Re: Anti-Gun Hysteria!
- From: r_c_brown@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:51:54 -0700
On Jul 31, 8:00 pm, swamp <swampmu...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 14:59:29 -0700, DonStarr <d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
[snip]
We must keep in mind that swamp's previous definition of "manufacture"
seems to require that the "manufacturer" obtains every one of his
materials on his own, without depending on the efforts of any other
industry. That is, swamp won't allow the manufacturer to buy any
pre-processed materials or tools. I can only presume that was his
reason for talking about mining and smelting iron ore when claiming it
was difficult to manufacture firearms.
If you'll recall, pro-gun, or pro-RKBA, or whatever you want to call
yourselves, argued that making a semi-automatic, powder-charged weapon
was not difficult for anyone w/ a garage or basement, a CNC machine,
and access to spring steel (junkyard). Some claimed they could make
the springs themselves.
The argument was that making a firearm would not be difficult for
someone with reasonable skill and equipment.
Your counter was that such a person could not mine and smelt iron ore,
so that said construction of a firearm would be impossible.
Of course, by such a definition, there are very few individuals (or,
likely, corporations) that can "manufacture" cookies. Not too many
individuals or corporations:
* plant, harvest, and mill their own wheat,
* plant, harvest, and refine their own sugar crops (or maintain
beehives),
* hunt down wild chickens to get their eggs (whether to use those
eggs immediately or to raise yet more chickens),
* run a rudimentary chem lab to "manufacture" chemical leavenings,
or start and maintain wild yeast cultures,
* grow and process their own vanilla,
* mine or evaporate their own salt,
* plant and harvest their own walnuts, pecans, whatever,
* mine and smelt their own iron to make an oven or any of other
implements they might need to mix, contain, or otherwise prepare
the ingredients,
* produce their own electricity or gas which will run the oven,
* etc.
I wonder if swamp thinksKraft Foods "manufactures" cookies, or if
Sturm, Ruger & Company "manufactures" firearms. Neither one obtains
all of the raw materials on their own. Perhaps he's disqualified them
from the ranks of "manufacturers". If so, it's likely he's
disqualified every other "manufacturer" on the planet, except,
perhaps, those who are whittling little figurines out of driftwood
(presuming they made their own knives, of course).
Not exactly. I've DQ'd the guys who say a Glock can be made in a
garage w/ hand drills and files for less $$ than one could buy one at
the local gun shop.
The home-built firearm argument first came up when you proposed a hand
gun ban. In that case, the option of buying at a local gun shop
wouldn't exist.
I'm sure your wife makes excellent chocolate-chip
cookies, probably much better than Kraft's, but I'll bet her cookies
aren't on the shelves of the local supermarket. She can't compete w/
the price or production. Therefore, if Kraft were banned from making
chocolate chip cookies, the supermarket shelves wouldn't be as full of
chocolate-chip cookies, would they?
Then again, if swamp's definition of "manufacture" allows the
corporation or individual to merely buy whatever tools and raw
materials are needed (and are commonly available), then manufacturing
firearms is nearly as easy as manufacturing cookies. I can order steel
and an inexpensive, yet serviceable, CNC mill just as easily as I can
order groceries and mixing bowls. After obtaining the tools and
materials, I just have to follow a recipe.
It's always easy if you're not the one doing the work. So, while
waiting for $10,000? worth of CNC machines to arrive, you'll pull the
electical to run them or hire an electrician to do it, probably
another $5000.
If you hire a thief as an electrician, you might be correct. Doing
the electrical work yourself (which would be my choice), or hiring an
honest electrician, wouldn't cost you any where near that much.
Then you're off to junkyard for spring steel, or were
you going buy the furnace and do the tempering yourself? Just how much
is this gun going to cost?
How long would it take you to make it? Would it be as good as the one
you could buy at the local gun shop? How far away would you be and how
many times would you remote-shoot it before you shouldered or
hand-held it the first time? Unless you were engaged in illegal
activities, what would be your motivation to machine one?
I don't know what's involved in making a firearm; I've never even
owned one. However, the motivation to machine one is the same
motivation that drives other activities. For example, many people
make their own beer or wine. It's not because it's cheaper to do so,
it's because they *can*, and it's *fun* to do so.
In any case, basement/garage guys can't compete w/ mass manufacturers;
there's more to cooking than following a recipe.
Competing with mass producers wasn't a part of your original argument.
-- swamp- Hide quoted text -
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