that some of the guns were designed to explode in the face of the shooter and it was the serial number that let you know whether the gun was safe to fire or not. As the numbering scheme was not known to him, and not easy to discern in those pre-internet days, he was never going to be bold enough to fire his most unique weapon.<br /><br />If you wanted to really fuck things up, that would be the way. Release a few designs into the wild that were specifically meant to misfunction in way that was likely to be harmful to the shooter. I rather doubt it would take very many instances of a printed gun blowing up on the first shot to make everyone think twice about actually using one. <br /><br />I would also imagine that if you can embed messages in .jpg files, it should also be possible to embed a trojan or virus in a 3d printer file. Program it to report in with location information or IP addresses of all who download it or some other scheme. <br /><br />My faith in true anonymity on the internet is weak indeed. I would have to be one desperate puppy to believe I could secretly download a gun and that it would function as advertised. I wouldn't think much of the mental capacity of anyone who took that route. But then, I know just enough to be paranoid.CAFKIAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09886621192762936265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-21206558358631449292013-05-30T21:23:38.636-05:002013-05-30T21:23:38.636-05:00Figured you might want to see this update about so...Figured you might want to see this update about some other craziness coming to a Capitol near you:<br />http://aattp.org/d-c-armed-march-organizer-now-calling-for-violent-overthrow-of-federal-government-video/ Aragon64https://www.blogger.com/profile/09168378865414859748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-53032178567505400132013-05-15T12:20:24.632-05:002013-05-15T12:20:24.632-05:00My husband remembers casually that he stored his s...My husband remembers casually that he stored his shotgun in his high school locker so he could go hunting on his way home after school. For what it is/was worth, a different time?LadyCrackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12097015665837379654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-88229026451127370122013-05-15T12:12:08.571-05:002013-05-15T12:12:08.571-05:00Tee-shirt. My want as well.Tee-shirt. My want as well.LadyCrackerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12097015665837379654noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-84534384882974248002013-05-14T11:24:04.240-05:002013-05-14T11:24:04.240-05:00Well, now we'll get a chance to see how well t...Well, now we'll get a chance to see how well the Old Masters of SF did in their predictions about machines that can make damn near anything. They mostly dealt with matter synnthesis, like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_for_Anything" rel="nofollow">Damon Kinght's "Gizmo"</a>, but the 3dP is close enough to get started with. Sort of a coal-fired Gizmo. <br />Knight says a slave society is the inevitable result. The fact that SF writers have an abysmal prediction score overall is comforting right about now.<br />On the other hand, RAH <i>did</i> predict The Crazy Years...<br />And if you add to that the not-all-that-far-down-the-road appearance of nanotech, the future is starting to look....interesting.<br />I think it was in Greg Bear's <i>Slant</i> that I read what strike me as the scariest 3 words in modern SF: "Military Grade Nano". That be some scary shit...Meanie-meanie, tickle a personhttp://www.fakeassurl.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-66753477470542443792013-05-14T11:04:12.695-05:002013-05-14T11:04:12.695-05:00I think a clever prosecutor could make a case of c...<i>I think a clever prosecutor could make a case of child endangerment</i><br /><br />There's a chance, maybe better than even, that the local prosecutor is seething, because he knows bloody well that's exactly what this is, and he doesn't dare bring charges or he'd face a tar & feathering squad for his trouble...Meanie-meanie, tickle a personhttp://www.fakeassurl.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-58158790156835562032013-05-14T10:53:09.386-05:002013-05-14T10:53:09.386-05:00I'll go out on a limb and predict that manufac...I'll go out on a limb and predict that manufacturers of lots of things will lobby like crazy to get 3dPs regulated in whatever ways they can. I'd say Congress isn't craven enough to do what they want, but that would be a silly thing to say...Meanie-meanie, tickle a personhttp://www.fakeassurl.