No, that's because I'm lazy and get tired of looking up the names of those organizations. Johns Hopkins APL and US Army Health Command are two. (Public Health Command? Something like that.) There's... two other organizations? Something like that.

I just fell out of my chair laughing. So in other words, you don't really know, do you? Just admit it.

Fuck your mother, and citations please. I'm looking at your follow-up posts, dickhead, and you've got nothing. What, are you under NDA, little gurl?

The health effects were well-studied long before they even tried to sell them to the government.

Maybe.. maybe not.. Shades of the taser...

We have failed at our responsibility to safely possess firearms. We do not deserve them now.

Sorry son, you first.

Can you please tell me how much you will suffer?

Ohh, I don't know.. maybe because in New York I couldn't have my Springfield XDM? Looks like even though she tagged this guy with five rounds of .38 out of a revolver that she'd have been toast had there been accomplices. You might bleat 'anecdote', I will say 'do your own research; home invasions are getting nastier and are a trend'.

The protection of yourself and your family is your responsibility. Nobody else's.

The cops are not your friend. They are not there to protect you; they are there to clean up the mess. And yes, I'll use the cliche: the police are there in minutes when seconds count. In addition, I don't understand law enforcement needs full-auto variants of the AR-15 since many cops can't shoot worth a shit anyway, let alone handle full auto (which is largely used for suppressive fire in war). We used to out-shoot them all the time when I was in the military, and I laugh at them now at our local range. A couple of departments mandate a couple of hundred rounds a practice per year; the average in my crew is about 1000-2000 a month, minimum (some of these guys who have money are running through 6k a month).. of 'real' calibers (not counting .22 LR) and we're 'casual' handgunners.

As for shotguns (because you just know somebody's going to go there..).. let me see you clear corners with a shotgun like I can my semi-auto pistol. Just let me see a shotgun muzzle coming around a corner.. and if you do the 'come around then bring it up' trick you're already in my tritium 3-dot sights. Mozambique Drill in effect.

Bottom line is: whatever the average flatfoot has access to as a duty weapon, I should have access to. The criminals have access to EVERYTHING. My weapons are secure, but if you manage to break into my house while I'm not there and use a plasma cutter to open my gun safe, then the problem is you, not me.

Please note: I'm all for background checks, closing the gunshow loophole, and deveoping a mechanism that keeps the crazies away from firepower, as well as enchancing penalties for people who do not keep their weapons secured.

I don't know where you live in Texas, but wherever it is (unless it's Austin) just stay in the closet about your views on weaponry. It will save you serious emotional distress. I've lived in Texas and Arizona, and we'd have openly mocked you. Maybe even made fun of you. ;)

Indeed! The two shops I frequent are just about completely out. The smaller shop I hang out at mainly for their pistol range has seven used handguns and a couple of new overpriced 1911 Kimbers, whereas they normally have seventy or so weapons in the case and as many handguns in back. Their rifle inventory is down from 60 to 5, and those are used junk. They're backlogged on mainstream AR-15s for 16 months.

The larger shop is nationally known, and they normally have at least 200 pistols and 200 rifles on the showroom at any given time (don't know how many are warehoused, but they do have a warehouse), and they're down to about 1/3 of that. Most of what's left are some of the more esoteric revolvers (single action cowboy guns, weapons in odd calibers, etc) and some hunting shotguns.

Agreed!

Hello kitty AR-15!

That home invasion type scenario is so remote in probability it is not worth worrying about.

It depends where you live. When I lived in a nasty neighborhood in a certain midwestern city it wasn't uncommon. That being said you can keep a fully loaded revolver in a LOCKED table top gun safe on the nightstand with reasonably quick access. Especially if you've got a model with the finger tip controls and the combo locked into muscle memory.
I'm a fan of the pump gun though..

Plenty of smart people own guns, unless you are defining smart people as people who agree with you.

This is Slashdot. Of course (s)he is.

"The purpose of gun control is to guarantee the right of 110-pound women to fistfight with 210-pound rapists." - the net

You think anyone in our government fears a mob with guns? Recall, this is the government that has a fleet of robots that roam the skies looking for people to bomb without ever risking a life.

*snicker* I've got some friends in units such as the 82nd Airborne that fear insurgents living in mud huts with shitty stamped AK-47s and improvised explosives.

Perhaps it depends who you are trying to stop. If you are trying to stop drug lords and mass terrorists who have many people in their organization who can easily disable the technology, then you're right, it probably won't stop them.

Kids root their own cell phones and circumvent DRM. Why would you think that it would take a major effort to disable this stuff? Not trying to be an asshole about it, just saying there will be a FAQ on the topic in about 12 milliseconds after that model of weapon is released.

Multiple assailants, failure to stop, ammunition malfunction, etc.

Have you ever fired a handgun?

Paradigm.. paradigmish.. paradigmons.. paradigmez.. paradigment...
Sorry.. couldn't resist...

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with this. The stinging irony is that your PhD is going to scare folks off despite that it demonstrates that you've got quite the noggin on your shoulders. Unless you're willing to omit it from your resume (which some MAY consider lying by omission) along with some creative verbage about what you were doing during that time, doing your own thing as the parent suggests may be the path of least resistance.

A friend of mine has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and an MS in Computer Science. He always takes the risk and omits the PhD as he was getting no love from employers otherwise.

Assuming that your statistics are true, all that means is that CCW licenses are currently strictly limited. Once we make them more common and widespread, you'll see the rate of violent crime go up.

Strictly limited? As in a background check to ensure that yu're not a felon and that you take 12 hours worth of coursework? And suicide.. is it really any of your business if the person is of sound mind? And please, don't tell me you're spamming your blog in here with weakass reasoning like the unfounded assertion above.