Atlanta motorist with rifle case

[5pins]

How in the hell is it legal for a protester running a illegal roadblock to draw his rifle on the guy on the motorcycle? If I pulled something like that I could kiss my 2A rights goodbye?

It's not and he should be arrested but I'm not holding my breath.

[Suvorov]

It's not and he should be arrested but I'm not holding my breath.

He won’t. I guess it’s his white privilege?

[NGP]

Just a quick note: Myself and people like me can build a strong bumper. My most recent bumper went on a tractor because the factory John Deere grille guards folded up like tin cans when being used on scraper tractors inside of barns. When an 8,000 lb tractor being driven by hired help bounces off of telephone poles set in concrete, stoutness is needed. The one I built has withstood those impacts for 2 years now, no damage to it or the tractor.

So yes to your middle part assuming that fabricator has a basic understanding of force application and how to strengthen against it.

Most likely no to the first and last, though. Strength is ideally derived through design first and brute material thickness second, using the lightest possible components to withstand predicted forces from predicted directions. Seeing something flex, for example, is usually fine. Seeing it yield is not fine. The good factory bumpers likely have gone through some amount of computer design looking at force vectors. I played with some software like this a long time ago, and it's fascinating to put in different material types, cross-sections, and thicknesses and then watch them deform under simulated loads. Your 'decent fabricator' has likely never been exposed to anything like this and will simply use thicker materials in a simpler, less-than-ideal design. The same ends may be accomplished, but it won't be lighter than a design aided by computer simulations. It'll be heavier....possibly much heavier. And if that fabricator hasn't seen many examples of failed structures, it also may be weaker.

Finally, and this is the big one....there's no way that any fabricator can produce, profitably and at a competitive price, on a per-piece basis, anything that is also made on a factory floor. Someone who makes 100 of something has jigs, templates, batch-cut pieces, and the speed borne of repetition. R&D costs are spread over many, many pieces to the point that they approach zero on a by-the-piece basis. But if I'm going to make one part, all of that R&D gets applied to that single part. This can be hours' to days' worth of expense by itself depending on the part....R&D is a billable expense on a single part. There are no jigs, no templates, everything is from scratch. A single part that takes 30 seconds to stamp out and punch on a purpose-built machine (that costs $100k) can take hours to make by hand.

Can someone like me make you a strong bumper? Yes. Specifically to *your* individual needs and for your individual vehicle? Absolutely, and this is where the factories take a second seat to me. Will it be lighter than a Warn or ARB? Very unlikely. Will it be less expensive? Absolutely not. If someone like me can make something for less than a factory can make and sell it for, there's something terribly wrong with the factory or the middleman selling it *OR* I'm not including all of my true costs.

To be clear, by decent fabricator, I mean a decent shop, not some backyard bubba with a 115v wirefeed. I even recommended a website where a bunch of trophy truck builders hang out, I assure you they're not unfamiliar with infinite element analysis software.

The reason for my suggestion is that the offroad "armor" market has become just as inundated with junk brands as the glock mod market. Jeeps are the primary driver of this particular market outside of the desert southwest, as such most jeeps while capable never leave the pavement, aftermarket companies understanding this fact have a tendency to build for form over function. Bumpers are not cheap regardless of quality, if you're going to spend the money, and ARB, Warn, or Ranch Hand don't offer something for your particular vehicle I believe a custom job is worth a hard look.

[Welder]

To be clear, by decent fabricator, I mean a decent shop, not some backyard bubba with a 115v wirefeed...

<snip>

Bumpers are not cheap regardless of quality, if you're going to spend the money, and ARB, Warn, or Ranch Hand don't offer something for your particular vehicle I believe a custom job is worth a hard look.

To be clear, I don't think anyone on this planet thinks that a backyard bubba with a 115V wirefeed is a decent fabricator. Except bubba himself.

I'm a fabricator by trade, just to clear the air in case I gave the impression that I'm a backyard bubba with a 110V MIG. I know of what I speak when it comes to metalworking. What I said was correct.

