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Similarly, there's a disturbing trend in recent years where people figured out you can just drive a truck/van through a crowd. One option could be to ban/heavi
by shoo 9y ago
Similarly, there's a disturbing trend in recent years where people figured out you can just drive a truck/van through a crowd.
One option could be to ban/heavily regulate use of trucks/vans. Another option could be defensive architecture (build bollards everywhere). Another option could be to fund extensive surveillance efforts. Yet another option could be to treat it as a mental health issue (it often isn't "terrorism"). Another option could be to decide that the cost of any of these options exceeds the benefits, and it is best to leave cities vulnerable to this kind of thing.
- microcolonel 9y agoNot to mention, the technology to manufacture fully automatic weapons (especially if the intention is to fire into a crowd indiscriminately) is straightforward. Anyone with a machine shop and standard industrial materials can build an open bolt machine gun. There are about seven or eight parts involved if you want to be able to stop firing in the middle of a burst, about five parts if you don't care. If the parts are crude enough, and the aim doesn't matter that much, you don't even need modern manufactured ammunition.
- muzani 9y agoMachine guns are hard to make. They may be theoretically easy, like building something like Facebook. But something portable that doesn't jam or fall apart is much harder.
- thomastjeffery 9y agoHard to do isn't a deterrent, it's a market. Making it criminal simply creates a criminal market.
- muzani 9y agoIt's a cost. If it costs too much, someone might go for another option.
- thomastjeffery 9y ago> to decide that the cost of any of these options exceeds the benefits, and it is best to leave cities vulnerable to this kind of thing. This is the hardest option to swallow, but if you honestly care about individual Liberty, it's likely to be the preferred one. The biggest problem with this discussion is that that option is thrown aside so quickly, no matter how logically it is presented.