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No, a gun is purposely built and designed to fire a projectile. A slingshot is designed to do the same thing, so is a BB gun, so is a potato gun... So, unless it is used illegally, it is not purpose built to kill.

This is just silly, and makes it seem as though you are being intentionally obtuse. Firearm technology was invented and exists for the sake of causing injury to people or animals. More advanced firearms can cause more injury, faster, and with greater precision and consistency. The same can be said of swords, bow and arrow, or any of the other weapons you describe. The primary utility of any of these is killing something - a bow and arrow that couldn't kill a deer would be a failure for the hunter using it. The utility of a gun for self defense or hunting is directly measured by its lethality - otherwise you could defend your home with a slingshot, right? This is distinct from a technology like a car - a car that sucks at killing is a better car, a gun that sucks at killing isn't a very effective gun.

By your logic, a guillotine isn't purpose built to kill unless used illegally. After all, a guillotine can be used to slice watermelons! The ACTUAL USAGE of a tool IN NO WAY modifies what the tool is designed to do. If I use a hammer to murder somebody, that doesn't change the intent of the hammer builder.

One last thing, I don't know of anywhere in the US (at least no state I"ve lived in) that requires any form of training in order to drive a car or get a license.

Are you serious, or just trolling?
https://dmv.dc.gov/service/obt...

Here's the summary of requirements to get licensed:
        Application
        Documentation
        Vision Screening
        Knowledge Test
        Road Test
        Photograph
        Fees

From:

Friday, January 20, 2017 The Metropolitan Police Department announced an arrest has been made in a Conspiracy to Commit an Assault offense that occurred in the 500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that several individuals made plans to disrupt inauguration activities in an unlawful way. On Thursday, January 19, 2017, pursuant to a DC Superior Court arrest warrant, 34-year-old Scott Ryan Charney of Northwest, DC, was arrested in the area of 14th and Newton Streets, Northwest, and charged with Conspiracy to Commit an Assault. This investigation is ongoing. There are other individuals involved in the conspiracy, and they are still outstanding.

This was in connection with the extremist group DisruptJ20, who were caught on tape and exposed plotting to chain DC metro trains and disrupt Trump's inaugural party. Seems like there is a good chance that evidence of this conspiracy will be searched for on these confiscated phones.

> It'd start by realizing that you don't have proof of a conspiracy or anything.

Except for those arrest records from the DC Metropolitan Police Department for Conspiracy to Commit an Assault -

Friday, January 20, 2017

The Metropolitan Police Department announced an arrest has been made in a Conspiracy to Commit an Assault offense that occurred in the 500 block of 14th Street, Northwest. After a thorough investigation, it was determined that several individuals made plans to disrupt inauguration activities in an unlawful way.

Source

> So you can point them out? How about you do that then instead of going on and on and eroding our trust in you with each post?

I did that in the very first post just up thread. Since you somehow missed that, here you go (again) -

https://mpdc.dc.gov/release/arrest-made-conspiracy-commit-assault

> Why would I believe

Because when the PV videos on staging violence came out, we found evidence that Zulema Rodriguez was employed by MoveOn to be in Arizona, we have a video of her blocking the road and lying to cops, and that corroborates the video? It's something I've covered in great detail previously if you want full links & citations for every item that was corroborated in their "bird-dogging" campaign.

Because when he warned us that people planned to attack the Deploraball with butyric acid (essentially a stink bomb that can cause people to choke, potentially causing an uncontrolled evacuation into a mass of protesters), we found arrest records on the DC police site saying one of the conspirators was arrested for conspiracy to commit assault? I've also seen reports that, since that older report, they caught the other individuals involved in the conspiracy.

As for this phone thing, I'll wait to see proof, rather than just rumors. Couldn't they even find so much as a photo of Trump with this phone? Yes, Trump should know better than to use an unsecured phone after what happened to Hillary, but I am going to withhold judgement until there's some kind of proof and not just rumors.

Some more for different cities...

