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Comment by Pinckney | Hacker News Reader

Why is Mr. Wilson going out of his way to tell them what it's for?

"What are you shipping?"

"CNC Mill."

"Great, we'll be happy to ship that for you."

Don't try to confuse the customer service rep by saying things that have the potential to confuse them; they don't need to know what it's meant for.

It's doubtful that UPS, at a high level, cares enough to ban this. Rather, someone heard "something something GUN MACHINE," doesn't know anything about the relevant law, and made a snap decision that was least likely to get them in trouble.

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Wilson is in it for the PR, not the guns. He's an interesting fellow. It would defeat his stated purpose if he didn't tell anyone.

“This is a way to jab at the bleeding hearts of these total statists,” Wilson told WIRED in October. “It’s about humiliating the power that wants to humiliate you.”

What an appeal! So twisted in its approach. Where do I sign up to jab at some bleeding hearts, humiliate them, STRIKE BACK!

Normally people grow out of doing stupid stunts to "stick it to the man".

And even if you believe it is a jab at the bleeding hearts of these total statists you are still left with only part of an AR15, while these total statists control the price of ammo (they probably don't). I reckon you could jab them better by dirt farming.

Think bigger and longer-term. He's not talking about guns, but removing the ability of governments to regulate anything physical. Could you print or cast propellants and make caseless ammo? I bet with some effort you could. Could you distribute that ability in a way that would be utterly impractical to control by any government? Sure.

He's demonstrated the concept with simple things like gun magazines. Theoretically, they're now out of reach of the government to control. Add in more time and better technology, and this concept is potentially a big deal for all manner of things. Interesting to think about at least.

Guns are just a current flash point that it's easy for people to get their heads around. But who knows what tomorrow will bring that governments will try to control only to find themselves unable to do so due to unskilled, cheaply available, distributed manufacturing capability?

Unlimited small arms proliferation? A great way to add to the destruction of everywhere between Nagorno-Karabakh, Lagos and Nairobi.

Civil wars and local conflicts have no shortage of weapons already. US is practically swimming in firearms and so far that has produced no such war here.

We do have a number of extremely terrible incidents with resulting loss of life, many of these are very much preventable. My personal opinion, more laws restricting distribution will not prevent these, but better mental health services, safety tech and training will.

All this article really proves is that people who want to have a gun will have a gun. It might be extremely difficult, but those hell-bent on it will still succeed.

Sort of irrelevant if it is inevitable and can't be controlled, no? It's an interesting topic, and again, goes well beyond arms. I'm not saying what I think of it one way or the other, just describing the philosophy of the guys behind this.

> Why is Mr. Wilson going out of his way to tell them what it's for?

Free national PR. Besides Wired, I've seen him on documentaries and national news broadcasts.

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