Strength, check. I and guys like me can produce equivalent strength all day long.

Price, NO. We can't compete on price. One man crew or job shop, you're not competing with mass production.

Weight, NO. What me or a decent job shop will build is NOT going to be lighter than a factory-built piece of equivalent strength and design. Unless it's a direct copy. And in that case, you're better off buying from the factory OR starting with a factory-built piece and modifying it to fit your purposes.

I do agree with you that custom work is very often high quality. And there is perceived value in having something that's literally one-of-a-kind; I have customers with plenty of expendable income who use my services because they don't want something out of a Chinese factory or a hillbilly sweatshop in the backwoods somewhere paying $10/hr to meth heads who can squirt metal out of a MIG gun.

So my intent here isn't to slit my own throat or those of guys like me. It's just to dial back the cheaper, lighter, stronger rhetoric to something more realistic. Because I can't tell you how many calls I get to build something that somebody saw in a catalog online, but for just a little less money.....maybe half price so I could make some profit too

[beenalongtime]

All things considered.

(I mean, how often do you get to do an NPR joke?)

Wait, wait, don't tell me!

To be clear, I don't think anyone on this planet thinks that a backyard bubba with a 115V wirefeed is a decent fabricator. Except bubba himself.

Now I will have this going through my head tonight:

[theJanitor]

Calling 911 won’t work well in Atlanta right now when calls are not being responded to and police are effectively not on the job. Seems to suggest citizens in Atlanta are on their own.

I don’t know what city this is in, but 911 basically told this lady that they aren’t allowed to help


https://soundcloud.com/conservativec...all-06132020-2

[5pins]

This Minneapolis neighborhood is so woke, they decided not to call the police. It's not working out well for them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/u...yd-police.html

Already, that commitment is being challenged. Two weeks ago, dozens of multicolored tents appeared in the neighborhood park. They were brought by homeless people who were displaced during the unrest that gripped the city. The multiracial group of roughly 300 new residents seems to grow larger and more entrenched every day. They do laundry, listen to music and strategize about how to find permanent housing. Some are hampered by mental illness, addiction or both.


Their presence has drawn heavy car traffic into the neighborhood, some from drug dealers. At least two residents have overdosed in the encampment and had to be taken away in ambulances

[5pins]

I don’t know what city this is in, but 911 basically told this lady that they aren’t allowed to help


https://soundcloud.com/conservativec...all-06132020-2

Fucking unreal.

[fixer]

This Minneapolis neighborhood is so woke, they decided not to call the police. It's not working out well for them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/u...yd-police.html

People are sick in the facking head.

That is a good read.

[farscott]

This Minneapolis neighborhood is so woke, they decided not to call the police. It's not working out well for them.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/u...yd-police.html

Mitchell Erickson’s fingers began dialing 911 last week before he had a chance to even consider alternatives, when two black teenagers who looked to be 15, at most, cornered him outside his home a block away from the park. One of the boys pointed a gun at Mr. Erickson’s chest, demanding his car keys. Flustered, Mr. Erickson handed over a set, but it turned out to be house keys. The teenagers got frustrated and ran off, then stole a different car down the street.

Mr. Erickson said later that he would not cooperate with prosecutors in a case against the boys. After the altercation, he realized that if there was anything he wanted, it was to offer them help. But he still felt it had been right to call the authorities because there was a gun involved.

Two days after an initial conversation, his position had evolved. “Been thinking more about it,” he wrote in a text message. “I regret calling the police. It was my instinct but I wish it hadn’t been. I put those boys in danger of death by calling the cops.”

If that is someone's mindset, even after attempted robbery, that person is not a rational thinker. It is not okay for people to point guns at him, but police "put those boys in danger of death". Rational people think the boys' action is what put them in "danger of death". Therefore, there will be no reasoning with Mr. Erickson.

There is no way this experiment ends well.