Society is progressing...

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Society is progressing...

Postby jdege on Thu Mar 30, 2023 9:35 pm

In some ways, society is progressing.

Some of you will be familiar with John Ross's book, Unintended Consequences.

Copyright 1996.

In it our hero remembers a trick with a hollow point .22 and a lighter flints:

Henry lowered the side stand, retrieved the Hi-Standard .22 from the right saddlebag, and extracted three .22 rounds from his shirt pocket. One ought to do it, unless I miss and hit the seat or something he thought as he examined the noses of the .22 slugs. There was enough moonlight for Henry to see that the flints were still in place. He poked one of the homemade rounds into the pistol's chamber and dropped the bolt.

It was a trick Henry had discovered when he was eleven years old, and Walter had been mightily impressed. A cigarette lighter flint, bought in 5 -packs at the grocery store and inserted into the nose of a .22 hollowpoint, made a surprisingly large flash when fired against rock or steel. In 1964, Henry had written the Ronson company, asking for a price quote on ten thousand of the tiny, red, cylindrical flints, packed loose instead of in those irritating yellow plastic holders. The Ronson company had not been interested in selling them that way, or in bypassing its normal distributors. When Henry had bought these at the Walgreens in Indianapolis, he saw that they still came packed five to a yellow plastic card.


In the sixties lighter flints were available only in packs of five. In the nineties they were still only available in packs of five.

Today you can buy a pack of 100 for $7 with free shipping if you're subscribed to Amazon Prime.
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Re: Society is progressing...

Postby Jackpine Savage on Fri Mar 31, 2023 6:33 am

:)

Fantastic book. For those not familiar it documents the rich history of the gun culture in our once great country with a great story line. I've read it more than any other book, at least a dozen times I'm sure.

Here's a PDF version: https://billstclair.com/Unintended-Consequences.pdf
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Re: Society is progressing...

Postby Lumpy on Fri Mar 31, 2023 8:31 pm

I loved the story, especially how well thought-out the strategy of the protagonists was; except that I thought the ending was weak: (spoilers follow)

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Faced with the specter of a militant underground movement capable of inflicting harm vastly out of proportion to its numbers, and with little prospect that federal law enforcement could end it with a few well-placed arrests, in the end the Federal government folds. The administration publicly announces that it will no longer enforce the provisions of the 1934 NFA or 1968 GCA pending official congressional repeal of those acts.

The thing is, NO government whatsoever will ever knuckle under like that. It would be an abnegation of authority on a par with being defeated in a war. In real life the federal administration would give a speech vowing some version of "pay any price, bear any burden", etc. The whole point of creating the BATFE in the early 1970s and giving it stormtrooper authority was precisely to root out armed militant groups (at the time, leftist radicals). No matter how ruinous and expensive a policy of pigheaded obstinacy would be, the government would never, ever cave. Heck, eventually it would find a way to institutionalize the never-ending struggle and make political hay out of it- look at the War On Drugs for example.

I think a more logical ending would have been if the protagonists, who had been VERY clever up until then, had figured out some way to offer the administration a chance to save face; a way to give in without publicly LOOKING like it had given in. Like maybe placing the entire blame on a few corrupt and overzealous officials perhaps.
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Re: Society is progressing...

Postby LarryFlew on Mon Apr 03, 2023 4:08 pm

In the 60s they sold a 22 round made of a graphite that wouldn't ricochet that we used on rats at the local dump that had rocks and steel along with the normal garbade. Wish I had known then.

Now thinking of steel targets. Was a smoker and Zippo collector back when and have a few of the 5 packs of flint.
If you're having second thoughts you're two ahead of most Democrats
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