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-75786345023400237632013-05-13T19:13:19.612-05:002013-05-13T19:13:19.612-05:00You said it, sister! (Literally-she's my sist...You said it, sister! (Literally-she's my sister.) I read that email. Not only did that amendment get chipped away so as to be all but toothless, but it also stated that it would make any effort to establish a national gun registry illegal. So background checks okay but once the gun is out there, all bets are off. I realize both senators actually worked together but the result was still lame and ineffective against the problem as a whole. One step forward and two steps back-that didn't take any courage whatsoever. And, here in southcentral Pennsyltucky, the letters to the editor are excoriating Pat Toomey for plotting with the enemy to take away everyone's guns. So we go on being held hostage by a very small segment of the country's population and their gun-toting, Congress-buying club. All of these paranoid nutjobs who are preparing for a war with the government should be more afraid of people like Cody Wilson, who apparently subscribes to the ultimate chaos theory. And, incidentally, should we decide to sterilize parents with combined IQs of 200, I think we know which voter base that would encompass. <br />Pam in PAAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-75825169061487162742013-05-13T15:24:37.682-05:002013-05-13T15:24:37.682-05:00Seriously. I hate trying to get href links to work...Seriously. I hate trying to get href links to work in comments on Blogger. I'll just post the relevant links below:<br /><br />http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/05/07/terrafugia-unveils-next-generation-flying-car/<br /><br />http://www.stonekettle.com/2010/04/things-that-chap-my-ass-about-auto.htmlKenneth Headhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00059569430098216658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-68738097208087423282013-05-13T15:22:52.631-05:002013-05-13T15:22:52.631-05:00The PC/XT. Ah, the memories...that came in DIPP pa...The PC/XT. Ah, the memories...that came in DIPP packages. <br /><br />We are a country that retains the ability to celebrate our freedom to do things, but we are losing the ability to judge whether we should. 3-D printing is going to, at once, be one of the greatest economic equalizers since Gutenberg's invention of printing, and a means of placing the horrifically-dangerous easily and anonymously into the hands of those who shouldn't have such things. <br /><br />But that is not the story this week that will have Mr. Wright's nerves on edge. He is the steely-eyed kind, not given to fits of idle panic, oh no. What came out this week that is most likely to have him starting awake nights with his sheets locked in white-knuckled terror is this. <br /><br />As much as the thought of every wanna-be hitman being able to print out an untraceable gun might terrify you, that is not how civilization as we know it is going to end. THAT thing is (more to the point, your skin-flint neighbor who thinks that regularly-scheduled oil changes are a scam to get people to buy more services is). <br /><br />Jim has already written on that very subject; it is, IMHO, one of the finest pieces of commentary he has ever put out. If you aren't already familiar with the article I refer to, find it <a href="http://www.stonekettle.com/2010/04/things-that-chap-my-ass-about-auto.html>here</a>. Put down any beverages you may be drinking before commencing. Seriously. The Marines have been using an eerily-similar concept of a vehicle for quite some time now, and their version of it doesn't have to negotiate <i>folding its freakin' rotors</i>. As them how it's worked out for them. <br /><br />If you hadn't already seen that article, Jim, my apologies. Melatonin works for me.Kenneth Headhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00059569430098216658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-27253644858235218022013-05-13T15:18:47.488-05:002013-05-13T15:18:47.488-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Kenneth Headhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00059569430098216658noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-84897931905760800542013-05-13T15:07:43.175-05:002013-05-13T15:07:43.175-05:00Once again, congratulations on a thought-provoking...Once again, congratulations on a thought-provoking post. I have nothing but the utmost respect for you, Jim, for your knowledge and your eloquence shown in all the parts of the Bang Bang Crazy series. One of the reasons I avidly read your blog is to find out what you (in so many ways unlike me) think, given your experience with so many things that are completely foreign to me. I find it heartening to know that, no matter how different we may be, we are so often in agreement. <br /><br />I have no first-hand knowledge about guns. I am quite content to remain that way. With my roots going back to pre-Revolutionary War times, I am proud to be be a Pennsylvanian, where the Declaration was signed, the Constitution adopted, and the Bill of Rights proposed. However, the state (Commonwealth, supposedly) in which I live is the one about which presidential candidate Obama famously made the (accurate IMO) comment about people "clinging to their guns and their religion." I work in an