A good example of an effective meme we see pretty frequently. The reason it's effective is simple: it's true — sort of. By picking a narrow slice of the story, it misleads while seeming (to a lay audience) to inform. Short thread on "the middlebrow factoid".
https://twitter.com/MomsDemand/status/1339993089352626176
"Weapon of choice" is self-evidently wrong (there aren't nearly that many homemade guns in the country), but sure, criminals do use homemade guns today more than they did 10 or 20 years ago.
Naturally. Homemade guns are way easier to build today. But wait, isn't that bad?
Naturally. Homemade guns are way easier to build today. But wait, isn't that bad?
Well, *why* are homemade guns easier to make today? For the same reason that guns in general are better: technology moved forward. It's like saying that reflex optics or pic rails are more popular with criminals today than they were 20 years ago. Yes. They're more popular period.
Tech gets popular if it's good. And any tech that gets popular will by definition be popular with criminals. Just like it'll be popular with doctors, garbage truck drivers, and your neighbor with the nice Christmas decorations. That's what popular means — humans like the thing.
So if tech has to be good to be popular, and anything popular will inevitably be used by criminals, then "this tech can't be allowed if criminals use it" actually means something that sounds much less nice: "this tech can't be allowed if it's any good".
That might seem silly, but it's where the restrictionist impulse about homemade guns leads. What era of technology became too much? Picatinny rails? Red dot optics? Modern polymers? Self-loading rifles? Muskets?
There was a time when each of those was a major technological leap.
There was a time when each of those was a major technological leap.
High-quality homemade guns are no newer today than the first self-loading rifles were in 1910, or the first lever-actions in the mid-1800s, or the first flintlocks in the 1600s. And in a few years, they'll seem just as old timey.
Tech rolls forward. It can't be stopped, b/c the first thing it does is figure out how to *keep* rolling forward.
So ignore the fud about criminals. This stuff is new and popular. Soon it'll be old and popular. And there'll be something new right behind it.
So ignore the fud about criminals. This stuff is new and popular. Soon it'll be old and popular. And there'll be something new right behind it.
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