5 ms·

As someone in the US, it's amusing to hear the phrase "knife crime" as a major source of violence.

EL_Loco 6y ago
As someone in Brazil, it's equally amusing to me. And I know gun control is not a simple matter, and is not a magical solution, but man... this administration is going in the direction of not only less control, but less responsability (making it even harder than it already is to trace ammunition, for example)
ransom1538 6y ago
I remember watching a British police reality show and they found a bb gun in a persons home. The police, so unfamiliar with firearms, thought it was real and couldn't figure out how to "unload the rounds". Soon, they brought in an officer from their version of SWAT that quickly laughed it off.
- pyuser583 6y ago
  Had a Russian friend who was horrified I called them “BB guns.” He insisted they are “pneumatic rifles” and treated them the same as any other firearm.
  - zipwitch 6y ago
    The Girardoni air rifle was used in military service from the late 18th through early 19th centuries, and saw civilian use for some time after that. It was a very high-tech weapon for the time, and while finicky and expensive offered some unique advantages and was quite deadly. The Lewis & Clark expedition famously used a couple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle
    - ransom1538 6y ago
      I really wanted to stop and say thank you. This was amazing find. I really am a nerd in this subject but had no idea compressed air was used in the 18th century. This really changed my thinking and historical perspective. You blew my Sunday that I will forgive. I will blow all next weekend trying to figure out why compressed air didn't catch on wtf. From my (limited!!) research the valves were super expensive and took an amazing amount of craftsmanship - which didn't allow for mass production (eg Brown Bess).
  - inetknght 6y ago
    The pneumatic description can be accurate. But I'm not aware of a BB gun with rifling. My understanding is that BBs, being spherical, don't work well with rifling.
  - jdeibele 6y ago
    There seem to be two types of air rifles in the US: BB guns, which shoot BBs, and pellet guns, which are rifled and shoot a pellet that look more like a bullet. There are all kinds of variants, including BB guns that are fully automatic. https://www.airgundepot.com/automatic-bb-guns.html https://www.airgundepot.com/automatic-bb-guns.html Air rifles 200 years ago were so effective (quiet, 30 round magazine) that Napoleon supposedly ordered that anyone carrying one be summarily executed. https://notorc.blogspot.com/2006/08/short-history-of-air-rifle_29.html https://notorc.blogspot.com/2006/08/short-history-of-air-rif... It was common in the US to do "plinking" with a BB gun at various targets, including windows of abandoned buildings, tin cans, and the unfortunate small animal. Probably still is in more rural areas. Anyway, different tradition than a weapon of war.
    - throwaway894345 6y ago
      I was surprised to find that my UK friend thought Airsoft guns (plastic pellets) were BB guns (metal, round pellets). He was shocked to hear my brother and I would shoot each other with Airsoft guns when we were younger, thinking they were metal rounds. Not sure if this is a cultural difference or if he was simply mistaken.
candiodari 6y ago
Not that I don't agree that the US has a major gun problem, but knives are much more deadly than guns.
- Shared404 6y ago
  I personally would rather get shot then stabbed.
dang 6y ago
"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- chroem- 6y ago
  I understand where you're coming from, but thus far my post does not seem to be generating a lot of controversy.
  - dang 6y ago
    There's variance, but the general effect is predictable, and that's what we have to moderate for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22expected%20value%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
    - chroem- 6y ago
      Dang, I thought we had discussed this: moderating based the mere risk of controversy is how echo chambers form. Doesn't this go against HN's guidelines of fostering interesting, civil discussion?
      - dang 6y ago
        The high-order bit is predictability. Going from "knife crime" to "guns in the U.S." is a highly predictable move, guaranteed (in the general case) to lead to tedious, repetitive discussion. The art of interesting threads requires learning to abstain from reflexive, predictable moves. That's one of the biggest things we've learned in over a decade of operating this place. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20repetition&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20discussion&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20reflective%20reflex&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

As someone in Brazil, it's equally amusing to me. And I know gun control is not a simple matter, and is not a magical solution, but man... this administration is going in the direction of not only less control, but less responsability (making it even harder than it already is to trace ammunition, for example)

ransom1538 6y ago

I remember watching a British police reality show and they found a bb gun in a persons home. The police, so unfamiliar with firearms, thought it was real and couldn't figure out how to "unload the rounds". Soon, they brought in an officer from their version of SWAT that quickly laughed it off.

pyuser583 6y ago
Had a Russian friend who was horrified I called them “BB guns.” He insisted they are “pneumatic rifles” and treated them the same as any other firearm.
- zipwitch 6y ago
  The Girardoni air rifle was used in military service from the late 18th through early 19th centuries, and saw civilian use for some time after that. It was a very high-tech weapon for the time, and while finicky and expensive offered some unique advantages and was quite deadly. The Lewis & Clark expedition famously used a couple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girardoni_air_rifle
  - ransom1538 6y ago
    I really wanted to stop and say thank you. This was amazing find. I really am a nerd in this subject but had no idea compressed air was used in the 18th century. This really changed my thinking and historical perspective. You blew my Sunday that I will forgive. I will blow all next weekend trying to figure out why compressed air didn't catch on wtf. From my (limited!!) research the valves were super expensive and took an amazing amount of craftsmanship - which didn't allow for mass production (eg Brown Bess).
- inetknght 6y ago
  The pneumatic description can be accurate. But I'm not aware of a BB gun with rifling. My understanding is that BBs, being spherical, don't work well with rifling.
- jdeibele 6y ago
  There seem to be two types of air rifles in the US: BB guns, which shoot BBs, and pellet guns, which are rifled and shoot a pellet that look more like a bullet. There are all kinds of variants, including BB guns that are fully automatic. https://www.airgundepot.com/automatic-bb-guns.html https://www.airgundepot.com/automatic-bb-guns.html Air rifles 200 years ago were so effective (quiet, 30 round magazine) that Napoleon supposedly ordered that anyone carrying one be summarily executed. https://notorc.blogspot.com/2006/08/short-history-of-air-rifle_29.html https://notorc.blogspot.com/2006/08/short-history-of-air-rif... It was common in the US to do "plinking" with a BB gun at various targets, including windows of abandoned buildings, tin cans, and the unfortunate small animal. Probably still is in more rural areas. Anyway, different tradition than a weapon of war.
  - throwaway894345 6y ago
    I was surprised to find that my UK friend thought Airsoft guns (plastic pellets) were BB guns (metal, round pellets). He was shocked to hear my brother and I would shoot each other with Airsoft guns when we were younger, thinking they were metal rounds. Not sure if this is a cultural difference or if he was simply mistaken.

candiodari 6y ago

Not that I don't agree that the US has a major gun problem, but knives are much more deadly than guns.

Shared404 6y ago
I personally would rather get shot then stabbed.

dang 6y ago

"Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

chroem- 6y ago
I understand where you're coming from, but thus far my post does not seem to be generating a lot of controversy.
- dang 6y ago
  There's variance, but the general effect is predictable, and that's what we have to moderate for. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20%22expected%20value%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
  - chroem- 6y ago
    Dang, I thought we had discussed this: moderating based the mere risk of controversy is how echo chambers form. Doesn't this go against HN's guidelines of fostering interesting, civil discussion?
    - dang 6y ago
      The high-order bit is predictability. Going from "knife crime" to "guns in the U.S." is a highly predictable move, guaranteed (in the general case) to lead to tedious, repetitive discussion. The art of interesting threads requires learning to abstain from reflexive, predictable moves. That's one of the biggest things we've learned in over a decade of operating this place. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20repetition&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20generic%20discussion&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20reflective%20reflex&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...