HELL FREEZES OVER
Hell came to a grinding halt today, frozen solid. For the first time since Charlton Heston started screaming, “From my cold dead hands!” the NRA blinked and is endorsing “additional rules” on the sale and use of bump stocks, used to convert a merely deadly weapon into a mass murder machine. For those who don’t know, bump stocks are devices that allow the recoil of a rifle to reset the trigger of a semi-auto weapon into full auto without taking your finger off of the trigger. The murderer in Las Vegas had TWELVE, yes, I said TWELVE semi-auto rifles fitted with bump stocks, which were used very effectively to shoot over 500 people in about 11 minutes, killing 58 innocents. He had a number of other weapons with him, apparently in the just in case he wanted to kill more people if needed.
Even congress is starting to come around; we’ve learned that apparently the magic number for a mass shooting is 500 in order to get a congressvarmit to do something besides look down their own trousers to make sure everything is still there. Those little old run of the mill shootings that kill 20 to 40 victims at a time don’t seem to ring the bell, but shooting 500 damn sure does. Republicans are falling all over themselves to ban bump stocks, but they’ll probably stop there and set a new threshold for maybe universal background checks at around 1,000 or more victims.
I’ll take what I can get, and hope the devil can’t find any ice picks.
Would the 500 threshold have been met if this were something other than a country music concert? I wonder.
1Why do the constitutional originalists forget the second amendment was to keep from having a standing army. Once we got that, the right to keep and bear was no longer applicable.
The term militia did not originally include women, as well.
2People got all excited over swords being allowed that would require a killer to chase you down, but it is legal to have enough weapons to kill 500 in as many seconds.
3Our laws make it illegal to carry knives, bows, or swords but almost anyone can buy and carry a killing machine that can kill 10 people in 10sec!!! There are real problems with this place!
“Additional rules”, my ass – we need an outright ban! And make it a felony to manufacture, sell, or possess the bump stock or any other device that accelerates firing speed to automatic weapon levels. Ideally, we should ban semi-automatics. But with the AR-15 being the most popular gun in the US, that’s not doable.
The Las Vegas mass murderer may have inadvertently done us a favor. He was the poster boy for “good guy with a gun”. And then he wreaked such incredible carnage. On his “own kind”; predominantly white country-western fans. Not for any discernible religious, racial, or political motive. But simply because he could.
4Didn’t Texas recently decide that it was OK to carry swords, too? Fortunately, you’d have to get really close to someone to use one, and most weapons-nuts don’t like doing that. Unfortunately, we still have guns nearly everywhere.
5I am opposed to the bump stock or any other add-on that helps increase the rate of fire of any semi-automatic firearm. That said, I suspect the day will come soon when a person with a 3D printer will “print” a revised sear for an AR-15 or some other otherwise legal s-a rifle that will allow it to selectively fire fully automatic. The content of these knee jerk 2017 laws should, must, include language that criminalizes fully-automatic operation under all circumstances.
I was appalled to see an image of a caliber .40 magazine that had been bastardized to include two interconnected drums that stored a 100 rounds. If a semi-automatic say Rock River LAR-40 can be equipped with a bump stock and this 100-round magazine added, the result is a military equivalent sub-machine gun capable of great carnage in a relatively tiny package and with a generally doable price.
6When we are looking for someone to blame, it’s no longer enough just to point the finger at the NRA. They are just an example of our problem. Wealthy monopolists have taken over the Government, by convincing the owners of the Government (the People), that Government is bad and anything it does takes away our “freedoms”.
What we really need is a mirror. It’s up to each of us to change that mindset.
7Think about the physics behind bump-fire: the recoil of the rifle moves the body of the rifle is used to effectively bounce the weapon on the trigger. A simple rubber band attached to a trigger can also result in this effect.
What is needed is cultural change based on the fact that gun ownership is more hazardous than a guy in a hoodie.
8Micr, “with a 3D printer will “print” a revised sear for an AR-15”, not really.
A common “3D printer” (~$200+/Newegg) won’t work, they do (weak) plastics, a sear needs to be a tough metal part.
However you can currently buy very small CNC ‘mini-mills’* (not much bigger than those consumer 3D printers) capable of machining many small metallic parts, right up to –complete rifle receivers–. Of course the CNC mill requires (personal) computer software that specifies the parts’ parameters and controls the mill itself while milling the parts. Naturally you can buy that stuff too.
There’s a lot more involved of course, selection and procuring the raw metals, heat treating, etc.
