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posted by Fnord666 on Friday February 17 2017, @11:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the courts-aren't-buying-it dept.

It's still illegal to manufacture firearms for others without a license.

A Sacramento, California man was sentenced Thursday to over three years in prison for unlawful manufacture of a firearm and one count of dealing firearms.

Last year, Daniel Crownshield, pleaded guilty to those counts in exchange for federal prosecutors dropping other charges. According to investigators, Crowninshield, known online as "Dr. Death," would sell unfinished AR-15 lower receivers, which customers would then pay for him to transform into fully machined lower receivers using a computer numerically controlled (CNC) mill. (In October 2014, Cody Wilson, of Austin, Texas, who has pioneered 3D-printed guns, began selling a CNC mill called "Ghost Gunner," designed to work specifically on the AR-15 lower.)

"In order to create the pretext that the individual in such a scenario was building his or her own firearm, the skilled machinist would often have the individual press a button or put his or her hands on a piece of machinery so that the individual could claim that the individual, rather than the machinist, made the firearm," the government claimed in its April 14 plea agreement.

So, if he taught a class in how to do it would he also then be a criminal?


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:30PM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday February 18 2017, @08:30PM (#468719) Journal

    Also, as gun laws have been getting more permissive here crime rates have been dropping. Still sound crazy?

    Yes? Repeat after me: Correlation does not imply causation.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 18 2017, @10:28PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 18 2017, @10:28PM (#468743) Journal

    Enough empirical evidence can establish a strong correlation. A strong correlation suggests that there is some causative factor. A wise person will begin investigating whether there is a cause when he discovers a strong correlation. Only a fool will steadfastly deny that there can be any causation involved, unless and until he proves that there is no causation.

    Criminals aren't complete idiots. They may well be fools who are gaming a system, but that doesn't necessarily mean they are stupid. They are capable of deducing the obvious. If you are a rich bastard, with armed guards patrolling your property 24/7, the stupidest of criminals knows that he will probably be apprehended, if not killed, trying to burgle the place. Likewise, criminals know that they are likely to be shot if the break into an occupied residence in a state or city where guns are commonplace. The same criminal knows that he is highly unlikely to meet armed resistance in cities with stringent gun control.

    I insist that there is some causation involved in the gun laws and crime statistics ratios. So-called social scientists simply haven't been able to define or measure that causation.

    • (Score: 2, Troll) by aristarchus on Saturday February 18 2017, @11:12PM

      by aristarchus (2645) on Saturday February 18 2017, @11:12PM (#468760) Journal

      So-called social scientists simply haven't been able to define or measure that causation.

      That is because there isn't one. So-called gun lovers like so-called Runaway1956 seem to want to assume that loser gun laws reduce crime rates, so they can carry around compensation for their cowardice, but there is no such recurring correlation, and definitely no causation.

      • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by mhajicek on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:07AM

        by mhajicek (51) on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:07AM (#468770)

        False. The US cities with the most violent crime are those with the most stringent gun laws, such as Chicago. You obviously haven't actually done the research. I have.

        --
        The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
        • (Score: 1, Troll) by aristarchus on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:29AM

          by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday February 19 2017, @12:29AM (#468777) Journal

          The US cities with the most violent crime are those with the most stringent gun laws, such as Chicago.

          True? But obviously you need a rebuttal, and the obvious rebuttal is that that is not why. Besides, you are not very wise in the way of reason. Even if your false, or at the very least unsubstantiated, correlation was true, just because strict gun laws correlate with higher crime, that does not means that loser gun laws would correlate with reduced crime. I seriously doubt you have done any research, beyond reading NRA child-killer propaganda. Citations needed! And are you talking about all violent crimes? Or just fatalities, or ones involving firearms? And did it ever occur to you that Chicago is not isolated from the rest of gun-crazy ammosexual death-eating Trump-pumping America? Or that it could be that the true causes of crime are poor moral compasses, racism, poverty, and ignorance such as you yourself exhibit. No, you obviously just love your weepons, and are not too smart. Best to just be honest about that, like Runaway is.

          • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:18AM

            by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:18AM (#468804) Journal

            "the obvious rebuttal is that that is not why"

            Find some proof to support your "obvious" rebuttal.

            "Besides, you are not very wise"

            Assuming the name of a well known philosopher doesn't make you wise, nor does it qualify you to judge other people's wisdom.