• Chicago
  http://www.cityofchicago.org/c...
  http://www.cityofchicago.org/c...
  http://www.cityofchicago.org/c...
• Dallas - http://citysecretary.dallascit...
• Washington D.C. - http://dfhv.dc.gov/page/admini...

Minnesota:

Subd. 3.Crossing between intersections. (a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway . [1]

D.C. :

Stop - controlled or
uncontrolled intersection
Pedestrians may cross the roadway within a marked or unmarked crosswalk. However,
no pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb, safety platform, safety zone, loading
platform or other designated place of safety and walk or turn into the path of a vehicle
which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield. [2]

Crossing at spots other than crosswalks - If a pedestrian crosses a roadway at any point other than in a marked crosswalk at an
intersection, the pedestrian shall yield the right-of-way to any vehicle [2]

[1] https://www.revisor.mn.gov/sta...
[2] http://ddot.dc.gov/sites/defau...

Parts bolded for reference.
Hmm, who doesn't know the law properly?

Heck, just look at the decision to self-insure all city vehicles. If your car is hit by a policeman in DC, forget ever getting them to pay for the damage. DC is terribly corrupt.

http://orm.dc.gov/

From that site:

On March 28, 2014, the District of Columbia adopted 11 of the 2012 I-Codes and the NFPA’s 2011 NEC with changes, deletions, and/or additions set forth in the 2013 Construction Codes Supplement, 12 DCMR, Subtitles A through L.
Hyperlink and bolding added.

It appears that the full NECA is NOT available, but the parts adopted into law for particular areas ARE.

Have you actually looked?

Building codes for DC metro area:
Virginia building code
DC building code
MD codes (incl building)

Law for DC metro area:
Virginia law
DC Code / law
MD Laws and statutes

Fighting ignorance and BS on slashdot could easily be a full-time job; theres no shortage of people who will talk out of their rear about things they have no information on.

Problem is, where I live, cabs are regulated, but the service is anything but first class. They're not on time, they're not nice and clean (seems like DC usually gets other cities' worn out cabs). At night, sometimes drivers turn off their meters. They're not allowed to refuse taking you to a destination, but they do anyway. They're not allowed to force passengers to share rides, but they do anyway. They are legally required to take credit cards, but they lie and say their machines are broken (until you say you can't pay because you don't have cash, at which point the machine magically starts working).

Have you reported them? With a quick internet search, here's an online complaint form, and you can also call (855) 484-4966, as discussed here.

I don't know much about this in DC, but in other major cities, cabbies will get major fines and ultimately have their licenses taken if they receive too many complaints about not following regulations. Most cities even require this information for complaint contacts to be prominently displayed in cabs.

If it is as bad as you say, it's up to people who ride in cabs to be proactive about getting these guys off the streets. Or you could pay the city more to have anonymous fake riders to go around and look for violations (which many cities do anyway) -- but it's quicker if people actually report these things.

Point being, regulation doesn't necessarily mean good service.

Well, what you're describing doesn't sound like "regulation" to me. It sounds like "suggestions" that drivers aren't following. I'm not saying that overregulating is always the answer, but it's not actually a valid objection to "regulation" to complain about people who don't follow the regulations... since other cities with similar regulations seem perfectly capable of enforcing them and thereby stopping the things you complain about from happening.

Now, if you want to argue that certain regulations are stupid or result in excessive prices or whatever, then we can have a debate about what "regulation" can do and whether or not it increases service level. But simply describing unregulated behavior says very little about regulation -- if anything, it says something bad about enforcement, not the regulation itself.

Problem is, where I live, cabs are regulated, but the service is anything but first class. They're not on time, they're not nice and clean (seems like DC usually gets other cities' worn out cabs). At night, sometimes drivers turn off their meters. They're not allowed to refuse taking you to a destination, but they do anyway. They're not allowed to force passengers to share rides, but they do anyway. They are legally required to take credit cards, but they lie and say their machines are broken (until you say you can't pay because you don't have cash, at which point the machine magically starts working).