A full-size professional CNC mill is quite expensive, but the mini-mills are within many amateur consumers price range (far less than outfitting one of those nice wood workshops you see on the DIY TV shows).
To be fair, these machines can make many other useful parts too, such as car parts, boat fittings, etc., almost anything metal.
You could even build small jet engines with them. (quite a bit of machining expertise is still required to use even a CNC mill, compared to the older ‘manual’ milling machines) A mill is sort of a combined drill press and lathe.
* Machine shop tool stuff, don’t know if y’all are familiar with that biz (another of my specialties):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milling_(machining)
.
9Today someone revealed the NRA does not allow the bump stock at their shooting range. Shortly afterwards, “The National Rifle Association is calling for a federal review of bump stocks”
10@Sandridge
Throughout my career I saw devices like the cheap 3D printer co-opted and made to perform functions unimagined by the inventor. One of my sons-in-law is a mechanical engineer. He tells stories of prototyping in cheap plastic before prototyping in “printers” that depose metal rather than plastic. I read of another start-up using a modified 3D printer to “print” cookie dough. I don’t necessarily see 3D printers as disruptive, but I expect them to become more prevalent, especially to make one-off unique products. How about a part for a Ford Model T restoration this is unobtainable? The mechanic-artist designs/recreates the part in CAD, prints it in metal and continues with the restoration.
11Sick irony. Neither the NRA or state legislatures allow open carry at their events. Yet they expect the rest of us to be subject to gun nuts at our stores, concerts, schools and other places where we should be allowed to assemble in peace.
The snacilbupeR would like to continue with their meme that “now is the is not the time to talk.” No, morons, there is no better time than now to save lives. The time to talk is so past due. Hilz and Bamz didn’t come after your guns. Give that meme a rest. If keeping guns out of the hands of psychopaths is an inconvenience to you, maybe you should do some introspection about your sociopath selves.
As for your paranoid fantasies about gun registration, tell that to the DMV where you register your vehicles.
12Watch the sale of bump stocks go through the roof while Congress diddles around about legislation to ban them. By the time Congress does anything, bump stocks will be in the hands of every long gun owner in the country.
13Bump stocks are already flying off the shelves and I bet it wont be long before there’s something on how to build your own using a 3-D printer.
14Wow. All of this fascination with a device that projects bits of metal at high speed for the purpose of killing or maiming. All of that brain power and technical, ahem, creativity focused on one idea — to make that device more effective at it’s purpose.
I wonder where we as a species might be today if all of that energy had been applied to more humanitarian efforts.
15I’m betting that they combine it with a bill requiring states to recognize concealed carry permits from other states with few if any rules. Poison pill legislation: it’s the Republican way.
16Get rid of all metal detectors in all federal building..let them take the same risks we do!!! Wonder what changes THAT would inspire?
17If you’d like to see brief collections of editorial cartoons about American gun violence, including international perspectives, check these links:
https://goo.gl/JDT3aW
https://goo.gl/DRCsZq
https://goo.gl/rL4Wm3
https://goo.gl/uhRfe9
18Hard metal 3D is an accomplished fact. Currently expensive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_3D_printed_weapons_and_parts
19One blink can instigate another, and another until it looks like a full on body twitch . . . or at least that is the hope. While waiting for hope to make a perilous landing, how about taking a look at the NRA business license with the state of Virginia? This is addressed to Terry McAuliffe. If he could pull their license and leave them homeless (until they land in another gun worshipping state), he would make actual history.
20Sadly, hell did not freeze over. The NRA offered a very small olive branch for an accessory their corporate sponsors don’t manufacture. It is a “feel good” offering. Nothing more. A ban on bump stocks will be coupled with reciprocity regarding concealed carry.
It is all smoke and mirrors.
21@Maggie – I pass the NRA HQ every day on my way to and from work. I flip it the finger (sorry, Mama!) both ways.
They have the freaking NERVE to be flying their flag at half-staff all week. Unbelievable!
22$1,675 will buy you a Ghost Gunner CNC mill that you can use, with open-source code, to mill your own semiautomatic rifle receiver.
We need to do everything possible to reduce the number of guns in society. But I am at a loss as to what to suggest we do.
23@Ted
I just read of Ghost Gunner in the hours after the shootings in Las Vegas. I’m not sure yet of all the things I don’t like about it. If using it one (ie, some doofus with no experience or knowledge of firearms production) can produce a working non-serialized firearm, I am utterly against it.
24They said “additional rules” in their statement but like The Cheeto they meant “to study”. As everyone knows that means, lets talk for a bit take a break and then let nothing change.
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