Spudgun knowledge helps but PR skills are more important in this case.you're far more knowledgeable about spudguns than I am.
The fact is that safely constructed spudguns are capable of doing a great deal of damage. Would an average person be comfortable with the knowledge that anyone with half a brain and a few bucks could buy over-the-counter materials and build something that could easily punch clean through someone's skull?
Of course we don't condone the shooting of living things on here and advocate the responsible use of spudguns, but what's to stop people from using the information to commit crimes? I remember someone had logged into a spudding forum wanting to make a strafer to deal with school bullies, of course such actions were lamented by everyone but we still have no control over what people do with the knowledge we share on this forum.
In the UK for example, any airgun capable of producing more than 12 ft/lbs of muzzle energy is considered a firearm by law and requires a firearm license that is not easy to obtain. Many of the projects here produce tens if not hundreds of that amount of energy. Most of the launchers on the UK spudgun forums are legally firearms, the only reason that the makers do not get into trouble with the law is because they use their launchers responsibly on their own property.
The power of media sensationalism is not to be taken lightly, an article or feature showing how easily a powerful launcher can be made is likely to cause a public outcry that will force a government to take action that won't be in our favour. In view of this, I'm comfortable with keeping this hobby a little underground. I preferred to use spudtech before spudfiles because it wasn't a public forum and access was limited to members.
I'll take the UK again as an example, as a direct result of the Dunblane massacre, the private ownership of handguns was completely banned - irrespective of the vast majority of handgun shooters being responsible individuals who enjoyed their hobby without harming anyone.
My point is that our hobby is essentually a dangerous one, if not to ourselves then most certainly to our targets, and we have little to gain by drawing the attention of the "sheeple". What if a news item suggests that terrorists could say hide a multi-barreled pneumatic launcher in a truck and use it to bombard a government facility with mortar bombs? The terrorism card is pretty sweeping.
The situation isn't as straightforward as it initially appears.
Haha. Yea you should approach PCGUY about it and see if he wants it to be linked to spudfiles, and if not someone can just create an account on youtube for that purpose specifically. Could definitely be a good thing though.
