MetaFilter posts tagged with guns

No longer sci-fi: world's first 3D printed (almost) all-plastic firearm.

MoTLD — Tue, 07 May 2013 18:13:10 -0800

Defense Distributed, creators of the controversial printable AR-15 receiver, have now released CAD files and video of the first firing of the Liberator, a real plastic pistol capable of firing between one and 10 .380 calibre rounds before exploding. Andy Greenberg of Forbes was apparently invited to witness the historic moment. The device is named after the FP-45 Liberator experiment of World War II. Interestingly, to comply with the Undetectable Weapons Act, the creators inserted a non-functional steel cube into the frame because the only metal part, a hardware store nail used as a firing pin, wasn't enough to set off the average metal detector.

Even Nixon & Reagan and the NRA once dabbled in gun control.

Obscure Reference — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:26:25 -0800

The ghost of gun control revisits the history of gun control in the US. (SLNYTOPED)

Military test(e)s

maggieb — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 20:03:26 -0800

Jalopnik gathers ten videos of shock, awe and oopsie See comments, too.

Stolen Years

quin — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 10:29:41 -0800

Using potential life expectancy numbers from the World Health Organization, Periscopic has created a beautiful, if depressing, visualization of the lost years resulting from gun deaths in the United States in 2010, and 2013 so far.

Hard numbers

unSane — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:25:06 -0800

How many people do you know who have been shot?

The gun of the fearful

Artw — Sun, 03 Mar 2013 23:51:08 -0800

The AR-15 is more than a gun. It's a gadget. It's an addiction and the future of firearms manufactures. It's the most wanted gun in America and more than anything it is a symbol of the cycle of fear that drives assault weapon sales.

"they did not know or expect that the evidence would point to Tehran."

the man of twists and turns — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 13:06:28 -0800

A Trail of Bullet Casings Leads From Africa’s Wars Back to Iran. Iran’s Cartridges & Their Quiet Distribution to Brutal Regimes and Many Wars. "Conflict Armament Research identifies and tracks conventional weapons in contemporary armed conflicts. Established in 2011, it was created in response to the growing need for informed, on-the-ground reporting on weapons proliferation in modern wars and insurgencies. " The "Small Arms Survey is an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland." Skirting The Law: Sudan's Post-CPA Arms Flows (PDF) Iran's Ammunition And Metallurgy Industries Group.

The shadow of the gun

bitmage — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:08:11 -0800

My Eight Years with a Gun "If the government was powerless to stop this onslaught, then the gun in my pocket was a declaration that the city had broken the social contract."

Arms Manufacturers <3 Game Publishers

The Devil Tesla — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 21:21:18 -0800

Shooters: How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers. An investigation into how real life weapons are licensed for videogames, and how those videogames market guns to young people, published by gaming news site Eurogamer.

Shotgun wedding

stbalbach — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 01:02:07 -0800

Shotgun wedding (video) in Bir el Ater, Algeria. I don't know anything about this video, but discovered that Bir el Ater was cradle of the stoneage Aterian civilization between about 80,000 and 40,000 years ago.

Whips, whiskey, women, work, weapons, cars and cadence. But no hockey.

