From: kratz@cs.uiuc.edu (Jason Kratz)
Subject: Re: criminals & machineguns
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: usa
Lines: 52

In <1993Apr16.202441.16032@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU> andy@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman) writes:

>In article <93104.175256U28037@uicvm.uic.edu> Jason Kratz <U28037@uicvm.uic.edu> writes:
>>people are getting killed by gang violence every day?  Every single day I hear
>>about more people getting killed by gang violence and see some of the weapons
>>that are being confiscated.

>Is Kratz claiming that he can reliably visually distinguish an M-16
>from an AR-15?  That he can see the difference between a semi-auto and
>a full-auto UZI?  That he can see the difference between the various
>versions (some full-auto, some semi-auto only) of the M-11/9?

Well, let me see.  UZI, no.  M-11/9, no.  M-16/AR-15, maybe.  I remember there
being a selector swtich on the AR-15.  If I remember correctly (please correct
me if I'm wrong) the switch would set to an "off" position or an "on" position
because the gun (AR-15) is semi-automatic.  Wouldn't the M-16 have a position
for semi-auto fire and full-auto fire (or maybe 3 round bursts)?  If this is
correct wouldn't it be easy to distinguish each gun by this alone?  Of course
if the AR-15 were modified to full-auto fire I wouldn't think it would be that
easy but I'm talking about distinguishing between an unmodified AR-15 and M-16.
How about the other guns?  Do they also have selector switch to switch between
semi-auto and fully-auto fire?

>If so, I'd love to hear the details, if only because they'll demonstrate
>that Kratz is blowing smoke.

>Considering that one can design a gun so that it looks just like
>another gun, yet have very different properties, and that that's
>quite common....

>Most kids in my neighborhood were quite young when they figured out
>that my parents car wasn't much like Richard Petty's, even though it
>looked just like it (except for the paint job).  Things must have been
>different with Kratz.

Actually it was pretty hard for the kids in my neighborhood to figure that out
as Richard Petty lived in my neighborhood and left his stock car in the 
driveway. ;-)

>>Sure it's on TV but why does that make a difference?

>No, it doesn't, but that's irrelevant.  If visual inspection of the
>outside worked, TV would be acceptable, but since it doesn't, the fact
>that it's just as good as seeing in person doesn't mean much.

Well, what about what I said above?  If that is correct I guess TV would be
acceptable (if you had a good enough picture and a picture of the lower 
receiver of the AR-15/M-16).

>-andy gave Kratz a chance to back down on this in private
>--
Jason Kratz <- didn't take andy's offer to back down in private
