(keitai-l) Re: Customs issues Bond-like cellphone gun alert

From: cfb <cfb_at_nirai.ne.jp>
Date: 09/03/01
Message-ID: <3B93A83C.4AF11111@nirai.ne.jp>
Ben Hutchings wrote:
> J. Sean Bennett wrote:
> > ...keitai cameras, mp3 players, and now this...
> >
> > http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/2001090
> > 1/679319.html
> >
> > "...The top third of the phone's body slides open, revealing four
> > small holes where .22-calibre bullets can be chambered, lying flat
> > beneath the phone's liquid crystal display screen.   ...The gadgets
> > do not make phone calls...."
> 
> This is hardly news - I heard of this awhile ago, and so did most of
> f the airport security people in the US, apparently. 

It's very old news... popped up on the IP-list and ./ over 6 months 
ago... probably surfacing in open sources long before it got picked 
up by the popular press (which is what caused the story to be p.

> Almost every
> time I've been through airport security in the US recently, I've been
> asked to demonstrate that my phone (and sometimes also my PDA) is not
> one of these by turning it on or pressing a key, making the display
> change.

Yes, but do they then ask you to put it through the x-ray machine?

A rigged LCD demo can be executed with minor mods that wouldn't 
interfere with the firing mechanism in this type of dressed up, 
almost useless zip gun.

Of course the conspiracy freaks out there would have you believe 
that this "discovery" has been openly circulated among law 
enforcement for the purpose of justifying the use of lethal 
force in situations where the subject was holding a cell phone
(the NY police, however, are still waiting for the "wallet gun" 
to be invented).

Oddly enough, Japanese security has always been far more interested
in the scissors I carry in my shaving kit.  They always inspect and
then tell me not to take it out during the flight, while my leatherman
tool (with two nasty looking +4" blades) goes unnoticed.  Still, 
this cultural sensitivity to scissors is one of the reasons I like 
Japan... It's quaint to see a country where criminals and hijackers
think that scissors and knives are viable tools for plying their
violence.  In the US and just about everywhere else, this thought
has been reduced to the joke about "bringing a knife to a gun fight".
Still, Japan does get an extra 2 bonus points for being the only
country (that I know of) where sarin gas has been successfully used
by a non-(para)military entity.

...anyway, I'm way off topic now; so, I'll cease and desist

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Received on Mon Sep 3 18:57:31 2001