Leaping with gay abandon over the shark ... again

[unixronin]

The BATFE needs to be defunded, now.  In its latest derangement, it has decided that a shipment of Airsoft toy guns could be converted "with minimal work" to machineguns, and confiscated them for destruction.  The store owner quite reasonably points out that even if you were able to successfully modify them to chamber live rounds of actual ammunition and get the firing pin to strike the primer, the result would blow up in your face.  (On the bright side, at least this time BATFE didn't incinerate anyone, and hasn't yet killed anyone. One wonders whether "minimal work" includes fabricating a complete new barrel and bolt from scratch in their machine shops.  They've done comparable things before.)

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  BATFE is out of control and needs to be disbanded, and its agents prohibited from securing further employment in law enforcement.

Comments

[merlinpendragon]

Agreed. In full, with no conditions attached.

[milktree.livejournal.com]

Airsoft? Aren't they just .. um... plastic all the way through? I don't mean "plastic" like a Glock, but rather plastic like a Fisher-Price toy.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I believe some of the more expensive ones are metal, but we're not talking ordnance steel here, we're talking Mazac and similar zinc-based die-casting alloys. With sufficient sheer mass of metal, the stuff will stand up to the awe-inspiring chamber pressures generated by high-powered rounds like .... well, .22LR, .25ACP, and .32ACP for the truly bold.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, Lorcin Arms. Not the best quality money can buy — only the best you can buy without money.

Given the choice to between a cheap–ass zinc–cast Lorcin or Raven Arms for a good, stout pointed stick, I’ll take the pointed stick.

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

Speaking of things zinc… you know that Lorcin at one time made a zinc-alloy 9mm Parabellum, right?

It’s about as dangerous as it sounds. My gunsmith had it in his collection of gloriously bad firearms. It was the only weapon he felt was so innately dangerous that he removed the firing pin as a safety measure: he didn’t even feel it was safe to chamber a round.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I've heard of it, yes. If memory serves, it was direct blowback, based on the simple principle of just adding metal to the slide until its sheer mass delayed opening long enough for chamber pressure to drop to within marginally safe limits. (Defined as new factory cases — people who buy Lorcin don't reload — probably won't actually rupture on their first and only firing.)