Have you reported them? With a quick internet search, here's an online complaint form, and you can also call (855) 484-4966, as discussed here.

I don't know much about this in DC, but in other major cities, cabbies will get major fines and ultimately have their licenses taken if they receive too many complaints about not following regulations. Most cities even require this information for complaint contacts to be prominently displayed in cabs.

If it is as bad as you say, it's up to people who ride in cabs to be proactive about getting these guys off the streets. Or you could pay the city more to have anonymous fake riders to go around and look for violations (which many cities do anyway) -- but it's quicker if people actually report these things.

Point being, regulation doesn't necessarily mean good service.

Well, what you're describing doesn't sound like "regulation" to me. It sounds like "suggestions" that drivers aren't following. I'm not saying that overregulating is always the answer, but it's not actually a valid objection to "regulation" to complain about people who don't follow the regulations... since other cities with similar regulations seem perfectly capable of enforcing them and thereby stopping the things you complain about from happening.

Now, if you want to argue that certain regulations are stupid or result in excessive prices or whatever, then we can have a debate about what "regulation" can do and whether or not it increases service level. But simply describing unregulated behavior says very little about regulation -- if anything, it says something bad about enforcement, not the regulation itself.

You still need a hack license, and they've stopped issuing new licenses. As their page on applying for a hack license notes, "The taxicab examination is suspended indefinitely." It has been that way for years.

If they want to make sure drivers are up to standards, that's fine, but I don't see the need for the government to artificially limit supply. If there aren't enough riders or too many drivers, some drivers will stop driving, and it will correct itself.

You can send feedback here: http://app.dc.gov/apps/about.asp?page=atd&type=dsf&referrer=mpdc.dc.gov&agency_id=1027

Public commendations/complaints go on an officer's permanent record.

For Direct Current (DC): P=I*V=I^2*R=V^2/R. P is power, I is current, V is voltage, and R is resistance.

And since power corrupts, and corruption leads to sin [citation needed], and the wages of sin is death, I think the conclusion is that DC can kill you.

Well gosh, I guess I can do your research for you. I'm a bit busy, but you can start here:

http://www.privacy.ca.gov/privacy_laws.htm

http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/glbact/glbsub1.htm

http://www.law.state.ak.us/department/civil/consumer/4548.html

http://government.dc.gov/DC/Government/Data+&+Transparency/Consumer+Protection/Consumer+Information+101/Consumer+Personal+Information+Security+Breach+Notification+Act

http://data.opi.mt.gov/bills/mca_toc/30_14_17.htm

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/1349.19

http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/protect/laws.php

Telecommunications Act (1996) Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI)

Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003

Shall I keep going? or are you prepared to admit that in this very same universe that we share, here in America, there are in fact laws governing the use, protection, and sharing of personal information? The laws aren't what I personally want them to be, but they exist, and the whole point of what I was saying is that the current hands-off free-market approach is BAD, and would be LESS BAD if there were MORE LAWS in this area -- a point which survives your assertion that the laws don't exist. Actually I don't have time to keep looking things up for you, so if you aren't prepared to admit it, then your denial will have to be the end of the discussion.

My final point, as a question to you, would be why would Borders even have a contract, if the contract didn't expand its rights beyond the legal defaults? Why would it bother to pay a lawyer to make up such a contract? Why would it bother to present the contract to consumers? If there were no laws governing it, and they could do whatever they want, then they would, no contract required. It doesn't even make sense that they would tie their own hands with their own contract, resulting in a lesser ability for them to do what they want to do.

I am a teacher, and so I know this first hand: poorly designed rules result in poorly designed products. If smartphone apps are no good, then prohibit them. This has nothing to do with the designers or the idea of using a contest to design good software. This is about redesigning the rules to get what you actually want.

Yup. As a matter of fact, here's Item 2 in the Apps for Democracy guide to making your own Apps contest: (pdf)

Item 2 - Define Rules

Rules are the enemy of creativity and innovation. Avoid rules at all costs. With Apps for Democracy our only rule was to use at least one data source from http://data.octo.dc.gov/ to build an application of some kind.

