H&K gets plenty of hate from a dedicated group in the gun community. But now the German small arms maker is branching out, becoming the target of the German left. A group with the Orwellian name of The Center for Political Beauty (“one of Germany’s most ambitious art groups forcing reality to do acts of immense moral beauty”) has arrived at a final solution for the Oberndorf gunmaker — they plan to encase the Heckler und Koch factory in cement sarcophagus. And they’ve launched an IndieGoGo fundraising effort to get the process going . . .
From the website:
The Plan
We plan to put a sarcophagus, similar to the one that encases the Chernobyl reactor, over Germany’s deadliest factory, so that none of its lethal “products” can illegally escape.
Okay, first, I’m pretty sure that rather than the guns “escaping” being illegal (since they are currently legally sold on the market), in fact the act of encasing the factory in concrete against the owners’ wishes would be illegal. But of course, that would require the ability to use logic.
Why do they want to encase the factory in cement?
Background
While fear of nuclear technology dominates the media headlines, the “products” by Heckler & Koch (“G3” and “G36”) silently killed at least 1.5 million people (375x as many as in Chernobyl’s nuclear disaster). Between 2 and 21 million people are wiped out every year by small arms fire. The weapons “G3” and “G36” appear everywhere despite an export ban in countries like Libya, Georgia and Mexico. This sarcophagus shall once and for all prevent illegal exports of German weapons to war-torn countries. Heckler & Koch is by far the most unscrupulous exporter of German weapons.
Please help us now to collect the budget for a work of art. Any small amount is helpful! Not only Heckler & Koch – the heart of darkness itself, the small town of Oberndorf – will finally gather the attention of the international audience. Even the smallest donations are welcome. This gigantic catastrophe can not be solved politically. It has to be managed architecturally.
Yeah, “silently” killing isn’t something often equated with firearms.
There’s a difference between “illegal” and “morally opposed” that I don’t think these people are understanding. Just like most of the gun control advocates here in the United States, these Germans seem to be operating more on emotion rather than logic. Emotionally they feel that H&K is an evil company that kills innocent people, And that justifies their own illegal activities
Everything about this screams “hysterical overreaction.” Look at their overall plan; wanting to encase the factory in concrete like nuclear waste. They even say in the video that they believe guns have some sort of evil radiation they give off that makes people go insane and go on murdering sprees, so the entire factory needs to be treated like Chernobyl. Just like every other “gun control advocate” they blame the tools for being immoral instead of the people who use them. So naturally, removing the tools will remove the evil impulse.
But there are a couple of even more puzzling aspects to CPB’s extremist gambol. One, I’m pretty sure they can’t get much done with their meager budget of 3,400 Euros. That amount might cover the catering budget for the workers for a couple days once work begins. Two, knowing that this is insane, people have still donated actual money towards the cause — money that will go to whoever is in charge of this little adventure.
I have no problem with people arguing for more restrictions on firearms and their manufacture. Public discourse is a wonderful and beautiful thing that makes democracies work. What I have a slight problem with, though, is small groups of people who believe that they’re acting in the best interests of the world — a world that doesn’t realize the hidden dangers that only their little group can perceive. At least they aren’t sending the guns to concentration camps. Yet.
[h/t _soames]