I live somewhere where we have had multiple stabbings directly outside in the last year or so. Our rent is still increasing. Our landlord spoke to the landlord of a property that is in much worse disrepair near us and saw cash in his eyes.
There has to be a way to improve this. The problem is that you have to refill the cap gun. Could you instead do something similar with a solar-powered compressor and a small pressure chamber? Can you make a realistic gunshot sound with a pressure tank and appropriate plumbing?
If such a thing could work, you wouldn’t even need to install it in an easily accessible place. This thing here needs to be a little library because the cap gun needs reloading. And a free little library is one of the few acceptable reasons for a random person to install a big box in a public place.
But…if this were a system that just compressed atmospheric air to be released periodically as “gunshots?” Then you could put them anywhere; they wouldn’t need reloading. You could install it on a power pole or up in a tree. Anywhere that can hide a small box and a little solar panel. Hide it somewhere that’s difficult to find. Hell, you could sneak them onto people’s rooftops via drones at night! You might be able to make some sort of methane fuel cell and hide the damn things in the sewer.
Oh, and be sure your gunshot simulators have some RNG built into them. You don’t want gunshot sounds coming from the same fixed set of locations every time there’s an open house. Better to have 20 gunshot generators scattered across a neighborhood, hidden in all sorts of creative locations. Tune the RNG so that every third house showing experiences at least one simulated gunshot. And don’t have them coordinated. Make each individual box roll its own dice to determine whether it will respond to an open house. And if mechanically possible, allow for variable numbers of shots! Feel free to also add loudspeaker that will make the gunshot sound be accompanied occasionally with the angry yells of men of non-white ethnicity. Or possibly the sound of an angry man shouting in Spanish or Arabic.
Ooooh… if you could mount the system high enough, and build the appropriate automated gimbling system…you could use a highly directional speaker to direct a cone/beam of sound just in the direction of whatever houses had open houses that day. It would be like an automatic gun turret, except instead of bullets, it broadcasts gunshot sounds and the shouts of angry men at open houses.
Oh man, this is fun to think about. The possibilities are endless!
Now that’s innovation.
Several people have died a block away from my building over the years. I personally have been in two fights right outside. Rent has only continued to go up.
So… the longer rentals aren’t rented, the higher prices go until the local rental economy collapses and properties get sold off to decentralized management firms, who are willing to gentrify a group of properties until they can raise the rent floor on everyone.
Would be funny if this is how gun control becomes a thing in America. A bunch of greedy landlords unable to overcharged people for rent because the neighbourhood is deemed unsafe start lobbying the government to get guns under control because it’s affecting their bottom dollar.
As if. Bye bye neighborhood library boxes.
Cool. I made mine look like a traffic cam
Disguise it as one of those police camera trailers.
Disguise it like a gun and it will never be taken away
Would be funny if this is how gun control becomes a thing in America.
They’re way more likely to outlaw little free libraries. Also, people are gonna notice that the little free library in their neighborhood smells like spent gunpowder.
Could just hide a speaker in a tree or something. Hell hide them all over.
Not when everything smells of spent gunpowder
Is it that much different from how fun control became a thing in California?
The “wrong” people have to start enjoying guns is all
Join the SRA! (Socialist Rifle Association). We are the wrong people! We either arm the vanguard (not actually a goal) or we get more common sense gun laws implemented. It’s a win win.
In more serious terms, think of it as an organization where you can learn responsible gun ownership without being surrounded by maga hats. You don’t need to consider yourself a socialist to join. Though there is a basic vetting process to keep the maga hats out.
Think the FBI hangs out with y’all, post-9/11-mosque style? Which was very nice and not harassy of them
Wonder if members are safer given you’ll all be more knowledgeable than average or whether fascists would make a point to target the group as the rights situation further declines.
Hopeful the midterms magically change things somehow and we don’t devolve into this conversation being incredibly relevant/important and it can stay a no-knowledge theoretical comment of mine
It’s most peoples understanding that being a member of any organization that has “socialist” in the name can make you a target for fascist. But I think it’s also most peoples perspective that EVERYONE is a target for fascist eventually. There is no defense in just sitting by and hoping that you’re the last to be targeted.
As a straight white male it’s definitely a privileged position to not have to be as concerned yet.
The SRA itself is not at all political though and members are discouraged from doing any organizing that could be connected directly to the organization. It’s basically meant to be a safe space for people to learn responsible gun ownership. Something that is usually dominated by the “maga hats”.
