posted on Nov, 25 2008 @ 12:30 PM
I've seen some intelliegence sprouting from the heads of some of the people posting here, so I'll join in.
the japanese, after world war two, spent a lot of money researching ceramics that could be used for industrial purposes. a lot of these developements
have made their way quietly around the world, because "pfft, who cares about building a better coffee mug?".
the simple truth is that ceramics, as used today, are quite durable. they're used to augment armor by the troops in iraq, they're used to make
specialized tools where steel or other metals can't be used for magnetic or conductivity reasons. and yes, I've heard of ceramic gun barrels in
conventional comercial guns as well. they aren't common. why? because they're expensive. there are far fewer james-bond/sam-fischers than everybody
would probably think. don't get me wrong, they do exist, in varying degrees, but they are by no means everywhere, and most of the time they exist
because they've learned to keep things simple: this means a cheap gun that you can dump after you've used it and not have it traced back to you, if
you need to have a gun at all. expediency is the name of the game. there may be CIA / alphabet soup agency types running around trying to sneak
belt-buckle knives into another country, I don't know. I do know, however, that it's pretty much pointless. I've had guns offered to me in
countries which are ruled by despotic and fascist governments simply because I looked like a rich bewildered tourist who might like some adrenaline on
his trip. I've no doubt that the agents of whatever governments are perfectly capable of arming themselves once they get to a place. at the very
least, they can have somebody at an embassy leave a 'package' for them somewhere. even if smuggling across national borders must be done, I must
point out such personal examples as a burmese man walking across the river that serves as the thai/burmese border in taichilek/ma sae, and then
carrying a small refrigerator that he bought back across the border- both times illegally- 100 yards from a guard post. this was in broad daylight.
nobody stopped him. the refrigerator was not searched. perhaps he had to bribe the soldiers of one country or the other, i don't know. but he got
across.
with this in mind, unless an undercover operation is specifically planned to take place in an area where a) an agent will be required to be armed and
b) will be thoroughly searched ('thoroughly' is used loosely here, as airports/etc are not nearly so secure as everybody hopes), I don't really see
any need for an exotic untraceable weapon such as is being discussed here. the three examples that come to mind (from the glock article) are all
widely publicized. we all hear about it on the news if a courthouse gets shot up. or if somebody is found dead in an airport.
I'm not going to say that there aren't things you should worry about your government doing, wherever you live- but this is probably one of the more
ridiculous things that you might consider. I wouldn't waste any time thinking about it.