I stumbled upon this article (not a quick-read, this was the 80's, when attention span was still in fashion):
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1981/06/m-16-a-bureaucratic-horror-story/545153/

I knew about a couple of these things, in not-great accuracy and was fascinated to learn the truth and see how clearly it is provided.
Unfortunately, however, in hindsight...
As a former user of an M16-type rifle, I can identify, somewhat, with the "committee-designed" products that are nearly worthless in the field.

The M-16 was designed by a genius. Not just a wonder-child but a man who knew his work through and through. Who researched cutting edge
technologies and took free flight in his innovations, leading to some guns, that when built according to his spec, are years ahead of the competition.

What could a GI hope for other than having received the best possible equipment and training to do his job?
And then the Army Materiel Command comes and shits all over this brilliance.
... If you put a spoon of shit in a honey jar, is the honey still good?
Well, they didn't just keep to a spoonful, they changed pretty much everything about this gun: propellant, rifling, no cleaning kits and then telling the GIs some BS story about "self-cleaning rifle" (who came up with that? Why? How come this silly claim has never been tested? Why would you encourage your soldiers not to clean their guns?)

The thought of good men rushing into hell without any means to deal their own, this is some WW1/Soviet crap.

 

In quarantine a little bit too long?

 

I apologise for being blunt but why would you want to share that story with a bunch of dedicated electrical and electronic engineers and specialists? It really has no place in our forum. If you want favorable feedback on your article, post it on some red-neck gun-lovers page.
Regards,
Keith

 

has no place in our forum

Wow. OK. Anyway, I read some of the article and found it interesting. Maybe it's just me, but I ignore threads in which I have no interest, rather than criticizing people.

 

The article was a few years before I was born and therefore I gain nothing from any feedback about it.

I thought it being very much an engineering topic and how things lose their meaning when they are handled by a committee could be an interesting discussion.

Not sure how is this less relevant than other topics in this section but I apologize for wasting your time, regardless.

 

Sorry if I appear to be over sensitive on this topic. The moderators do not allow discussion of potentially lethal electrical projects on this forum. I see no reason why they would make an exception for discussing machines designed specifically for killing people.
Keith

 

I think the idea is that lethal electric project discussion may lead to someone reproducing them and using.

This isn't a project on how to make an M16 and I even doubt information alone will be enough to allow someone to makeshift an M16.

If anything, I can easily find hundreds of potentially lethal topics being discussed here already.
Like, if I were some weird terrorist looking to design my attack around information available here, I would be a lot more interested in the covid-19 discussion, as this can be far more easily obtained and used to kill perhaps even more people than an improvised M16...
Did you express your such concerns in those threads, too?

 

machines designed specifically for killing people

In the USA these guns are designed specifically to protect people.

 

Here we go again... Better hang on tight it's gonna get bumpy until the mods close this thread...

 

I think the idea is that lethal electric project discussion may lead to someone reproducing them and using.

This isn't a project on how to make an M16 and I even doubt information alone will be enough to allow someone to makeshift an M16.

If anything, I can easily find hundreds of potentially lethal topics being discussed here already.
Like, if I were some weird terrorist looking to design my attack around information available here, I would be a lot more interested in the covid-19 discussion, as this can be far more easily obtained and used to kill perhaps even more people than an improvised M16...
Did you express your such concerns in those threads, too?

The advent of the 3-D printer makes the possibility of producing things in small quantities that are inevitably lethal. Acquiring the means to produce the same items using metal working technology is a much bigger capital investment. As with anything esle:

1. Not all things produced by committees are bad.
2. Not all things produced by solitary geniuses are good.

Edit: Thinking back over a career that spanned half a century plus, The best stuff I ever did, multiple times, was in collaboration with people I trusted, liked and respected. There is just no substitute for that shared feeling of accomplishment.

 

In the USA these guns are designed specifically to protect people.

Being Canadian, I guess I should use my better judgement and not ask "From whom?".

 

Being Canadian, I guess I should use my better judgement and not ask "From whom?".

From their government of course. At least that was the original intent of the founders as I understand -- of course.

 

If you don't know what the target is, don't ask.

EDIT:
@Papabravo Their?

 

Being Canadian, I guess I should use my better judgement and not ask "From whom?".

I assume you are on board with the recent Fed Gov laws on banning assault weapons here.
Max.

 

Does that include the British "Brown Bess" smoothbore musket that they assaulted Colonized their worldwide Empire with?

 

If you don't know what the target is, don't ask.

EDIT:
@Papabravo Their?

I think "the" was what I meant. Original intent was the subject, not founders.

Those founders were deeply suspicious of the ability of "any" government to impose it's will by fiat. It was the best 18th century solution they could come up with.

 

I think "the" was what I meant. Original intent was the subject, not founders.

Yes, but recent SCOTUS decisions have confirmed the "we." Things got kind of hot in Lansing, recently.

 

Does that include the British "Brown Bess" smoothbore musket that they assaulted Colonized their worldwide Empire with?

When did Canada have a world wide Empire?
Max.

 

When did Canada have a world wide Empire?

I thought you still paid dues to the Queen?

 

I thought you still paid dues to the Queen?

Nope, but she still pays me. (pension) Been a Canadian for 50yrs on Jan now.
Max.