Software development, even in the public sector requires some kind of planning. You've got to know what you want/need and how you're going to develop it. Can you imagine if they extended Apps for Democracy type programs to public works projects? Some dude thinks he should build a tree house in the middle of a forest. Another person thinks it would be great to build a bird feeder in another tree. Someone else thinks they should chop down a tree or paint a wall pink. Yeesh.

This will also be an extension of what Vivek Kundra implemented in DC:
http://data.octo.dc.gov/

This is really simple: provide data feeds to the public -- from various government collection sources.

End of story. We don't need the government to spend months, or years even, building websites which dumb data down for us. Give us the raw data feeds and let us create mashups, interactive content and let people make their own judgment based on it. Sure, some sites might need heavy design (such as educational loan repayment sites, etc).

A prime example of this data feed is something like DC's http://data.octo.dc.gov/

And what can people do with that? Well, something like this:

Drunken sailor map

Right. It's just a matter of priorities. As a case in point, they can do it if the bureaucrats decide it's something important. But they are going to always act out of self interest, so these projects are pretty rare.

We have an acting Attorney General Peter Nickles http://occ.dc.gov/occ/cwp/view,a,3,q,638711.asp

He is considered one of the few trusted insiders our new mayor Adrian Fenty consults with. He will soon come up for appointment as the Attorney General. One of the questions facing the people in this city is whether or not his permanent appointment should be opposed. For example, we now have a new policy of stopping cars in high crime areas and turning people away who cannot show cause for why they want to enter an area. This is very troubling to people who are concerned with civil liberties. After all, we are not Baghdad or a nation where you are required to present your papers to travel. But this seems to be fine with the Fenty administration. It is probably Peter Nickles who is advising the mayor on these issues. Should he be confirmed as out Attorney General?

That's wonderful. The second frikkin hit in the list is a government web site:

http://app.abra.dc.gov/services/agreements.asp?p=20&ps=&q=SELECT+B.applicant_name%2C+B.trade_name%2C+B.bus_address_f_no%2C+B.bus_street%2C+B.bus_quad%2C+A.id%2C+A.entity%2C+A.patrol_service_area%2C+A.expiration_status%2C+A.expiration_date%2C+A.investigator%2C+A.pdf%2C+A.url+FROM+abra_rw.tblLicense_hold+AS+B%2C+abra_rw.agreements+AS+A+WHERE+B.id+%3D+A.business_id+AND+applicant_name+LIKE+'%25%25'+ORDER+by+B.applicant_name%3B

When targets are that soft, it's a wonder they stay online at all.

DC has several. They are mostly movable rigs, but there are a few fixed setups, too. However, there are signs marking at least the ones I drive through, and of course everyone knows about them so they all slow down until they see if it's clear. DC even has a map of the zones, which doesn't tell you where they are right now, but it does tell you where they could be.

it's statistically safer being an Iraqi civilian than a Washington DC resident.

I was surprised and skeptical to read this. With good cause, it would seem:

Population of Iraq: 28,807,000 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq)
Population of Washington DC: 563, 384 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_dc
Estimated civilian deaths, Iraq conflict: 41,054* (http://www.iraqbodycount.net/)
Homicide count, 2005, Washington DC: 195 (http://mpdc.dc.gov/mpdc/cwp/view,a,1239,q,543308, mpdcNav_GID,1523,mpdcNav,%7C.asp)
Death ratio, Iraq: 41,054 / 28,807,000 = 0.14%
Death ratio, Washington DC: 195 / 563,384 = 0.03%

In other words, you are NOT safer as an Iraqi civilian than as a DC resident. You're FIVE times more likely to die as a result of the war as you are from homicide. I used homicide as a parallel for death due to war as a civilian casualty. Yes it's not perfect, but if you have a better metric, I'd be happy to compare.

* Median of min/max estimates as supplied.