            There IS one obvious correlation that holds true across America: The lowest crime statistics are found in those areas with the most lenient gun laws, and the highest crime statistics are found in those areas with the strictest gun control laws. The correlation is much to strong to shrug off. You might explain it away in a number of ways. Here, let me help you: "Most criminals hear the news of strict gun laws, so they move to the cities with the strictest gun laws to avoid being shot while they commit crimes." Of course, there is nothing to support that idea, but it does explain high crime rates in strict gun control cities. Your turn - you offer us some other nonsense explanation for the statistics.

            • (Score: 1, Insightful) by aristarchus on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:31AM

              by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:31AM (#468808) Journal

              More hillbilly logic, Runaway? Seriously?

              The lowest crime statistics are found in those areas with the most lenient gun laws, and the highest crime statistics are found in those areas with the strictest gun control laws.

              The highest crime rates are found in the areas with the highest rates of higher education! Colleges cause crime! Lower crime rates are found in areas with higher populations of livestock! See, all we need to do is move some sheep and pigs and turkeys into those "carnage" places, and crime will go down! See, it has nothing to do with guns, nothing to do with your mirroring of the criminal mind (though it is curious how easily you do so. . . ), and nothing to do with gun laws. Crime has fallen dramatically in the US since the sixties. You should read a book, or get someone to read it to you, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined [wikipedia.org]. Has actual facts and stuff, not just a presumption based on paranoia.

              Even wonder why the places with the loserest gun laws also have the lowest population? Is there something about rural places that only correlates with guns, but is not actually an effect of guns? Could you be committing a "false cause" fallacy, like the well known "Texas Marksman" fallacy? Or maybe it is because there are so many guns that there are so few people? Correlation that strong strongly suggest a causal relation! Just how many Hatfields and McCoys are left, anyway?

              • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:54AM

                by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:54AM (#468821) Journal

                Please, try to familiarize yourself with rational thought. It isn't necessary that you make contact with reality, but you could get close enough to have a shouting match with those of us who live in reality.

                • (Score: 2, Funny) by aristarchus on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:28PM

                  by aristarchus (2645) on Sunday February 19 2017, @07:28PM (#469039) Journal

                  When some realize that they have lost an argument on the internets, they go Godwin. Runaway appeals to reason and facts.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @08:57AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 20 2017, @08:57AM (#469211)

      Strict gun control laws are often a result of high levels of violent crime in an effort to reduce levels of those crimes. Is that difficult to understand?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday February 20 2017, @11:59AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 20 2017, @11:59AM (#469241) Journal

        No, it isn't difficult to understand, at all. "We have a terrible situation, and we need to DO SOMETHING!!" The problem is, that "something" is misguided. Disarming the citizenry only creates more potential victims.

        But, let's go back. "we need to DO SOMETHING!" Who is it, exactly, that does something? Politicians, of course. And, wannabe politicians. District attorneys play the "get tough" game, hoping to impress his superiors, as well as the public. Mayors lobby the city councils, in an effort to show voters that he has got crime "under control". State lawmakers and governors play the same game. "We've got to DO SOMETHING!" or else the voters will put us out of office! And, of course, each of those state lawmakers and governors hopes to show off a record that will open doors at the federal level. "DO SOMETHING!"

        And, there is not one single instance in American history that can conclusively state that this measure or that measure actually reduced crime.

        At best, various lawmakers and law enforcement can point to instances where their measuer COINCIDED WITH a drop in crime. Again and again, a law is passed, and/or a "get tough on crime" candidate takes office, and crime statistics drop a little. However, when compared to crime statistics state-wide and nation-wide, crime statistics also dropped by comparable percentages in states and cities which took no measures against crime.

        Ultimately, individual laws and "get tough" measures have little to no effect on crime. COLLECTIVELY, however, the tougher lawmakers and law enforcement get on gun laws, the higher the crime rates go. That is precisely why Chicago has the worst crime rates in the nation. The city of Chicago, and Cook County have a bunch of authoritarians in charge, who insist that citizens be dependent on the city, the county, and the state for their protection. And, those authorities are incapable of providing the protection they promise.

        And, once again, I remind you that those laws are aimed predominantly at one very special group of people. Dark skinned people are not trusted to own weapons, they are not deemed responsible enough to handle a weapon. Gun laws are racist. Stick that into a search engine, see what you get - gun laws are racist. Where black people are in the majority, or even when they are a very large minority, strict gun laws are passed. Where black people are only a small minority, the gun laws are very lax.

        But, you'll never get those liberal/progressive leaders of Chicago, or any other city or state, to admit that they fear black people. Fear is the root of racism, after all. "Oh, no, we're not racist, we've just got to take care of them there darkies, 'cause they don't know any better!"

        I insist, progressives are bigger racists than all of that imaginary "alt right" combined. Racist sons of bitches are afraid of black people!