Weekend Digest: I’m A PC Edition

Saturday is gun buy-up day in Los Angeles, so go buy a gun! Even if you don’t live in LA! I suppose that’s not the message that they’re trying to get out, but it’s the one I choose to take from it. Guns can be turned in at several locations around LA for a $100 or $200 gift card “to buy groceries.” The organizer of the event dismisses the claim that the buy-ups are ineffective, even though many of the guns are broken or otherwise inoperable. Anne Tremblay, who runs the program, points out that it’s “just one piece of a violence reduction program.” The program, which has been running for five years now, picks up between 1,500 and 2,000 guns each year. The guns will be melted down by LAPD. Read on for more . . .

Your Lockdown of the Day™ comes from Tampa, Florida. Wharton High School was locked down for… wait. This is a joke, right? Seven… Sigh. Wharton High School was locked down for seven hours on Thursday, starting just after 9 a.m., after a student said he heard talk of a gun. Students were served lunch in their classrooms and bathroom breaks were sparse (one student said he finally gave up and peed in a bottle in class) while authorities patted down students and searched lockers and bookbags. Room by room, inch by inch. School dismissal was delayed while parents waited outside. Finally, at 4:15 p.m., the lockdown was lifted and students were dismissed. No gun was found. Despite the huge disruption, school officials say the student did the right thing. “We need any kinds of tips,” said school district spokesman Tanya Arja. “If you hear something, if you see something, we need students to come forward, we need teachers and staff to come forward, nothing is so small that they should keep it to themselves.”

The Theatrical Security Agency proved its name once again last Sunday after failing to spot a pair of empty AK-47 magazines in the luggage of a Yemeni national who was catching a flight back home out of JFK. (Whether or not empty magazines should even constitute an offense is a conversation for another time.) The man and his traveling companion were stopped by TSA because they were flying to Yemen on one-way tickets, which is apparently a red flag in counterterrorism circles. It turns out they had more cash on them than is legally allowed, but they explained that away and were going to be released back to their flight when the magazines were discovered in one man’s luggage by Customs. The man was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon (for having a steel box). The prosecutor asked for bail to be set at $50,000 for Bassam Alkhanshli, no doubt due to the man’s name, but after his attorney pointed out that another person had been released on his own recognizance for a similar charge over the weekend, the judge set bond at $5,000, or $2,500 cash. Bassam Alkhanshli is a resident of Tennessee, holds a pistol permit there, and has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2009.

Samson Manufacturing asks “What is a Smart Gun?”

 
Richard Ryan asks, How much C4 will a Mac Pro hold?

Can’t think of a better use for that trash can.