MLK & Guns

I'd posted a link on FB about Obama's recent EO banning importation of AKs.  As always, E.W. argued that it doesn't affect the average American, and I made the argument that gun rights are civil rights, and not caring just because it doesn't affect you is like a white person in the '60s saying they don't care about black voting rights, etc.

One of E.W.'s friends posted:

"I was much more afraid in Montgomery when I had a gun in my house. When I decided that I couldn't keep a gun, I came face-to-face with the question of death and I dealt with it. From that point on, I no longer needed a gun nor have I been afraid. Had we become distracted by the question of my safety we would have lost the moral offensive and sunk to the level of our oppressors." --Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (From his writings, compiled by Clayborne Carson) [source]

To which I replied:

T.F.: MLK did undergo something of a transformation in the late '50s to the early '60s, completely adopting the notion of non-violent protest. This was part of the power of his message; if he were all about an eye-for-an-eye, then it'd be too easy for his antagonists to provoke a confrontation to solidify support against him. I think he was trying to avoid the Middle East syndrome, where they've been trading blows for centuries. And indeed, the Black Panthers' blatant display of weapons freaked out the timid whites and arguably precipitated California's draconian gun laws and contributed to the 1968 Gun Control Act.

Dr. King also, in response to activists trying to get him to join sit-ins in the early '60s, said, "I think I should choose the time and place of my Golgatha"--with the implication seemingly that he realized that he was at some point going to be killed for his work. That he did it anyway was heroic. (Further, it's not clear that those around Dr. King didn't keep their weapons for his defense--I couldn't find good sources on that after his conversion to non-violence.)

However, this is non-violence to affect political change, and it seems like Dr. King had an idea where it was going to lead. In his 1967 book, he wrote:

"Finally, I contended that the debate over the question of self-defense was unnecessary since few people suggested that Negroes should not defend themselves as individuals when attacked. The question was not whether one should use his gun when his home was attacked, but whether it was tactically wise to use a gun while participating in an organized demonstration." (Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?)

The point he was making, as I interpret it, is that he wasn't against self-defense or guns; rather, he advised that when marching for political purposes, the potential for a protest to devolve when arms are present overshadows the potential advantages. Of course, the risk is that one will be defenseless, and the personal choice one must make--which Dr. King made--was whether to put the cause or one's self-preservation first. I believe that the quote that you put forth doesn't contradict that interpretation.

In those same papers, Dr. King said he only owned one gun in '56; however, some of his advisers noted that there were firearms all over the house. This would imply that perhaps Dr. King distanced himself from the image of firearms ownership, but his crew didn't necessarily.

Other related pieces:
When MLK gave up his guns [Salon]
Civil Rights Leader and Gun-Owner MLK [Guns.com]
The Secret History of Guns [The Atlantic]

20x110mm Hispano?

Apparently both Anzio Ironworks and Serbu Firearms have a semi-auto 20x110mm Hispano rifle in development.  Neither company lists it on their website, but there are videos on YouTube.  (For a second, a frivolous use of my WDC stock largesse popped into my mind....)  Those cartridges have to be like $20 a pop!
 
Anzio semi-auto 20mm
Serbu's Typhon 20 rifle - the comment says it's the Navy M21A1 round, but in other commentary I read it's 20x110mm

PiPhone and Others

Some random RPi stuff:

• PiPhone (and its maker's site)
• The RPi B+ 
• Arduino-powered LED Lighting 
• 3D-printed Gameboy look-alike

Programmable Power Switch

I've been thinking about one of these for a while...need to be able to power off devices programmatically.  Some of the comments are useful.  To wit:

1. You might consider a "zero-crossing" detector however, as switching AC during the high portion of the sine wave will eventually cause your relays to pit, scar, and fail from the internal arcing. By sampling the AC wave and switching the relay on/off only during the zero crossing of the sine wave period - that will make your relay last for years.

2. You should add a base-emitter resistor, something like 10K. If you leave the base unconnected noise(50/60Hz) might turn on the transistor - and the relay. It happened to me a while back while switching some lights with a very similar circuit.

3. Try something like a MOC3043 zero crossing detector optocoupler. If you couple it with a triac you basically get a good switching method, similar to a SSR. Don't forget the snubber for inductive loads.

Need to get my workbench in order....

Google Encryption

Wired has a superlative-laden article on Morgan Marquis-Boire, who was formerly a cybersecurity guy at Google.

In other related topics (linked from the article), Google posted info on how much of the email relays from GMail are encrypted.  Further, they released the source code to End-to-End; it would be interesting to see how that works.