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The most baffling thing to me is the fact that body armor, and military grade weapons, are sold in USA... Like, we're discussing ad delivery, not the fact that

The most baffling thing to me is the fact that body armor, and military grade weapons, are sold in USA... Like, we're discussing ad delivery, not the fact that a country allows companies to sell all kinds of weapons, and equipment to the general public... so I think that accurate ad targeting is the least of the problems.

Daniel_sk 6y ago
Body armor, helmets and any sort of protective gear is legal in most parts of world, and I would bet any EU state (and in case of my EU country I can buy an AR-15 or any sort of semi-automatic weapon).
- libertine 6y ago
  Such protective equipment might be legal in most parts of the world, but they have a small market - the ad in the article is selling it like any regular product... literally they say "The survival gear that you are missing!", like it's some pillow being sold for a good night sleep. It's just odd. >I would bet any EU state (and in case of my EU country I can buy an AR-15 or any sort of semi-automatic weapon) Well in the case of my EU country we can't buy AR-15 or any semi-automatic rifle. The weapons owned here are mostly for hunting, not for sports/self defense.
  - Daniel_sk 6y ago
    Survival / military e-shops are quite popular in EU, although they mostly target people that play airsoft, do reenactment, survival, bushcraft and so on. Preparing for a coup or for protection against the government is not a standard target group in Europe :-). In Slovakia and Czech republic you can own basically any short or long weapon and any caliber as long as it's not full-auto. But you can of course only bring it to an official shooting range or match. Owning a weapon for self defense is possible for regular citizen and you can carry it with you (only concealed), but only for short weapons (pistols, revolvers). But it's not a constitutional right, it's a privilege and you have to meet certain condition. It's a longer topic. But I wanted to say that even though we have a lot of weapons, the gun crime rate is extremely low. Maybe that's also because every gun is registered, you have to take all the exams (medical, psychological, background check, weapon law test) and so on... It's also forbidden to bring a weapon (even if concealed) to a protest, your weapon license would be taken and say good bye to your guns. Weapons in hands of citizen doesn't equal to gun crime (also check Switzerland), but I am also not a proponent of constitutional right for everyone to carry a weapon. So it's maybe similar to social networks - they can become a danger if they are not regulated (same as weapons, if they are unregulated and freely available).
  - emilfihlman 6y ago
    Could you say what country? Because I might even bet that yes, you most definitely can buy an AR15 or any semiautomatic rifle just fine.
    - libertine 6y ago
      Ah yes, I'm from Portugal!
      - emilfihlman 6y ago
        Yes, you can buy AR15s and other semiautomatic rifles in Portugal. Most of Europe allows sports shooting, for example (from the top of my hear what I know for sure): Finland Sweden Norway Estonia Czech Republic Poland Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Spain And I haven't even put research into the rest of the countries
        libertine 6y ago
        You can not buy semiautomatic rifles in Portugal, even if you are a collector I think but for that you might need to have some sort of special requirement. These are the types of licences we have: http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/ http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/ Now you can buy weapons of the same caliber, for hunting (but you need hunting licensing). Edit: Ok I need to clarify this. Because we have a different name for specific weapons. Here we can sell semiautomatic rifles (we call them "carabinas", I didn't label them as rifles so my bad), for hunting (a specific class, for boars, deer, etc). The thing is every weapon that's imported in Portugal gets and inspection and a classification if it's a military weapon or not. An AR15 is considered a military grade weapon by our government standards. So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles. You can't buy an AR15.
        jakearmitage 6y ago
        I know the argument here has been towards being able to buy or not a specific platform (AR-15), but I would like to address this: > So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles The semi-automatic rifles that you can buy in Portugal include the Remington 700 and the Thompson Performance Center T/C. Both can come chambered in .308 Win or 6.5 Creedmoor. Those cartridges have an immense stopping power and are significantly more powerful than the usual .223/5.56 you see in the AR-15 platform. Looking at hunting stores from Portugal, you can easily see those two rifles with 5 or 10 round magazines, same limits as the AR-15 in California. The Remington 700 has been widely used by the military all over the world, including the US. The M24 sniper rifle is the Remington 700, but with a heavier barrel (in order to use .300 Win which the US Marine Corps preferred). So, why is in your opinion the AR-15 platform "military grade", and the hunting rifles available in Portugal not? Knowing that both platforms have been used by the military in combat situations, and knowing the hunting platforms usually have much more powerful cartridges?
cptnapalm 6y ago
For body armor and certain kinds of weapons and attachments, one needs a Class III license. They are not available to the general public, as you wrote. EDIT: I'm wrong on body armor. I could have sworn at least some of it was restricted and required a license.
- libertine 6y ago
  Thank you for correcting me.
  - cptnapalm 6y ago
    I will say that for a law abiding citizen, there's really no real road block to getting a Class III. However, only very few people bother to do it. In so far as to how dangerous it is, there are 630,000 legal full-auto/select-fire weapons in the US. They do require a Class III license to purchase and own and there have been no new ones since 1986. As I recall, of those 630,000, only 3 have been used illegally since 1934 and 2 of those were, ironically, by cops.
    - libertine 6y ago
      >As I recall, of those 630,000, only 3 have been used illegally since 1934 and 2 of those were, ironically, by cops. Still, as shown by the media at least, weapons became an accessory in protests and public manifestations over the past... 4 years? Even though they're not used, people have demonstrations of power by presenting their weapons. But again, my culture is very different from USA, so it's hard for me to grasp such thing.
skrowl 6y ago
Despite what your TV told you, military grade fully automatic weapons are 50 state illegal in the United States. Civilians may not own them. The scary guns you see on TV just LOOK like military weapons, they don't FUNCTION like them.
- laverya 6y ago
  Automatic weapons are legal in most states, they're just an NFA item and need to have been manufactured + registered prior to 1986. (And due to this, they're expensive as all hell - think $10k for a gun that sold for ~$120 new in 1980 - and to the best of my knowledge have only been used in two murders since 1934, of which one was a police officer killing a police informant)
jakearmitage 6y ago
You can buy body armor in Portugual too: http://www.engardeportugal.com/produtos.htm http://www.engardeportugal.com/produtos.htm And apparently it is much needed: https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/procurado-por-tentar-matar-homem-a-tiro-na-rua-no-porto-apos-zanga-acaba-detido https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/procurado-por-tenta... https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/homem-ameaca-mulher-com-tiros-em-lisboa https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/homem-ameaca-mulher... https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/gnr-em-alerta-maximo-guardas-usam-coletes-a-prova-de-bala-para-prevenir-vinganca https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/gnr-em-alerta-maxim...
- libertine 6y ago
  Nah, not needed at all. Such scuffs do happen but are very rare, usually revolve around some sort of treason - wife/friend/land dispute. Plus we don't have terrorist attacks (domestic and foreigners), we don't have religion fanatics that go on killing sprees, we have a good public healthcare system that helps mentally hill (we don't have serial killers, and the ones we had didn't achieve the pop culture status), we have drug addiction under control, so yeah... it's really not useful to have body armor. Just to give you some perspective - I live for 11 years in the capital, and even lived near a social project where there was shady people and A LOT of police activity, and never heard a single gun shot.
  - jakearmitage 6y ago
    I totally understand it is not needed, this was a straw man intended to detract from the idea that body armor is something alien and unnecessary for the general public. It is a personal protection item like any other. Is it useful in New York City or Lisbon? Probably not. But the same applies to other PPEs and we don't shame people for wanting to buy/use them. If a person feels safer using X, then fine, use it. As a society we used to mock people that bought Gas Masks and Respirators, marginalizing them as crazy. Then 2020 happened and all of a sudden every single gas mask, including useless old surplus, was out of stock.
    - libertine 6y ago

