Discussion on:

I found it on Craigslist- an F-14 and nightvision goggles

It would appear that you can truly buy anything you want or need online.
While it is a great convenience, is it a good thing? And how do we go
about policing sites with things to sell? Could this be a case of "good
idea, bad execution"?

What are your experiences with purchasing online? Should there be rules
formally set to insure that things that should not be available to the
general public, aren't?

dressed in:

# Night vision goggles
# Army combat uniform
# Special enhanced? body armor vest

I would be arrested as a suspected terrorist. What was I doing?

Just wearing the items I bought!!

Edit - time of day

If you had no weapons, what could they charge you with? Probably disturbing the peace is the only thing that would stick. Unless something you were wearing was a restricted item...

There is a huge difference between an F14 and F14 components. It depends entirely on what components they are. By the way the US government sold Iran F14 parts as part of the Iran contra deal in the 80s. This at a time when the US government was also supplying Iraq (which was at war with Iran) with dual use equipment, trucks as an example, that were supposed to be used for farming, but ended up with the army instead. Engine components for an F14 are more benign than missle guidance systems.


Night Vision goggles. I think the idea that they are used to spot US troops is a little paranoic - they are used to spot anyone and almost anything. Even before the fall of the Soviet Union you could buy pretty good soviet army issue ones down at the army surplus store (along with uniforms of many nations). They are used by army, police but they do have non military applications as well. I grew up near a set of hydro transmission towers, and every week a helicopter flew over the transmission lines, with a passenger wearing night vision goggles, looking for hot spots on the lines which could indicate a potential short.

Body armour. Gee you can buy that at a retailer. So now we are talking degrees - you can't buy the latest and greatest because thats rerserved for the military.

Uniforms - the ARMY sold its surplus to dealers for decades.

You wanna know what I think? The army has a theft problem and they are trying to deflect the issue by blaming craigslist or whoever. But before craigslist existed this stuff was still stolen and still sold.

And if you want to target stuff that could be used against US troops, then also look at weapons. You can walk into a gun store in the US today and buy a Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle, designed to be able to be used at distances of up to a mile. No one seems to want to ban that. I saw a 60 minutes report where a guy was buying them all over the US and shipping them to Kosovo, which was a war zone. Because there was an intermediate address in Europe they were shipped to other than Kosovo, there was nothing the government could do.

My 2 cents.

James

Just watch the politicos trying to score points with the anti-gun crowd sometime. They do want to ban the .50 BMG Barrett rifle and I seem to recall California (or some other similarly leaning state) has banned the Barrett rifles.

Given what happened with the brady bill and assault gun ban, do you think it will be effective in California? Surely a constitutionality debate will happen, isn't it happening in NY with hand guns?

Personally, I live in Canada, and don't want to see restrictions on hunting weapons, but don't need to see AKs or Barretts around the woods...

James

Those poor criters should have the means to defend themselves. Give that bear an AK. Brother AL Gore will thank you for it. -d

Surely a constitutionality debate will happen, isn't it happening in NY with hand guns?

Thats the case thats before the supreme court right now. If I screwed up with what you was talking about, sorry.

Dan

Absolutely amazing. You would think the government would buy and arrest these people. What about the news today. Major Military items washing up on shore on our beaches like a missile. What is going on here. When I was in the Army there was tight security on weapons of any type. Now you can buy them on EBay! If I ran my Business Directory like the Busch administration runs this country I would be broke.

I guess, you can pretty much get anything you want if you know where to look. Aircraft components do not kill people. As they say, people kill people. As an optics supply we would be more concerned that advanced
night vision devices could be a available to those who would use them against the innocent. Night vision devices have been available to the general public for some time now. We regularly get requests from hotspots throughout the world for night vision rifle scopes and binoculars. We don't supply to countries that have any form of internal conflict. If the optics are of an advanced nature surely the ads can be pulled and everybody can sleep easy.

Don't you ever wonder how stupid they think we are?