5 ms·

This is a perfect illustration of why I chuckle when people claim to be able to "ban guns". He is projecting a 3/8" (.375 caliber) round steel projectile at ~3

This is a perfect illustration of why I chuckle when people claim to be able to "ban guns". He is projecting a 3/8" (.375 caliber) round steel projectile at ~3x the maximum velocity limit for an unrestricted air rifle in Canada. Using a crank and some hefty rubber bands.

bfung 5y ago
Sure, but this project isn’t really hand held and mobile and reloadable in a small amount of time. It took some smart enough person to operate as well. Some nuance and differentiation still appropriate; this is as close to an air rifle as vacuum tubes are to SoC.
- pjkundert 5y ago
  "Sure, Mr. Wright, but the craft isn't reliable and easy to fly..."
muglug 5y ago
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make... that machine is not particularly mobile. It takes him 5 minutes to load a projectile. The UK has banned guns. People there generally don't build trebuchets to compensate. Murder rate in the US is 18x higher than in the UK, and 23x higher than in Canada. Edit: there are obviously other ways to murder someone, knives being the most common in the UK. If you're a good aim, guns are a lot less messy, and I think that makes a big difference to would-be murderers.
- jrexilius 5y ago
  Your statistics are wildly off: UK Homicide rate 2018: 1.20/100k US Homicide rate 2018: 4.96/100k And making something illegal is not the key factor in comparing countries: UK Drug Overdose Deaths 2020: 7.6/100k. US Drug Overdose Deaths 2020: 28.1/100k.
  - penteract 5y ago
    You're right. There is a difference between murder and intentional homicide, but the factor of 18 appears to be using the raw numbers of murders rather than murders per person.
- pjkundert 5y ago
  The point is -- if a newbie engineer can create this in a few afternoons out of spare parts, any black-market weapon maker can contract some engineers and with a few CNC machines and some billet aluminum and steel, can start cranking out AR-15s. Literally the only people affected by "gun bans" are the law-abiding. Any criminal gets armed with cheap black-market weapons. All the political elites and aparatchiks have armed guards. The rest of us dumb slobs get to be mowed down in the cross-fire between roving gangs, or defencelessly abused and robbed in a home invasion. Or clubbed as we protest in the streets, by our ever-caring politician's brown-shirts. Remember: every smokeless powder propellant powered firearm is basically an "air gun". The rest is ... refinement.
  - ioseph 5y ago
    Most mass shootings in the US seem to be perpetrated by the "law abiding" gun owners. Just having less guns in circulation would go a very long way to reduce gun related homicides.
    - edm0nd 5y ago
      Having less firearms is not the solution. 2/3rds of all firearm deaths in the US are from suicide. The majority of the rest are from drug/gang violence or domestic disputes. Having free healthcare in the US (esp. mental healthcare) would drastically reduce the amount of firearm deaths via suicide. Couple that with free after school jobs and skills training for those most at risk inner city youth who are the most likely to join a gang or sell drugs, would also have a large impact at reducing drug/gang firearm deaths. Those two things alone would make the largest impact. Not reducing the amount of firearms. Heck even raising the min wage to $15 would help so those kids parents dont have to work multiple jobs and can spend more time with and raising their children.
    - _dain_ 5y ago
      because "mass shooting" is an artificial category that excludes most shootings with multiple victims (gang/drug violence).
      - 5y ago
- edm0nd 5y ago
  yeah instead of using a firearm in the UK, you'll get stabbed. The US also has a way larger population. When you take away suicides (which make up 2/3rds of firearm deaths), we really dont have a lot of firearm deaths.
  - InitialLastName 5y ago
    Per [0], US firearm deaths (per 100K people per year) minus suicides would put them between Nicaragua and Paraguay, and about double the next country in the developed world. That's still a lot of firearm deaths. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...
    - deleted 5y ago
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- leephillips 5y ago
  Knives are better for murder, but guns are better for self defense.
- bruprup 5y ago
  You can make an ar-15 receiver (legally the gun) out of plate steel from Home Depot and some spacers. The build is from the glory early years of the internet (90s?), so instructions are kinda hard to find. Why bother? CAD drawings for a $800 mill machine are available everywhere. Really, if you've ever held a receiver you'd realize how... primitive it is. Europeans don't DIY guns because you're next to enough failed states to easily get fully automatic rifles. Why trouble your self with a building a semi-automatic when you can buy the full auto version? Except for Sweden and the UK. They prefer hand grenades and knives respectively.
  - troutwine 5y ago
    > Europeans don't DIY guns because you're next to enough failed states to easily get fully automatic rifles. This is not quite accurate. The [FGC-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGC-9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGC-9) was made in Europe and has popped up in Myanmar. As I recall from the Popular Front documentary on JStark, the inventor of this weapon, other people were known by him to be making them in Western Europe.
    - bruprup 5y ago
      I was being facetious to remind Europeans that their criminals have guns, better guns than criminals in the US do. The DIY scene in Europe is quite healthy, so of course someone will make a DIY gun.
- bruprup 5y ago
  Where do you get those numbers? Did you forget a period? Or are you comparing gross numbers and forgot to normalize? You're off by an order of magnitude! The US is, generally, very safe. And I'll gladly take a 2x or 3x increase of a very rare event to not have to live in Canada again. I grew up there and... yuck (To the Canadians here, please understand. I grew up in the GTA) That being said, mama raised no fool. I don't and wouldn't live in a defund-the-police city.
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bfung 5y ago

