arndt@lymph.DEC (02/25/85)
There are several reasons for all armies inscribing serial numbers on
their weapons that have very little if anything to do with the political
philosophy of the government being defended:
o Quality control - who made the gun, when, where, so that if it
turns into a piece of trash corrective action can be taken.
o Control of WHO has the weapon - tracing usage. Just like in the
case sited. Are lost weapons turning up in unwanted hands?
o More of the above - tracing an INDIVIDUAL gun.
o Control of gun model - as improvements are made, as they always are,
each new model revision can be controled and provided for.
What a sad stated the 'volunteer' army concept has put us in. If Dave had
been in the army he would no doubt still remember the serial number of HIS
rifle! And would be laughing with the rest of us.
Regards,
Ken Arndtdavid@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin) (02/27/85)
Ken Arndt demontrates that there are serial numbers on rifles (I had already conceded that point to the first fellow who brought up Quality Control; Inventory Control seems far less compelling). Fine, but he has not yet answered the challenge: (1) What is meant by the numbers "matching"? and (2) What is the source of this information? I stand corrected on the minor point, and I remain unrepentant on the major one. Holding a postition slightly bent but quite unbroken, David Rubin
gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) (03/01/85)
> Ken Arndt demontrates that there are serial numbers on rifles (I had > already conceded that point to the first fellow who brought up Quality > Control; Inventory Control seems far less compelling). Fine, but > he has not yet answered the challenge: > > (1) What is meant by the numbers "matching"? and > (2) What is the source of this information? > > I stand corrected on the minor point, and I remain unrepentant on the > major one. > > Holding a postition slightly bent but quite unbroken, > > David Rubin 1) My guess is that matching numbers means that the numbers on the rifles suggest that they were once part of the same cache. For example, if rifles #57600-57624 and #57673-57690 are in El Salvador while rifles #57625-57672 are in Grenada, then that may be evidence that they were supplied directly by the Soviets and/or Cubans. Then again, it may not. 2) Ken Arndt's source is "Gung Ho" magazine, whose readers are presumably army types. Most of its articles are detailed descriptions of weapons (including nukes in the latest issue!) and acts of terrorism, all with similarly detailed and/or graphic pictures. They had a one-paragraph blurb on the subject which was about as cryptic as Ken's posting, with the same title (i.e., the title was "Well, Reagan was Right!"), and with no sources. I trust it about as much as I trust the National Enquirer. --- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk "2*x^5-10*x+5=0 is not solvable by radicals." -Evariste Galois.