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Well, there is ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulation), but that only applies to an enumerated list of technologies with military applications, and I believe that the settlement mentioned in TFS includes a determination by the State Department that these gun schematics are not within that domain. We had the same argument over PGP, also decided in its favor, and certainly the conventional blueprints of guns have been freely publishable this whole time: http://www.sightm1911.com/blue....

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/...

I just picked up an AT Titan Commander model myself, and noted that it, too, has redundant safeties:

- a half-cock safety (you never see those anymore! Love it!)

The half-cock position is pretty common, but is apparently intended to guard against an accidental discharge while cocking the hammer. But it is not necessarily intended to carried that way - in fact, Kimber (for one) strongly warns against. Does the Titan manual address the issue? If not, I'd suggest you Google it. I just went through a handful of forums, and could not find a single person advocating it - but numerous warnings against it.

- a 'beaver-tail' (grip) safety
- a slide-lock safety (physical bar that locks the slide in place)

But they don't cycle with each round fired, as OP suggests.

The Colts mechanism does - here is a diagram of it: http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/tech/s80fpb.htm. Essentially, a vertical plunger on the right side of the firing pin engages with a groove in the pin. The initial trigger pull presses the plunger up, allowing the pin to slide by a groove cut in the plunger. Some (many) serious shooters deride it for interfering with the trigger feel. I do not, but nor am I in their league.

I am curious:

the manual safety, which cycles every time I pull the gun from the holster

How does that work? Or is "pull the gun from the holster" to imply that you manually release the safety at the same time?

The latter. I've taught myself the habit of habit of thumbing the safety on and off every time I holster or draw the gun. If I don't intend to fire it, I'll still thumb it off as I draw, then set it back on while the gun is still pointing down. That keeps the "muscle memory" intact, and the deliberate re-setting ensures that it is on when I want it to be that way.

If you're not familiar with the Beretta 92F's (aka M9) habit of throwing slides into shooter's faces you haven't been paying attention to guns for very long. This isn't some Saturday night special failing in a catastrophic manner, this was a premium-priced weapon chosen to replace the 1911 as the US Army standard sidearm.

Despite Beretta's continual claim that the failures were due to military use of +P rounds, many prominent LE armorers have reported failures with standard pressure loads.

Nah -- My twenty-five-year-old M9 has over 15000 +P rounds through it. The slide failure rate on the M9 was beyond six sigma land -- 14 recorded cases of the M9 slide failing out of over 300k M9 pistols purchased by DoD. In case you aren't trolling on behalf of SACO (who lost the bidding war when Beretta came in at $1 per gun cheaper) I will allow that you might be thinking of the Beretta 92SB, which is the civilian version of the M9. You can read a pretty good run down of the M9 slide failure myth here.

Two things on this: First, what the founders meant by "well regulated militia" and what the modern ideologues have corrupted it to mean are two very different things. Read it and weep: http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/rkba/ff_militia.htm) Second, it has been scientifically proven that IQ is directly and inversely proportional to cock size.

Given that I have no children in my home and that both adults in my home are fully capable of safely handling a loaded weapon with one in the pipe I have no issues with keeping double action handguns in a condition 1 or 2 state in my home.

Like a Colt 1911A1 pistol:

http://www.sightm1911.com/blueprint/M1911A1_blue.htm

There's no need for special laws --- existing laws for

  - trade dress
  - patent infringement (esp. of design patents which govern the appearance of a product)
  - trademark
  - copyright

already cover these things quite adequately. It's tough that the corporations will have to pay lawyers to keep track of plan distribution sites and initiate suits on an infringing item-by-item basis, but they've no more grounds for interfering w/ 3D printing technology than they have to try to prevent people from purchasing a metal lathe, block steel, strips of spring steel and a set of good quality files (which one could use to make the afore-mentioned Colt 1911A1).

William

In terms of modern warfare it doesn't make sense to not have a standing military. You can't teach someone to operate a tank, fly a jet, or deal with any of the communications technology in a fast enough timeframe to be able to respond to a threat.

Switzerland.

A "well-regulated" militia is one capable of using these weapons and technologies. We have National Guardsmen who operate tanks and jets (though see below).

In fact, this is why I loathe the Bush Administrations takeover power of the National Guard units. This is a gross violation of the Constitution. The National Guard units are owned and operated by the state for a reason.

But that happened long before either Bush. The National Guard really became part of the reserves in a process starting with the National Defense Act of 1916 and ending with the "Total Force Policy" established in the 70's; it's not truly a militia, and shouldn't be confused with one. (IMHO, if you can send it overseas to invade other countries, it's a reserve, not a militia.)

Ask and ye shall receive...

http://www.sightm1911.com/lib/rkba/battleofathens. htm

This almost proves to me that you didn't pay attention in your chemical warfare training. Proper application of chemical weapons is EXTREMELY difficult. Sure a small vial of might be able to kill hundreds, assuming that you give everyone a little snif of the stuff. The truth is that maintaining high enough concentrations to kill anyone requires either a small enclosed area with good circulation, or massive quantites of the gas. This is terribly difficult to achieve. Check out this link.

Since the link you posted isn't working for me. I couldn't check to see what the estimated date of manufacture on this gas they found is. The point is that the sarin that sadam produced in the late 80's is far to old to still be effective, since the estimated shelf life of that stuff was 2 years!

The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be compelled to render military service in person.

And this quote :George Mason: "I ask you sir, who are the militia? They consist now of the whole people." (Elliott, Debates, 425-426) (from here

In fact there is tons of evidence that the militia==the people, and precious little for any other interpretation.

Read this and use your common sense and don't panic.