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:59:41 -0800

Jump steady, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Yeah, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Looky yonder Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Whoa Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
Yeah, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam!
She's so rock steady! Bam-A-Lam!
She's always ready! Bam-A-Lam!
Whoa, Black Betty! Bam-A-Lam! The earliest recordings of the American folk/work song "Black Betty” were made in the early 1930s by American folklorists/musicologists John & Alan Lomax, who first recorded Blues legend Leadbelly. Odetta recorded a version of the song as part of a medley with “Looky Yonder” and “Almost Done”. While several artists in the mid-20th century recorded the song, the 1977 version by Ram Jam became a hit and catapulted the song into much wider exposure, while also becoming the version most cemented in the public’s awareness. More recent versions include Sheryl Crow, Ministry, and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels (with Sebastian Bach & Mick Mars). Volkswagon’s 2001 Superbowl ad featured the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s take on the song. There are many suggested interpretations of the song’s lyrics. One is that it refers to an English marching cadence used by soldiers: Betty was a black flintlock musket, a precursor to the Brown Bess used by the British Army for over 100 years, with “BAM-A-LAM” being the sound of one being fired. Another possible origin is a name for a bottle of whiskey from the English/Scottish border region. In 1737 Benjamin Franklin wrote an article for the Pennnsylvania Gazette titled “The Drinker’s Dictionary” where “He has kissed black Betty” [sic] is listed as a descriptor (among very many) for someone who is drunk. “BAM-A-LAM” could also be evoking the sound of a bullwhip down South on plantations and prison farms like Sugar Land and Angola. The lyrics could also refer to the bumpy ride and/or the slamming doors of the horse-drawn prisoner transfer/police wagon known as the Black Mariah. Ever since the Ram Jam version, groups like the NAACP and the Congress on Racial Equality have considered the song racist for the literal interpretation of the lyrics, specifically that they refer to a black woman and are insulting to Black women in general. While the driving beat and call-and-response aspect of the rock versions are still used at sporting events to get the crowd fired up, in 2006, the University of New Hampshire discontinued the playing of the Ram Jam version before hockey games. The New Zealand A1 Grand Prix racing team uses a reworked cover of the Ram Jam version as a theme song for their car Black Beauty. “Black Beauty” is also the name of the Green Hornet’s car, a bestselling 1877 novel about a horse and kindness to animals, and an archaic street name for stimulants.

Gun-show loophole -- Fact or Fiction?

jfwlucy — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 06:42:00 -0800

Ever step into a gun rights discussion and feel bombarded by rhetoric about exactly what the "gun-show loophole" is and how it works (not to mention furious diatribes against the term "assault weapon?) This article from the Nashville City Paper explains it, and illustrates how 'private sale loophole' might be a better term.

"We Just Witnessed a War Crime"

Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:33:02 -0800

The first thing we learned about war re-enactment is that it's fucking terrifying having guns fired at you, even ones loaded with blanks. The second thing we learned is a common re-enactor's dilemma called "The G.I. Effect", which is basically that people playing Americans don't like to die. So sometimes they just don't.

It's Like Vietnam All Over Again, pt 1. Part 2

Comrade Shovel

Mr.Encyclopedia — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:41:34 -0800

The modern equivalent of hammering your ploughshare into a sword. Man sees a new AK-47 stock in a shovel handle, then decides to not stop at that.

The tools of Mexico's drug cartels

Egg Shen — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:01:20 -0800

The tools of Mexico's drug cartels

Inside John McAfee’s Heart of Darkness

Cash4Lead — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 09:38:21 -0800

John McAfee is the founder of the McAfee security software company, one of the first and, to this day, one of the biggest. But it's what he has done since leaving the company in 1994 that has attracted him notoriety. After working on instant messaging software for a few years, McAfee devoted himself to thrill-seeking: yoga, jet skiing, and "aerotrekking," or flying small aircraft at low altitudes. After the 2008 financial crisis reportedly wiped out most of his personal fortune, once estimated at $100 million, McAfee decamped to Belize, where he began promoting a business venture aimed at halting the spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. But as science writer Jeff Wise (who also wrote the aerotrekking article) detailed after interviewing him in 2010, McAfee's commitment to the project seemed half-hearted at best, and his behavior came off as erratic and even paranoid. In a follow-up article, written after Belizean police raided McAfee's compound on suspicion of illegal weapons possession and drug manufacturing, Wise explores how "the enlightened Peter Pan seems to have refashioned himself into a kind of final-reel Scarface."

Pussy, Money, Weed.

azarbayejani — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 18:54:15 -0800

cashcats.biz I have no idea how these cats got all this money, or why.

You can’t hurt babies or old people!

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:00:10 -0800

A history of Nerf violence.

