Re: Student arrested over Counter Strike map

[John Forrister <John () segfault com>]

Brian Loe wrote:
> On 5/4/07, John Forrister <John () segfault com> wrote:
>
> <SNIP>
> > The same is true of a hammer, a fork, or a pen.
>
> You had me going for a minute...
Heh.  That was mostly a dig @ the previous messages, trying to point out
how ridiculous banning 'weapons' can be.

> > Now, on to airplanes specifically:
> >
> > Regardless of the intent of the person with a given object, there are a
> > lot of legitimate reasons to ban explosives, firearms, pepper spray, etc
> > from airplanes (and, in some cases, the public at large).
>
> This is buying into exactly what may be to blame for all of those kids
> getting killed at VT. Its the difference between the kids who had
> opportunity to act and the old Holocaust survivor who acted - and gave
> his life. While its obvious to anyone with a brain why explosives
> provide no benefit to anything good on a plane, I - and I'm sure
> millions of others - are absolutely lost looking for a reason not to
> allow people carry firearms, pepper spray, knives, lighters, or a
> bottle of water onto an airplane.
Personally, I agree.  The powers that be, however, don't.  I'd actually
like to see 'weapons free' zones banned in general, as all they do is
scream 'soft target'.  (Frankly, we're probably much closer on our
philosophies to this than you realize).

> > Some of them
> > have to do with malicious people.  Others are simply safety concerns -
> > the discharge of a firearm, whether intentional or accidental, on an
> > airplane can have immediate, disastrous consequences for all involved.
>
> How so? You don't actually believe the Hollywood shtick that a simple
> bullet will tear out a massive hole in the fuselage of a plane do you?
Not at all.  Explosive decompression would require a reasonably large
explosion to initiate (to the best of my knowledge). I'd be somewhat
concerned about  a round penetrating a bulk head and hitting, eg, a
pilot.  Mostly I'd be worried about some twitchy yahoo who didn't know
how to use his weapon hitting someone besides themselves on accident. 
Especially with the tendency being for people to see 'suspicious
activity' everywhere they look.

> >  Same for a can of pepper spray, or the rupture
> > and ignition of an oxygen cylinder required by a passenger for medical
> > reasons.
>
> Yep, you watch too much television.
Actually, I don't watch that much television. 

I have, however, personally seen what happens when a canister of
compressed oxygen gets set on fire, and it's not pretty (though it is
pretty impressive).  The truck carrying the cylinders was completely
destroyed (the frame itself was melted, among other things, and the
cylinders themselves were launched quite some distance from the truck,
and a good sized section of the asphalt underneath the truck had to be
torn out and replaced (it's been a while, but I'd guess the area
replaced was a good 15'x20').  The truck was delivering oxygen for
medical use to the house of a friend of mine.

In terms of pepper spray it was a while ago (and well before 9/11) that
I was told this by airline personnel (yeah, I know, immediately
suspect), but I can see where problems might arise if there's a shared
air supply with the cockpit.  The passengers can live with being
uncomfortable for a while, but again, it'd be unfortunate for the pilots
to be exposed to it during the flight.

That said, I've carried pepper spray on a plane before (inadvertently -
I forgot it was in my bag) and had no issues, but I didn't use it on
anyone during the flight.
> > On another note, it's interesting (and kind of sad) that if he'd offered
> > to sell the map for the game as a 'Training Simulation' to the local
> > SWAT team instead of just playing it and owning a hammer, he could
> > probably have made a bundle of money for his efforts, and not be in
> > trouble right now.
>
> Name a single instance where the SWAT team entered a school before the
> killer had already finished killing his victims and himself? SWAT,
> police and sheriff departments have little use for such training tools
> - they simply need the forms to fill out and a pen, that's what they
> do in these situations...count the bodies, tell the parents. Not a job
> I would want for sure.
Not a job I'd want either, and I have a substantial amount of respect
for those individuals who perform those jobs.

Thing is, government buys a lot of stuff that'll never get used, and I'm
sure you could sell this product to them.  Valdis posted a link a bit
ago towards a similar product.

-John
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