Daniel_sk 6y ago

Body armor, helmets and any sort of protective gear is legal in most parts of world, and I would bet any EU state (and in case of my EU country I can buy an AR-15 or any sort of semi-automatic weapon).

libertine 6y ago
Such protective equipment might be legal in most parts of the world, but they have a small market - the ad in the article is selling it like any regular product... literally they say "The survival gear that you are missing!", like it's some pillow being sold for a good night sleep. It's just odd. >I would bet any EU state (and in case of my EU country I can buy an AR-15 or any sort of semi-automatic weapon) Well in the case of my EU country we can't buy AR-15 or any semi-automatic rifle. The weapons owned here are mostly for hunting, not for sports/self defense.
- Daniel_sk 6y ago
  Survival / military e-shops are quite popular in EU, although they mostly target people that play airsoft, do reenactment, survival, bushcraft and so on. Preparing for a coup or for protection against the government is not a standard target group in Europe :-). In Slovakia and Czech republic you can own basically any short or long weapon and any caliber as long as it's not full-auto. But you can of course only bring it to an official shooting range or match. Owning a weapon for self defense is possible for regular citizen and you can carry it with you (only concealed), but only for short weapons (pistols, revolvers). But it's not a constitutional right, it's a privilege and you have to meet certain condition. It's a longer topic. But I wanted to say that even though we have a lot of weapons, the gun crime rate is extremely low. Maybe that's also because every gun is registered, you have to take all the exams (medical, psychological, background check, weapon law test) and so on... It's also forbidden to bring a weapon (even if concealed) to a protest, your weapon license would be taken and say good bye to your guns. Weapons in hands of citizen doesn't equal to gun crime (also check Switzerland), but I am also not a proponent of constitutional right for everyone to carry a weapon. So it's maybe similar to social networks - they can become a danger if they are not regulated (same as weapons, if they are unregulated and freely available).
- emilfihlman 6y ago
  Could you say what country? Because I might even bet that yes, you most definitely can buy an AR15 or any semiautomatic rifle just fine.
  - libertine 6y ago
    Ah yes, I'm from Portugal!
    - emilfihlman 6y ago
      Yes, you can buy AR15s and other semiautomatic rifles in Portugal. Most of Europe allows sports shooting, for example (from the top of my hear what I know for sure): Finland Sweden Norway Estonia Czech Republic Poland Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Spain And I haven't even put research into the rest of the countries
      - libertine 6y ago
        You can not buy semiautomatic rifles in Portugal, even if you are a collector I think but for that you might need to have some sort of special requirement. These are the types of licences we have: http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/ http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/ Now you can buy weapons of the same caliber, for hunting (but you need hunting licensing). Edit: Ok I need to clarify this. Because we have a different name for specific weapons. Here we can sell semiautomatic rifles (we call them "carabinas", I didn't label them as rifles so my bad), for hunting (a specific class, for boars, deer, etc). The thing is every weapon that's imported in Portugal gets and inspection and a classification if it's a military weapon or not. An AR15 is considered a military grade weapon by our government standards. So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles. You can't buy an AR15.
        jakearmitage 6y ago
        I know the argument here has been towards being able to buy or not a specific platform (AR-15), but I would like to address this: > So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles The semi-automatic rifles that you can buy in Portugal include the Remington 700 and the Thompson Performance Center T/C. Both can come chambered in .308 Win or 6.5 Creedmoor. Those cartridges have an immense stopping power and are significantly more powerful than the usual .223/5.56 you see in the AR-15 platform. Looking at hunting stores from Portugal, you can easily see those two rifles with 5 or 10 round magazines, same limits as the AR-15 in California. The Remington 700 has been widely used by the military all over the world, including the US. The M24 sniper rifle is the Remington 700, but with a heavier barrel (in order to use .300 Win which the US Marine Corps preferred). So, why is in your opinion the AR-15 platform "military grade", and the hunting rifles available in Portugal not? Knowing that both platforms have been used by the military in combat situations, and knowing the hunting platforms usually have much more powerful cartridges?

