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Comment Re:I don't know about the 'cluster' mailboxes. (Score 1) 867

It may surprise you to learn that, like democrats, republicans are individual people, and are not universally good or bad. Sometimes, you get fiscal responsibility from a batch of republicans, and sometimes not....for the same reasons that you get differing results from different groups of PEOPLE.

Comment Re:Boom (Score 1) 814

The leg is actually a fairly lethal spot to shoot at, thanks to the femoral artery. This has the disadvantage of not stopping the assailant immediately in the way torso and head shots sometimes do, but still killing them thanks to rapid bleeding. Statistically speaking, the arm is by far the safest place to be shot. I'm afraid that the training involved betrays a lack of rigor in it's design. The issue is one of culture. Ya'll don't kill each other with guns as much because overall, ya'll just don't kill each other as much. It isn't your training per se, it's the respect of life that matters.

Comment Re:Smart guns... (Score 1) 814

Depends entirely on circumstances. Range is a big factor. In tactical shooting, there is a concept called a Tueller drill. IE, a person with a knife 21 feet away from you. The drill is to draw and fire before you are stabbed. It is exceedingly difficult. Personally, I don't really want to be shot OR stabbed. Hell, there was recently a mass stabbing in asia. Coupla dozen victims, if memory serves. Knives can be quite dangerous in the wrong hands.

Comment Re:Smart guns... (Score 1) 814

This is incorrect. Shots fired in violent incidents vastly exceed the number of individuals killed. There are no shortage of cases with dozens of rounds fired and 0-1 dead people. You may have noticed an incident in Boston recently. There was a gunfight in that chase, with two bombers vs...a lot of police. HUNDREDS of rounds were fired. Only one bomber was incapacitated by gunfire, and he hardly expired instantly. Yes, guns can kill, but wildly misrepresenting how they are used only serves to portray you as yet another person who relies on movies for his information on firearms.

Comment Re:All guns are dangerous... (Score 1) 976

It seems like it'd be particularly easy to make other, similar apps to demonize other groups. Why, if this catches on, we'll soon be able to designate our local "godless communists", "racist rightwing nutjobs", and every other demographic imaginable! In a year or two, perhaps we can have an entire social network devoted to the people who despise you most describing you. Society will be vastly better once we are all unwillingly enrolled in Hatebook.

Comment Re:1 2 3 4 I declare flame war (Score 1) 976

It's partly a media issue. I've appeared in media pieces regarding firearms a dozen times or so, and I've yet to see a single mention of any safety precautions make it through editing. I did, however, have to veto at least two terminally unsafe proposals from media folks. One wanted a firearm pointed right at him for a more dramatic shot. Another wanted to borrow a firearm to take it through airport security as a demonstration. Obviously, such attitudes are doing little to promote an awareness of proper firearm safety. The NRA, on the other hand, spends the majority of it's budget on it.

Comment Re:1 2 3 4 I declare flame war (Score 1) 976

I somehow doubt that random people using an app are going to check over your history at length before tagging you one way or the other. It's like expecting an erudite review from a youtube comment. Sure, it's possible in theory, but in practice, people on the internet who don't need to confront you can easily be assholes.

Comment Re:1 2 3 4 I declare flame war (Score 1) 976

How so? Did we not just have another mass stabbing in china? Twenty dead or some such? Drunken brawls are not safe. Promoting tolerance of such behavior is deeply irresponsible. Unlike how the movies portray the world, there really is no safe level of punching people in the head. Alcohol kills a LOT of people directly, and manages to ruin a lot more lives. We tried banning it, but it worked out pretty poorly. People still died, lives still got ruined. Jumping from identifying a problem to an attempted banning entirely skips the whole decision making process. How many alternatives were there to save lives from alcohol that never saw the light of day due to the fixation on prohibition? How many more reasonable ways to stop violence today? I submit that the focus on a single solution points to a solution in search of justification, not a genuine attempt at solving a problem.

Comment Re:Multi-mode is old news (Score 1) 146

Military has a truck to plane system for palletized cargo that works pretty decently. Well, ok, k-loader to plane...not the most standard of trucks. However, it does work for simplifying loading/unloading of aircraft, and there's no particular reason that the same pallets couldn't be used elsewhere. Vehicles utilizing them and automated inventory systems for them already exist.

Comment Re:yea right (Score 1) 558

Additionally, the volley gun was in service in the British military at this time. Seven rounds, shoulder fired gun...and also rockets and mortars and warships and rifles. Gun tech moves a lot slower than many people believe. There's a reason we're still using the 1911. Gun tech just hasn't changed that much in over a hundred years.

Comment Re:Missing the obvious solution.. (Score 1) 558

Ammunition consists of powder and shot. If you're electrically detonating it, you don't need the right electrical current, you just need an electrical current. In other words, a "smart" weapon can be trivially modified to work by replacing the expensive biometric portion with a bit of wire and duct tape. Or, yknow, hitting the bullet with something hard, the way we do it now.

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