The Gun Thread

I'd invite you to go shooting with me, but unfortunately I'm half a world away.

So Hong Kong had a nasty incident recently: a woman working as a bodyguard opened fire with a Beretta Jetfire on four of her relatives in a park, apparently over a dispute involving her grandma's inheritance.

Two of those shot have died.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Jun 27th 2018 at 2:38:42 AM

So is she gonna get the inheritance?

I too wanted to make that joke, but I found to be in poor taste...

But well, that is one way to settle inheritance disputes.

@pw - Yeah, if I was living in the states, I'd already given you a call.

, You guys are awful.

I’m just surprised nobody made a Jetfire joke.

It's unusual as guns are banned in Hong Kong.

No, she isn't getting the inheritance, and she was scarily good - she headshot two at point-blank range.

China has apparently developed a working portable laser rifle...for the Chinese police, in their anti-terrorism unit.

Just read through the whole thing, it's disturbing and hilarious.

Also, I am a little concerned about the researchers working on this:

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Jul 2nd 2018 at 3:52:22 AM

Seem like pretty normal weapons engineers and researchers to me.

Edited by TerminusEst on Jul 2nd 2018 at 4:08:21 AM

When I first read the headline, I envisioned something like the Ghostbusters' proton pack, with a handheld projector connected to a backpack battery, like a flamethrower. But no, it's all self-contained, and not much bulkier than the HK G11.

This site feels an awful lot like a propaganda outfit.

And after China's new "railgun" I've got serious doubts they managed to make a man portable laser. Least of all one without any external power source.

You're probably right. I just did a Google search for "Chinese laser rifle" and no two images are the same, even if they call it by the same designation. Some of them show pics of familiar sci-fi prop guns that were obviously re-purposed. So, I call B.S. on this one.

It isn't. They just follow developments very closely in the region.

It isn't that unbelievable if they focused specifically on it. But I do think that the public release of the information is a propaganda message, along with any photos. They do this a lot.

Ah that explains some of the weird bipolar moments.

Edited by TerminusEst on Jul 2nd 2018 at 5:08:13 AM

It's Hong Kong's main English language newspaper, actually.

However, it has been handed over to a mainland tycoon, so yes, it does seem like one at times. That said, there are still articles critical of the PRC.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Jul 2nd 2018 at 5:04:31 AM

It's pretty unbelievable considering China can barely reproduce the technological equivalent of 1980s Soviet export garbage, let alone anything modern.

That article doesn't paint a very good picture either as it talks about how China still can't make anything domestically and doesn't actually detail any of it's plans to "dominate" the future of artificial intelligence.

It looks like one of their “dazzler rifles” with a large lens on the end. I’m sure it could set someone’s clothes on fire, but you’d have to hold it on them for a while. US forces typically use weapon-mounted lasers with similar effects.

They observe the US (and others) checking what they're ignoring at the moment, and then put a huge amount of money and time on it. Be it anti-satellite capability, lasers and everything else. Idea being to achieve some form of nebulous asymmetric advantage.

The developments do seem to be often limited to specific institutions, often connected to the PLA or other security organs. Similar to Russia in a sense, where "eliteness" tends to concentrate around specific places, "good enough" or "go fuck yourself" everywhere else.

Edited by TerminusEst on Jul 2nd 2018 at 5:22:19 AM

Yes but when they are just seemingly physically incapable of producing what is frankly basic technology in today's day and age the idea of them suddenly making something more complex is ridiculous.

If they can't reproduce a Mi G engine with blueprints and working examples in hand, let alone make their own design, how the hell are they supposed to make some sort of crazy laser wonder weapon?

Russia's problem isn't know how or capability. Cause you look at their anti-air, the T-14, Ratnik, or any of their small arms and that is genuine quality. Some of that shit just plain puts the West to shame. Russia's problem is that they can't afford to actually make any of the fancy shit they design on a massive scale.

China has significant trouble making even cheap throwaway rifles for it's rear line troops.

Edited by LeGarcon on Jul 2nd 2018 at 8:29:12 AM

I'm not disagreeing.

Their original dazzler rifles were adapted from Soviet weapons research, they ended up making them into rifles because they couldn’t miniaturize the components enough. Russia just buys laser kits from the EU these days.

That should say a lot about the procurement strategies of those two countries.

I just find it hilarious that they developed it for the anti-terrorist unit of all things.

Then again, those are the same guys with crossbows and miniguns for riot control.

"Anti-terrorist" unit. In other words it will be aimed at some poor Uyghur at some point.

Re: Chinese Laser Rifle: I've just pulled up a Popular Science article from 2016 about the same thing. Calling BS.

Most of the stuff we know they use is just dazzlers, as we know from a few incidents.

Incidents like “accidentally” shining their dazzlers into the cockpits of aircraft taking off from Camp Lemmonier.