cptnapalm 6y ago

For body armor and certain kinds of weapons and attachments, one needs a Class III license. They are not available to the general public, as you wrote. EDIT: I'm wrong on body armor. I could have sworn at least some of it was restricted and required a license.

libertine 6y ago
Thank you for correcting me.
- cptnapalm 6y ago
  I will say that for a law abiding citizen, there's really no real road block to getting a Class III. However, only very few people bother to do it. In so far as to how dangerous it is, there are 630,000 legal full-auto/select-fire weapons in the US. They do require a Class III license to purchase and own and there have been no new ones since 1986. As I recall, of those 630,000, only 3 have been used illegally since 1934 and 2 of those were, ironically, by cops.
  - libertine 6y ago
    >As I recall, of those 630,000, only 3 have been used illegally since 1934 and 2 of those were, ironically, by cops. Still, as shown by the media at least, weapons became an accessory in protests and public manifestations over the past... 4 years? Even though they're not used, people have demonstrations of power by presenting their weapons. But again, my culture is very different from USA, so it's hard for me to grasp such thing.

skrowl 6y ago

Despite what your TV told you, military grade fully automatic weapons are 50 state illegal in the United States. Civilians may not own them. The scary guns you see on TV just LOOK like military weapons, they don't FUNCTION like them.

laverya 6y ago
Automatic weapons are legal in most states, they're just an NFA item and need to have been manufactured + registered prior to 1986. (And due to this, they're expensive as all hell - think $10k for a gun that sold for ~$120 new in 1980 - and to the best of my knowledge have only been used in two murders since 1934, of which one was a police officer killing a police informant)

jakearmitage 6y ago

You can buy body armor in Portugual too: http://www.engardeportugal.com/produtos.htm http://www.engardeportugal.com/produtos.htm And apparently it is much needed: https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/procurado-por-tentar-matar-homem-a-tiro-na-rua-no-porto-apos-zanga-acaba-detido https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/procurado-por-tenta... https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/homem-ameaca-mulher-com-tiros-em-lisboa https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/homem-ameaca-mulher... https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/gnr-em-alerta-maximo-guardas-usam-coletes-a-prova-de-bala-para-prevenir-vinganca https://www.cmjornal.pt/portugal/detalhe/gnr-em-alerta-maxim...

libertine 6y ago
Nah, not needed at all. Such scuffs do happen but are very rare, usually revolve around some sort of treason - wife/friend/land dispute. Plus we don't have terrorist attacks (domestic and foreigners), we don't have religion fanatics that go on killing sprees, we have a good public healthcare system that helps mentally hill (we don't have serial killers, and the ones we had didn't achieve the pop culture status), we have drug addiction under control, so yeah... it's really not useful to have body armor. Just to give you some perspective - I live for 11 years in the capital, and even lived near a social project where there was shady people and A LOT of police activity, and never heard a single gun shot.
- jakearmitage 6y ago
  I totally understand it is not needed, this was a straw man intended to detract from the idea that body armor is something alien and unnecessary for the general public. It is a personal protection item like any other. Is it useful in New York City or Lisbon? Probably not. But the same applies to other PPEs and we don't shame people for wanting to buy/use them. If a person feels safer using X, then fine, use it. As a society we used to mock people that bought Gas Masks and Respirators, marginalizing them as crazy. Then 2020 happened and all of a sudden every single gas mask, including useless old surplus, was out of stock.
  - libertine 6y ago