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I sent this article to someone a few days ago because it was such a weird mix of outright goofy exaggeration of everything to do with guns and other weapons whi

I sent this article to someone a few days ago because it was such a weird mix of outright goofy exaggeration of everything to do with guns and other weapons while at the same time ostensibly being about an actual problem with law enforcement. (We were amused by some of the quotes like one from previous commenter.) It's a very strangely written article. That said, many folks who know things about guns have a tendency to assume that if they wrote wild things about weaponry that don't really make sense, the article overall isn't trustworthy.

mschuster91 2y ago
It might just as well be that cops tell exaggerated shit to journalists and they lack the knowledge to know they're being fed shit. DARE and other anti drug campaigns follow the exact same playbook, just with children on the receiving end - no, smoking 4/20 is not a direct pathway to ending up homeless and with a heroin needle sticking out your arm. Or religious anti-sex campaigns - no, having sex with people will not make you a whore or whatnot.
15155 2y ago
Perhaps it's actually just a problem with legislation: if there were no artificial scarcity on these devices, they wouldn't be worth selling.
- Glyptodon 2y ago
  I do think the prices of legal machines guns relative to the simplicity of creating one suggest that there should be some kind of NFA legal way to obtain new manufacture machine guns. Could imagine even a huge tax might strike a better incentive balance for reducing behaviors alluded to in the article.
  - 15155 2y ago
    A huge tax might prevent undesirable folks from voting, too.
    - Glyptodon 2y ago
      I mean "preventing folks from voting" is, at least in normal times, assuming normal methods, clearly on the side of not legal, undesirable, and against the law. Meanwhile, "preventing people from owning machine guns" is widely accepted as legal, at least if they're made after a specific date. I agree that there's probably not a strong reason to assume that moving modern manufacture machine guns to a tax stamp regime with a huge tax wouldn't trigger some kind of litigation, but that seems mostly like a tangent. (And I think by default you'd assume there's no reason for the court to seconds guess the tax level of a tax without questioning the current tax stamp regime too.)

mschuster91 2y ago

It might just as well be that cops tell exaggerated shit to journalists and they lack the knowledge to know they're being fed shit. DARE and other anti drug campaigns follow the exact same playbook, just with children on the receiving end - no, smoking 4/20 is not a direct pathway to ending up homeless and with a heroin needle sticking out your arm. Or religious anti-sex campaigns - no, having sex with people will not make you a whore or whatnot.

15155 2y ago

Perhaps it's actually just a problem with legislation: if there were no artificial scarcity on these devices, they wouldn't be worth selling.

Glyptodon 2y ago
I do think the prices of legal machines guns relative to the simplicity of creating one suggest that there should be some kind of NFA legal way to obtain new manufacture machine guns. Could imagine even a huge tax might strike a better incentive balance for reducing behaviors alluded to in the article.
- 15155 2y ago
  A huge tax might prevent undesirable folks from voting, too.
  - Glyptodon 2y ago
    I mean "preventing folks from voting" is, at least in normal times, assuming normal methods, clearly on the side of not legal, undesirable, and against the law. Meanwhile, "preventing people from owning machine guns" is widely accepted as legal, at least if they're made after a specific date. I agree that there's probably not a strong reason to assume that moving modern manufacture machine guns to a tax stamp regime with a huge tax wouldn't trigger some kind of litigation, but that seems mostly like a tangent. (And I think by default you'd assume there's no reason for the court to seconds guess the tax level of a tax without questioning the current tax stamp regime too.)