office in which the principals "carry" concealed (legally) every day. I figure it's either the safest office in my suburban Philadelphia office park or the most dangerous... <br /><br />"My" senator Toomey is now coasting -- and building up his approval ratings -- on his "bravery" in allowing his name to be linked with a Democrat on a proposed amendment expanding background checks, which are overwhelmingly desired by his constituency. That is all. Nothing. Else. His official emails carefully pointed out that there was not one other limit in his amendment -- no assault weapons ban, no limitation on size of magazines, no registry, NOTHING! And then, when the weak amendment failed, the follow-up email could be summed up as "I tried. Never mind. Move along." Without even a "too bad", much less a commitment to follow-up/try again/ANYTHING. And now he'll try to use this pisspoor excuse of a proposed-once, abandoned-forever amendment in his re-election campaign next year. <br /><br />I thought I knew a little about printers. But my definition of a printer involves ink and paper. Anything else seems to me to be some type of manufacturing device. Or something that appears to be close to magic. Which is what "printing" a gun seems like to me. <br /><br />According to the film "A Place at the Table", one in four children in the U.S. doesn't know where his/her next meal is coming from. And too many of the so-called lawmakers in Washington DC are busy making sure that not only is nothing done to remedy the horror of constant hunger, but, the opposite -- that food assistance is HARDER to obtain. The summer months are nearly here. Months when millions of children no longer receive the one (or, if they're lucky, two) meals that they get with school lunch programs. On five days of a seven-day week. <br /><br />I have children, now nearly grown, but my children no matter their age . Perhaps one day my children may have children. Perhaps I will live long enough to see a grandchild. I wish that I could feel hopeful that there will be a community worthy of the name if that happens. <br /><br />"Libertarian" my ass. It's arrogance and selfishness, pure and simple. howdidIgetherehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03056673632591015789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-82175431226615366252013-05-13T13:53:03.849-05:002013-05-13T13:53:03.849-05:00I wish I had paid more attention to a public TV ar...I wish I had paid more attention to a public TV article this weekend. Was on a shooting in ?Mass, where after the killer was in jail, he said that if there had been a waiting period, he probably wouldn't have done it. The article had interviews with the father of one of the slain who commented that he guessed the country has accepted the occasional school shooting as a price we pay to have unlimited access to guns. (or something like that, I was busy and didn't watch, just caught bits of it.) Dead kids, the price we pay, makes me understand why people become hermits. And yes, Equador is looking more inviting than retiring in this increasingly crazy country.sophienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-90093067938523701112013-05-13T13:04:29.048-05:002013-05-13T13:04:29.048-05:00Agree, too many of those Libertarian types have no...Agree, too many of those Libertarian types have no trouble taking serious advantage of the systems they say they despise.Sophienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-46022357689458047192013-05-13T10:59:27.945-05:002013-05-13T10:59:27.945-05:00Yet if the same parents drive drunk with their chi...Yet if the same parents drive drunk with their children in the car, and they have a wreck and the child is killed, they face not just child endangerment but vehicular homicide. Yet I don't hear too many people clamoring that it was "just an accident" and the parent has already suffered a lot with the death of their child. <br /><br />I am all for changing laws that remove this "special protection" of family members when their actions result in the death of another family member. If these same parents had left an loaded gun out and their child killed someone else's child. Would we feel that same toward those parents? Would the local DA feel the same? <br /><br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18117837896972479819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-86896574779484486572013-05-13T10:25:42.944-05:002013-05-13T10:25:42.944-05:00I have sold all my rifles. I have a few bird guns ... I have sold all my rifles. I have a few bird guns locked in my gun safe and someday I hope to take my grandson quail hunting.<br /> I locked my pistols in the safe when he turned two and started getting into stuff.<br /> Some of my fellow Texans think I'm too spooked about the boy.