Chicago's Murder Problem

melissam — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 22:52:57 -0800

With six homicides, Saturday August 18th tied with an unseasonably warm February day for the dubious honor of Chicago's deadliest day, bringing the year's death total to over 340. Chicago is now one of the world's deadliest cities, much worse than the more populous NYC, even earning comparisons to Kabul. Possible culprits include failed urban policies, guns, concentrated poverty, and gangs (and counterintuitively, the fact that some are fractured and poorly run).

RUN. HIDE. FIGHT.

splatta — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 06:41:16 -0800

RUN. HIDE. FIGHT. A PSA by The City of Houston released three days after the Aurora masacre.

3D printed gun

stbalbach — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 21:23:27 -0800

"To the best of my knowledge, this is the first 3D printed firearm in the world to actually be tested." Gentleman describes how he used an old 3D printer and CAD files to print his own working gun.(*)

Shooting at Batman Premiere outside Denver

pjenks — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:37:53 -0800

A gas-masked perpetrator entered an Aurora, CO movie theater during the midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises, threw a smoke bomb and began shooting. Police in Aurora report that 14 are dead, and up to 50 others are injured. The lone gunman is believed to be in police custody. Columbine High School, site of a mass shooting 13 years ago, sits 20 miles to the west.

Faster and Furiouser

andoatnp — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 14:37:33 -0800

"The truth about the Fast and Furious scandal: A Fortune investigation reveals that the ATF never intentionally allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. How the world came to believe just the opposite is a tale of rivalry, murder, and political bloodlust." Previously.

More Stand-Your-Ground, More Murder

scunning — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:29:31 -0800

In addition to removing the duty to retreat when outside the home, Florida's 2005 "Stand Your Ground" law removed the civil liability to offenders who had acted within the law and added a presumption of reasonable belief of imminent harm necessitating a lethal response. These three elements were present in over 20 other state laws similar to Florida's. The following NBER working paper by two Texas A&M economists provides new statistical evidence that these laws caused a 7 to 9 percent increase in homicides and non-negligent manslaughter. Consider this post a companion to this previously, as well as this previously. Abstract: "Since Florida adopted the first castle doctrine law in 2005, more than 20 other states have passed similar self-defense laws that justify the use of deadly force in a wider set of circumstances. Elements of these laws include removing the duty to retreat in places outside of one’s home, adding a presumption of reasonable belief of imminent harm necessitating a lethal response, and removing civil liability for those acting under the law. This paper examines whether aiding self-defense in this way deters crime or, alternatively, escalates violence. To do so, we apply a difference-in-differences research design by exploiting the within-state variation in law adoption. We find no evidence of deterrence; burglary, robbery, and aggravated assault are unaffected by the laws. On the other hand, we find that murder and non-negligent manslaughter are increased by 7 to 9 percent. This could represent either increased use of lethal force in self-defense situations, or the escalation of violence in otherwise non-lethal situations. Regardless, the results indicate that a primary consequence of strengthening self-defense law is increased homicide." Media coverage at Business Insider, WSJ, Media Matters, and Dallas Observer. For those interested in the statistical methodology used, it's called a form of multivariate regression analysis commonly called "differences in differences". Imbens and Wooldridge NBER lecture notes are useful (slides). Emmanuel Saez's lecture notes are also nice if you want to compare. The theory of causality that diff-in-diff (or DiD, or DD) ascribes to is often called the Rubin-Neyman causal model, or sometimes just the potential outcomes model where causality is measured as the difference between the "actual outcome" and the "potential outcome" for a given unit with and without treatment, respectively.

Little Sure Shot

Isadorady — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:56:40 -0800

Annie Oakley's 12 gauge shotgun sold for $143,000 at a western memorabilia auction yesterday. Oakley grew up a poor farm girl in Ohio, far from the romanticized west she came to represent. Her prowess with a gun came from shooting for food to feed her poor family. Her nickname "Little Sure Shot" was given to her by Sitting Bull, a man she revered.