Jerry Brito

I was just saying how it will only be a matter of time before someone attaches a gun to a commercial drone, and I come across someone else who thinks this, too:

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, and Rep. John Huffman, R-The Dalles, have introduced separate but related legislation aimed at restricting future use of drones by law enforcement and the public. Both bills would criminalize use of drones to fire bullets or missiles and to spy on people.

The last thing I think people want to do is look outside their picture window or their bedroom window and see a drone,” Prozanski says, explaining why he drafted Senate Bill 71. “This seems somewhat space age. But the reality is, they’re here.”

I’m sorry, Sen. Prozanski, but a law is not going to stop people from using drones this way. And as I say, when drones are outlawed, only the outlaws have drones.

In an otherwise excellent post on the overblown reaction to 3D-printed guns, Rob Pegoraro writes this:

I don’t know what real-world problem advocates of home-printed munitions are trying to solve. Do these people all think they’re John Connor? Sorry, but a) the Constitution doesn’t grant you a right to armed rebellion, and b) the military has tanks, aircraft carriers, fighter planes, drones and quite a few nukes, so good luck with one anyway.

Let’s put aside for a moment the contested question of whether one purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that citizens could resist a tyrannical government. Even if the Constitution doesn’t give one “a right to armed rebellion,” that’s neither here nor there. The whole point of 3D-printed guns is that you won’t have to rely on the Supreme Court for permission to resist the government. These advocates want to ensure for themselves that option. So it seems to me it’s pretty clear that’s the “real-world problem” these folks are trying to solve.

Then there is the practical objection: What good is a 3D printed gun if the government has nukes? First, there are different levels of government to consider. The more immediate object of resistance for many folks is not the federal military, but simply the police. Radley Balko has spent years documenting why this might be the case. Second, even if we were talking about rebellion against the federal government, it’s unlikely a response will rely on nukes or jets or aircraft carriers. As for drones, commercial availability is on the verge of exploding just like 3D printing. It will only be a matter of time before some citizens attach guns to their tacocopters.

I love this. But I wouldn’t create a new button. I’d just use the existing ‘like’ and ‘reblog’ buttons. Users would be able to voluntarily pay any amount they want each month—say $5—and it would get distributed among the original posters of what they like and reblog.

Obvious problems:

1. Most original posters are not original creators.
2. Unscrupulous souls won’t reblog but will instead repost as an original poster.

Best sentence I’ve read today:

“In Japan for example,” she says, “our analysis shows that people want to know quite a lot about the blood type of film stars”, so that will be a prioritised part of the instant Knowledge Graph in that part of the world.