Sure, but this project isn’t really hand held and mobile and reloadable in a small amount of time. It took some smart enough person to operate as well. Some nuance and differentiation still appropriate; this is as close to an air rifle as vacuum tubes are to SoC.

pjkundert 5y ago
"Sure, Mr. Wright, but the craft isn't reliable and easy to fly..."

muglug 5y ago

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make... that machine is not particularly mobile. It takes him 5 minutes to load a projectile. The UK has banned guns. People there generally don't build trebuchets to compensate. Murder rate in the US is 18x higher than in the UK, and 23x higher than in Canada. Edit: there are obviously other ways to murder someone, knives being the most common in the UK. If you're a good aim, guns are a lot less messy, and I think that makes a big difference to would-be murderers.

jrexilius 5y ago
Your statistics are wildly off: UK Homicide rate 2018: 1.20/100k US Homicide rate 2018: 4.96/100k And making something illegal is not the key factor in comparing countries: UK Drug Overdose Deaths 2020: 7.6/100k. US Drug Overdose Deaths 2020: 28.1/100k.
- penteract 5y ago
  You're right. There is a difference between murder and intentional homicide, but the factor of 18 appears to be using the raw numbers of murders rather than murders per person.
pjkundert 5y ago
The point is -- if a newbie engineer can create this in a few afternoons out of spare parts, any black-market weapon maker can contract some engineers and with a few CNC machines and some billet aluminum and steel, can start cranking out AR-15s. Literally the only people affected by "gun bans" are the law-abiding. Any criminal gets armed with cheap black-market weapons. All the political elites and aparatchiks have armed guards. The rest of us dumb slobs get to be mowed down in the cross-fire between roving gangs, or defencelessly abused and robbed in a home invasion. Or clubbed as we protest in the streets, by our ever-caring politician's brown-shirts. Remember: every smokeless powder propellant powered firearm is basically an "air gun". The rest is ... refinement.
- ioseph 5y ago
  Most mass shootings in the US seem to be perpetrated by the "law abiding" gun owners. Just having less guns in circulation would go a very long way to reduce gun related homicides.
  - edm0nd 5y ago
    Having less firearms is not the solution. 2/3rds of all firearm deaths in the US are from suicide. The majority of the rest are from drug/gang violence or domestic disputes. Having free healthcare in the US (esp. mental healthcare) would drastically reduce the amount of firearm deaths via suicide. Couple that with free after school jobs and skills training for those most at risk inner city youth who are the most likely to join a gang or sell drugs, would also have a large impact at reducing drug/gang firearm deaths. Those two things alone would make the largest impact. Not reducing the amount of firearms. Heck even raising the min wage to $15 would help so those kids parents dont have to work multiple jobs and can spend more time with and raising their children.
  - _dain_ 5y ago
    because "mass shooting" is an artificial category that excludes most shootings with multiple victims (gang/drug violence).
    - 5y ago
edm0nd 5y ago
yeah instead of using a firearm in the UK, you'll get stabbed. The US also has a way larger population. When you take away suicides (which make up 2/3rds of firearm deaths), we really dont have a lot of firearm deaths.
- InitialLastName 5y ago
  Per [0], US firearm deaths (per 100K people per year) minus suicides would put them between Nicaragua and Paraguay, and about double the next country in the developed world. That's still a lot of firearm deaths. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
leephillips 5y ago
Knives are better for murder, but guns are better for self defense.
bruprup 5y ago
You can make an ar-15 receiver (legally the gun) out of plate steel from Home Depot and some spacers. The build is from the glory early years of the internet (90s?), so instructions are kinda hard to find. Why bother? CAD drawings for a $800 mill machine are available everywhere. Really, if you've ever held a receiver you'd realize how... primitive it is. Europeans don't DIY guns because you're next to enough failed states to easily get fully automatic rifles. Why trouble your self with a building a semi-automatic when you can buy the full auto version? Except for Sweden and the UK. They prefer hand grenades and knives respectively.
- troutwine 5y ago
  > Europeans don't DIY guns because you're next to enough failed states to easily get fully automatic rifles. This is not quite accurate. The [FGC-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGC-9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGC-9) was made in Europe and has popped up in Myanmar. As I recall from the Popular Front documentary on JStark, the inventor of this weapon, other people were known by him to be making them in Western Europe.
  - bruprup 5y ago
    I was being facetious to remind Europeans that their criminals have guns, better guns than criminals in the US do. The DIY scene in Europe is quite healthy, so of course someone will make a DIY gun.
bruprup 5y ago
Where do you get those numbers? Did you forget a period? Or are you comparing gross numbers and forgot to normalize? You're off by an order of magnitude! The US is, generally, very safe. And I'll gladly take a 2x or 3x increase of a very rare event to not have to live in Canada again. I grew up there and... yuck (To the Canadians here, please understand. I grew up in the GTA) That being said, mama raised no fool. I don't and wouldn't live in a defund-the-police city.

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