Word: weaponeering
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...measure by which ATF gauges a gun's appeal as an offensive (rather than a defensive or sporting) weapon is its "time-to-crime" factor - how long after its sale it is used in a crime. Revolvers, not generally used as an offensive weapon, had a median time-to-crime of 12.3 years, according to the 2000 figures. At the other extreme, Bryco Arms 9mm semiautomatics recovered from kids younger than18 had a median time-to-crime of 1.5 years, and those recovered from suspects aged 18 to 24 had a median time-to-crime of 1.1 years...
...criminals are interested almost exclusively in semiautomatics, preferring their superior firepower. (Semiautomatics hold at least seven and often as many as ten or twelve rounds of ammunition.) Gun traffickers like to peddle cheap semiautomatics to teenagers because they can tack on a hefty mark-up and still offer a weapon that costs less than an upscale gun like a Ruger or Smith and Wesson semiautomatic. That's why inexpensive semiautomatics dominate the top ten list. As it happens, many of the companies on that list have links to George Jennings, founder of the now-defunct Raven Arms and his clan...
...schools that are willing and able to pay the price, the court's ruling provides one more weapon in the war against drugs. Oklahoma school officials say that after everything from surveillance cameras to canine patrols failed to reduce drug use, random testing was a desperate last resort--and proved the most effective deterrent of all. "Without testing for drugs, we just weren't effectively eliminating the problem," says Linda Meoli, attorney for the Oklahoma school district. "We really needed another, better tool." --With reporting by Joe Pappalardo/New York
...instructions for building a nuclear bomb--"an H-bomb," as a top official described it. The instructions were laughably inaccurate--more a parody than a plan--but not recognizing that, Padilla took them to Abu Zubaydah and other al-Qaeda planners and said he wanted to detonate such a weapon in the U.S. "He was trying to build something that would attain a nuclear yield," says a senior Bush Administration official monitoring Padilla's case. In response, Abu Zubaydah apparently cautioned his eager job applicant to think smaller--to get some training and attack America with a so-called "dirty...
...radioactive iodine, I-131, released by the blast. But that won't help in the case of a dirty bomb, as a homemade explosive is unlikely to contain radioactive iodine. The half-life of the I-131 isotope is only eight days, making it a poor choice for a weapon that counts on radioactivity for its effectiveness. If a terrorist obtained some, most of it would be gone by the time a bomb could be assembled and detonated...