From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Tue Feb 26 2002 - 10:20:02 MST
On 2/26/02 12:52 AM, "justin corwin" <outlawpoet@onebox.com> wrote:
>
> This is very interesting to me. I was previously aware of ceramic
> rifle-stopper
> plates in the front and back of level III-c vests, but I didn't know
> that it was that effective. Do you know who produced those? They are
> prototype, I assume, as a google doesn't bring up anything like that,
> precisely...
The ceramic plates flatten and fragment rifle bullets. The slower and less
ballistically efficient shape post-ceramic is easily stopped by the vest
underneath.
Contrary to what Michael Lorrey stated, they will NOT stop AP (armor
penetrating) rifle bullets. Part of the confusion is that marketing types
sell ammo as "AP" which was never designed as such by the military, but
which they can charge a premium for when selling to the gullible public.
This fake AP ammo can be stopped by armor vests. Real AP has never been
available to the public and it is in fact illegal to own true AP ammo. The
real clue that this is the case should be that the ATF does not crack down
on the myriad of "AP" ammo vendors.
> Anyone know what kind of legislation governs the private production of
> directed energy weapons, hipower lasers, or directed emp weapons?
> On a related note, does the legislation on automatic and explosive firearms
> cover privately developed, prototype, or handbuilt non-commercial weapons?
The rules are complicated. In the U.S., any weapon that doesn't require a
Form 4 transfer can legally be manufactured without licensing of any type as
long as you only do it for personal use and experimentation. Building
restricted weapons requires a license called a Form 2 (IIRC), but once they
give it to you (and it is essentially a "shall issue" form) you can make
almost anything you want. In conjunction with this, you would probably want
to fill out the form that gives you carte blanche to do anything you want
with explosives.
The biggest problem you are likely to have is in the category of Form 4
device classified as "Destructive Devices", which is a rather open-ended
definition although there are some regulatory guidelines. However, a proper
Form 2 and broad explosives license should cover everything I would think.
And last but not least, most of these regulations apply only to Natural
Persons. It is a moderately well-known loophole that a Corporation (and
agents of the corporation) are not subject to many/most of these
regulations.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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