[TriLUG] breaking the rules

[Magnus]

J.C. Jones wrote:
> Why would companies market a product that is against "the rules"?? :-)

Because people who don't read the rules (or choose to disobey them) are 
willing to buy.

Good real-world example... imported semi-automatic rifles, often 
erroneously referred to as "assault weapons".  President George H.W. 
Bush (i.e. not the current president but his old man) enacted an assault 
weapons ban that had no sunset, prior to the one that Bill Clinton 
signed that went away a little over 2 years ago.

That law allows some weapons to come into this country under a very 
narrow hole for collectors.  Millions of SKS rifles have come into this 
country as C&R's (Curio & Relic).  That's how I legally own a rifle with 
a bayonet, grenade launcher, and night sights.  Anyone can pick up the 
same rifle at a gun show for under $150 and there are literally millions 
of them out there in private hands in the US.

But the problem comes when you want to modify them.  Once you modify the 
rifle in any meaningful way, it loses its C&R protected legal status and 
is effectively no longer a collectible weapon.  Yet there is a huge 
thriving industry revolving around "upgrade" parts for the SKS rifle. 
New ultralight plastic stocks, detachable magazines, peep sights, 
accessory rails for tactical lights, bipods, etc.

The single most popular modification for these rifles is to buy a 
detachable magazine for it.  You see, the SKS uses a 10 round "fixed" 
(non-detachable) magazine but that's not good enough for some people. 
So they will spend like $30 to get a detachable magazine.  It's 
completely legal to sell them, to manufacture them, etc.  And for those 
who know the rules and obey them, there actually is a way to legally 
attach one to an SKS.  The overwhelming majority of these, though, end 
up in the hands of people who ignore the rules.

Except when you get caught breaking this particular rule, you're 
committing a felony under federal law.

All for a lousy hunk of metal or plastic on a gun that doesn't even work 
that well, but it scratches someone's itch.

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/MAG631-1320-1347.html

-- 
"Showing off is the fool's idea of glory." - Bruce Lee's observations of 
people at TriLUG meetings who won't shut up and let the guest speaker talk