“What do you see in the dark when the demons come?”
That is a line from the movie “In the Line of Fire,” starring John Malkovich, Rene Russo, and ironically Clint Eastwood.
The movie is about a Secret Service agent (Clint Eastwood) who didn’t save JFK, now gets his chance to save another president from an assassin, (John Malkovich). The assassin likes like toying with the agent over the phone for his failure.
Using a plastic gun that he has fashioned to get around metal detectors. . The assassin tries to take out the president at a campaign event . The plastic firearm is in several pieces when he smuggles it in to the event and he puts it together in a restroom. The assassination fails as Clint Eastwood’s character takes the bullet and the would be assassin takes his own life.
This movie was made in 1993, before 3D printers, before there was a real possibility of making one. Even in 2010 it was mainly speculation. Here’s a model of the plastic gun John Malkovich’s character uses:
If tepid Republicans were waiting for a time to jump off the Trump Train, or to never endorse him, and nothing else was bright enough to get them to do that — this the bright line.
Forbes had an (undated, probably 2013) photo essay on the first fully 3D printed gun called “The Liberator.”
The video above was in 2013 -an assassin will not put the metal in the handle and yes the CAD file in on line. I found it easily, but I’m not linking to it.
Gizmodo had an article entitled “3D-Printed Guns Are Only Getting Better, and Scarier,” January 6, 2015.
The 3D-printed gun debate is a frustrating one for peace-loving Americans. On one hand, it really does feel like it should be illegal to plug in a machine, wait a few hours, and then get a plastic however durable gun that can possibly slip through metal detectors. Guns are dangerous. They kill people. Surely, there should be some sort of oversight.
May 2016 gives us the 3D printed nylon “Songbird”
Tomorrow Donald J. Trump will say he was kidding about calling for the assassination of Hillary is opponent. He didn’t really say that, it’s the damn liberal media that’s out to get him — and crooked Hillary’s stooges. It has just done what it is designed to do; keep people talking about Trump. Keep his name first and foremost on the top of the news cycle.
The two obvious problems with that are that
1) He MUST keep getting more outrageous and obliterating the line.
2) Enough of his supporters are violent enough, conspiracy minded enough to carry out and through his “suggestion.”
It just became more dangerous to be Hillary Clinton. And Donald Trump has taken us one more step toward a nation whose change or government happens with violence.
Republicans MUST denounce him now. If Hillary is harmed it will be too late, not just for taking a stand, and Hillary’s life, but also for the country we are.
When I was a teenager the right wing Assembly of God summer camp my neighbor would sponsor all the neighborhood kids to go to (hey it was horseback riding, a week in the Rocky Mountains, etc. and NOT on my parents’ dime). I remember one sermon at nightly Tabernacle where the minister said the Pontius Pilate could not wash the blood of Jesus’ death from his hands. No matter how much he wanted to. Republicans that will be your fate too.
The bright line is NOW — afterward the blood won’t come off your hands either.