I’ve been trying to look into joining the minnesota chapter but their website appears to do nothing but point to their socials. I’m not on social media (privacy concerns, fuck Elon and Zuck) so I’m at a bit of an impasse on how to learn more.
I’m not a part of that chapter but I sent my initial request email and it took about 4-5 months to be contacted. Most chapters have been overwhelmed since the election.
If your chapter is active you’re basically waiting for an email and they’ll get you invited to the discord for new members. At least that’s how my chapter did it. Small yearly membership fee.
I didn’t join as a national member. Just a “local comrade”. So just a member of my local chapter. No idea how national membership works.
This is also my problem. Hi there fellow Minnesotan, just gonna scooch right past ya there.
That has some TST vibes.
Similar. Main difference being the SRA actually believes in the thing their org is built on.
They’d just ban little libraries.
I think “pranks” that involve misleading everyone in audible range into fearing for their lives would reduce property values regardless of open house timings
I want my property value to go down, it means less property taxes.
The trick is to get an entire neighborhood in on it. That way you can schedule shouting matches in the front yards of the houses neighboring the open houses as well.
If it fires upwards then it’s not misleading at all.
They’re talking about shooting blanks
Ah good, carry on then. Although, there should be a small disclaimer about gun safety in always assuming it’s loaded with live munitions. This issue was recently in the news over Alec Baldwin’s movie set where an actor was inadvertently shot and killed.
It’s not hard to set it up without an actual gun. You can get reloading primers. 3D print something to hold one in place, and then have a spring-loaded nail that can hit the primer when released. Should make a pretty good bang. Cheaper than any actual gun, too.
Or just a really loud speaker
Sure but isn’t the idea that you set this thing up yourself? So you would know what it is loaded with.
Doesn’t matter. If the firearm has left your possession, you need to check it rather than assume the condition.
Well I am hardly going to go and point it at someone and fire. Isn’t the whole idea this is an automated system once you set it up?
Even if it wasn’t shooting blanks, there’s also wind, and trajectory and stuff like that
Well, as long as it’s near the bowling alley.
Random question but where can one get a little library (sans gun)?
Depends. What kind of table saw do you have?
None at all!
Dang the official ones are expensive huh
Local hardware shop, some assembly required. Nothing says it needs to be extraordinarily fancy so long as it keeps the contents dry.
In Holland people will just put old shelves on the street with some books in them and add a sign.
I don’t even have enough shelves for the books I have, let alone old shelves 🤣
Get a plastic box, write “books” on the side?
I couldn’t find a plastic box, so I used an old white van, by then I forgot what we were trying to give away, so I just assumed it was free candy. Now the police want to talk to me. 0/10 do not recommend using a plastic box with “books” written on the side.
Please tell me it shoots downwards and not up into the air?
Starter pistols, the ones for races.
Shooting actually straight up is very safe, at least for people on the ground. The terminal velocity of a bullet is fast enough to make you say “ouch”, but not much else.
Problems can arise if you’re shooting up-ish, but shooting straight up means the bullet has zero velocity relative to its origin at the apex, so the only speed it has from that point forward is imparted by gravity and wind, pretty much.
The image is of a starter pistol, though.
These are articles for starting pistols? Or regular guns?
A starting pistol or starter pistol is a blank handgun or, more recently, an electronic toy gun or device with a button connected to a sound system that is fired to start track and field races as well as some competitive swimming races.
Oh let me check hold on
Hmm
I’m sure it’s in here somewhere…
Why is shooting a starter pistol in the air a bad thing?
It won’t hurt no one, but it’s the same principle as yelling fire in a loaded theater, in that it can get someone hurt if they freak out.
…it’s in a box. Up or downwards won’t make much of a difference.
I can’t see how a starter gun is going to cause a panic leading to crushing/trampling of masses, or anything remotely close to those kinds of consequences.
During daytime hours it’s usually pretty legal to make all kinds of sounds.
If someone wants to nitpick the “gun” here, just rig an internal combustion engine that backfires as loud as a gun, or literally put in a speaker / horn that can produce the same sound.
There’s ways around all the little “but what about” in this scenario.
People wont be scared of a backfiring car, The whole dumb plan hinges on the neighborhood being afraid for their lives. wouldn’t surprise me if this made other crime rise too.
That hasn’t been a problem for races for over a century