Why don't you go look yourself. My count: 551 of 599 (92%) listed offenders were black. As of the 2000 census, DC is 60% black by population. I'll refrain from editorializing on this one, as it will most certainly degenerate into a racism flamefest.

I believe the dataset used on the site is incomplete. There are 599 registered sex offenders in D.C. right now. D.C. Sex Offender Registry Also, African Americans in D.C. are disproportionately poorer than Whites in D.C., which makes them more likely to be prosecuted, and less likely to get effective legal counsel that would allow them to avoid the registry. If you're trying to imply something else, come out and say it.

Are you so deluded as to actually believe that's true?

If so, I invite you to watch me at Lafayette Park as I proclaim my desire to replace America's government with an ultra-socialist system. Just tell me when to be there - a weekend, please, I have a job.

The 40's through 60's were a cake-walk compared to today's economy, though.
Yeah, my uncle had a cake-walk on Iwo Jima ; he had such a great time he brought back a souvenir in the form of shrapnel. Yep, them was good times.
If the U.S. economy was good after WW2, perhaps they earned it. The economies in the rest of the world (e.g. U.K.) were not so good; do they count?

If you were a left-wing actor in the early 1950s, the economy might have been much tougher than now. (Bush may change this, however; Jesusland don't need no liberals.)

We have (arguably) the most target-rich landscape in the nation, yet we distribute 20 centemeter resolution aerial photography of the District to anyone who wants it for $15 here

How can we do that? We downsample (lower the resolution) of "sensitive" areas like the White House and Capitol Building so there is no terrorist-useful information available in our imagery.

These Greenwichians could do the same thing if security was really what they are worried about. But I suspect that what they're really concerned about is the ability to sell their imagery for a profit. So they're using "security concerns" the same way Lexmark tried to use the DMCA to stop competitors from selling cheap printer cartridges

This is the tourist map. Notice how SouthEast DC is not on there at all.

Yeah.

Any GIS type application is considered a threat to our national security. If you take a look at these aerial views of DC you can see how the federal government had the overhead views of the whitehouse and the capitol removed (or blocked). The last thing the government wants is to be responsible for a terrorist act. They feel that tools like this are useful to the general public, so they make them available. At the same time, they can see the emminent threat, so they limit its capabilities.

You insensative clod!

Don't blame us DC residents for the politicans. See we like our violence, our sex and corruption, and our baseball like all good Americans. So leave us alone you colonial tyrant. No taxation without representation!

The .vbs viruses... they seem to have come from Columbia. A look at the source of one of them reveals
rem "Plan Colombia" virus v1.0

As a Columbia student, Columbia resident, Columbia wearer, Columbia listener, Columbia purchaser, and Colombia consumer -- and as an American, patriot, and staunch promoter of all that is good and right in this world -- I beg you to kindly note the small, but significant, difference between Columbia and Colombia.

Think of the children! Otherwise, the terrorists have already won.

Thank you.

The .vbs viruses... they seem to have come from Columbia. A look at the source of one of them reveals
rem "Plan Colombia" virus v1.0

As a Columbia student, Columbia resident, Columbia wearer, Columbia listener, Columbia purchaser, and Colombia consumer -- and as an American, patriot, and staunch promoter of all that is good and right in this world -- I beg you to kindly note the small, but significant, difference between Columbia and Colombia.

Think of the children! Otherwise, the terrorists have already won.

Thank you.

There are many cameras. The Metropolitan Police Department website, there are maps and address of DC red light cameras, and maps and addresses DC mobile speed trap cameras zones.
One might consider marking intersection with redlights with red highlighter, and speed trap zones with yellow, on your ADC Atlas of Greater Washington, and leave it open on the passenger seat as you drive.

-Nathaniel

There are many cameras. The Metropolitan Police Department website, there are maps and address of DC red light cameras, and maps and addresses DC mobile speed trap cameras zones.
One might consider marking intersection with redlights with red highlighter, and speed trap zones with yellow, on your ADC Atlas of Greater Washington, and leave it open on the passenger seat as you drive.

-Nathaniel