<br /> An eight year old in Denton, Texas shot his five year old brother in the head this past weekend with a .22 he found in his house.Mcpo Retnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-41401802309916743772013-05-13T09:46:55.116-05:002013-05-13T09:46:55.116-05:00Just over 40 years ago I took the Hunter Safety Co...Just over 40 years ago I took the Hunter Safety Course given by the NRA; it was required before I could get a hunting license in California. Number One Rule: any gun, even one you watched being unloaded by someone else, is assumed to be loaded. You never put a gun away loaded. It is sad that what used to be an admirable organization has become just a lobbyist for the gun manufacturers.Joan Jurancichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16572860421736545774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-78009600439328339992013-05-13T07:19:20.425-05:002013-05-13T07:19:20.425-05:00Thinking about it a bit more, this extreme liberta...Thinking about it a bit more, this extreme libertarian sovereign-individual viewpoint IS a philosophical sociopathy, if you will. It takes the individual's free will to the extreme, without consideration for the group.<br /><br />Not to imply that these folks are all true sociopaths, that is a very rare clinical condition. However, the "ethic" of unfettered free will is, to me, one of complete amorality. It also brings to mind the phrase "nasty, brutish and short".<br /><br />It is as if these extreme libertarians are performing a reductio ad absurdum on their own viewpoints. Maybe they forgot that the reductio is employed as an argument against a position, not for it.<br /><br />BruceAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-45585258345561179392013-05-13T00:22:31.185-05:002013-05-13T00:22:31.185-05:00The bright side is that the plastic gun will ultim...The bright side is that the plastic gun will ultimately take money away from the gun manufacturers. Who will then have to stop funding the NRA who then will no longer will be able to buy off Congress. See - something to look forward to.<br />AdrianneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-3658627606739380352013-05-12T19:17:19.192-05:002013-05-12T19:17:19.192-05:00I don't like the idea of either a universally ...I don't like the idea of either a universally armed or a totally disarmed society, though if those were the only two choices, as a small weak person I'd have to prefer the former. But it seems to me that what guys like Wilson could really use is a hostile crazy neighbor who likes to sit on his back porch caressing a gun and staring at their house. Soon enough he would be calling the police twice a week demanding that the State do more to protect him. It would be educational for him, no?<br />DeweyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-79855024067893595712013-05-12T18:15:22.231-05:002013-05-12T18:15:22.231-05:00The National Rifle Assn.’s legislative action arm ...The National Rifle Assn.’s legislative action arm urged members to support the bill, saying, “firearms that are collected would maintain their value and their sale to the public would help recover public funds when budgets are strained.”Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-87928181618727832902013-05-12T16:36:12.714-05:002013-05-12T16:36:12.714-05:00You have done it well again........ started out te...You have done it well again........ started out telling a great story about the past (I owned an old Tandy2000 in 1984-5, and reminded me of the days of early "desk-top publishing", as I wrote and published the newsletter for the local Sportsman's Club in Michigan), and turned it into a serious conversation about the future of our Nation. I commend you. People need this kind of conversation to ground them in the reality of the current train of thought going on from some of these bat-shit crazies that are, unfortunately, actually running this country. <br /><br />Let's hope some of them will actually see what they are doing and change their ways, instead of being "lead" by the hosts of violence and sick train of thought. I am furious that our Senator did what he did..... he needs to be ashamed of himself as a human. Spineless!!! Lost my vote too.Mike from Fairbanksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-83458950700828731132013-05-12T15:39:18.575-05:002013-05-12T15:39:18.575-05:00No, he didn't mention sociopaths. I did. Assum...No, he didn't mention sociopaths. I did. Assuming he wasn't being sarcastic, it seems a fair extrapolation.<br /><br />So when do I receive my efferax?<br /><br />Bruce<br />(OK, I'll shut up about it now)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243351006478134285.post-12710961196294322632013-05-12T10:48:54.549-05:002013-05-12T10:48:54.549-05:00The ultra cheap printers don't yet have the re...The ultra cheap printers don't yet have the resolution to print high quality parts. To make a machine using hard/heat resistant plastic at the precision required for something like a gun, you still need a better than bottom end 3D assembler. But it's coming.Jim Wrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11259550121437562338noreply@blogger.com