• mechoman444@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    16GB of DDR5 is like $240–$280. A used AR-15 is like $700–$1,000.

    So… no.

    In fact, on GunBroker.com, I’m not seeing an AR-15 for less than $300.

    So what the hell is this meme? Why are we comparing RAM prices to rifles? These are two completely different markets with completely different demographics.

    A 6-inch combat knife is significantly cheaper than 16GB of RAM. Hell, I bet I can score some coke or heroin for less than 16GB of RAM.

    Or are you buying 128GB of RAM? If so, what the hell are you doing with it? Solving the Fibonacci sequence?

    Although my local Asian massage parlor charges more than 16GB of RAM. They keep telling me I’ll get a happy ending, though. Not sure what that means.

    • Thallium_X@feddit.org
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      1 month ago

      The meme clearly names 64GB, which according to your numbers is more expensive an an used AR. 64GB is what a high end system uses these days, both professional as well as gaming.

    • Casuls_Die_Thrice@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      Speaking as an American, you only see those price points on the high-end Gucci ARs; on a good day, an “entry level” AR can run you less than $500 before various taxes & fees. It’s not hyperbole to say there are more guns than people in the US.

      • TabbsTheBat (they/them)@pawb.social
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        1 month ago

        I wish lol… discounting sales I don’t think I’ve seen any semi-automatic rifles here for under a 1000€ (mind you, we’re in the EU so that is tax and any other fees included). If I was looking for guns under a thousand, it’d basically be bolt action hunting rifles, sporting rifles, shotguns, and pistols lol. If I could pick stuff like that for 500 it’d make it a lot easier to collect fun guns

        Also the image of a gucci collab with a gun manufacturer… now that would be the most american thing I’ve seen in a while haha

      • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        The thought of going up to a store and buying an assault rifle over the counter for $500 with barely any restrictions is so alien to me.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 month ago

          We can also buy from private parties and there’s zero restrictions. Problem is we have it that way because they should be getting used right about now…

        • OwOarchist@pawb.socialBanned
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          1 month ago

          Alien to most Americans too. Let’s break it down.

          • Pedantry first: the garden variety AR-15 is not an “assault rifle”. (AR stands for “Armalite” – the company that first developed the rifle, not “assault rifle”.) Assault Rifle is a technical term with a technical definition: a shoulder-fired rifle in intermediate caliber with select fire. The AR-15s you usually see meet all those criteria except for the select fire: since they’re not capable of fully automatic fire, they’re not assault rifles. (Which is why efforts to ban them are usually called “assault weapon” bans – “assault weapon” is a term with no officially accepted definition, so it can mean whatever the people trying to ban things want it to mean.) And for an even deeper level of pedantry: some people will mistakenly tell you something along the lines of “AR-15 is the semi-auto civilian version, while the full-auto military version is called a M-16 or M-4.” While that’s generally the case, it’s not really true. In the early days of adopting it, the US military adopted the AR-15 and designated it the M-16 for internal reference. But the company making them (Colt at that time) still called them AR-15s and (for a while) still marked military rifles as “AR-15”. Also, back in those early days, it was legal to sell newly made full-auto guns to civilians, and while it wasn’t very common, it did happen, so there are a few full-auto civilian AR-15s in existence, but most of that is just purely academic curiosities, really.

          • While some states have barely any restrictions (basically just the federally mandated background check), many states do have significant restrictions. Since the states with restrictions are some of the most populated states, that actually affects the vast majority of Americans. It varies widely between states, but it’s common to have waiting periods, training requirements, or to even ban AR-15 style guns outright – the various ‘assault weapon’ bans, each one with its own slightly different definition of what an ‘assault weapon’ is. (And gun stores will refuse to sell to out-of-state buyers, so you can’t easily circumvent these bans by simply traveling to a different state.) Most Americans can’t simply walk into a gun store and buy an AR-15 ‘over the counter’. For some, it’s just not possible to buy one at all. For others, it can be a difficult process that may eventually conclude with a technically ‘over the counter’ sale, it’s definitely not the just ‘walk in and buy one’ kind of thing you’re talking about.

          • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Since the states with restrictions are some of the most populated states,

            it surprises a lot of people to learn that Texas has nearly as many restrictions as California. You want to go somewhere where they have practically no gun laws, go to Wyoming (i’m not joking).

          • xzite@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Assault Rifle is a technical term with a technical definition

            It’s only really a “technical term” in the civilian anglosphere and the actual “definition” is very shaking when you start investigating it. By your definition a belt fed machine gun with a single shot setting is an assault rifle. Not to mention that there’s no actual definition of what an “intermediate round” even is.

            Most European armies call them some variant of gewehr or rifle and even anglosphere armies just call them rifles, or carbines if they are under some unspecified length.

            “assault weapon” is a term with no officially accepted definition, so it can mean whatever the people trying to ban things want it to mean

            This is like saying manslaughter or murder is a term with no officially accepted definition since it varies by jurisdiction.

            • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              yeah, we should be more specific when discussing them what we mean. are we talking semi-auto >22LR rifles with large magazines?

              of course that kind of discussion would require a populatiion educated on firearms. certainly better educated than i am.

            • OwOarchist@pawb.socialBanned
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              1 month ago

              By your definition a belt fed machine gun with a single shot setting is an assault rifle.

              Only if it’s in an intermediate caliber and light enough to shoulder fire.

              Which, admittedly, there are a few of those out there … but only a few. And, well, arguably such a gun could be an ‘assault rifle’ if you chose to use it as one. Being belt-fed rather than magazine-fed doesn’t really fundamentally change the nature of the thing, and at that point, the feed mechanism is the only functional difference between that and what you’d typically call an assault rifle.

              • athatet@lemmy.zip
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                1 month ago

                arguably such a gun could be an assault rifle if you if you choose to use it as one

                Kinda like an AR then, huh?

          • thermal_shock@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Can it be used for assault? Is it a rifle? Them who fucking cares, it’s technically correct in both scenarios.

        • ElDuderino@lemmus.org
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          1 month ago

          Technically, they are not assault rifles as they cannot do selective fire or fully automatic fire. And most states where people actually live have plenty of restrictions.

          • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Technically. Plus couldn’t you just buy it off someone with literally none of those restrictions?

            • ElDuderino@lemmus.org
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              1 month ago

              Not in CA - you still need a federally licensed dealer to mediate the sale. Many other states have similar restrictions.

              • DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                1 month ago

                SCOTUS: “restrictions on weapons of war? not for long”

                They’re likely going to overturn the assault weapons ban that any state has had for the reasoning of the 2nd amendment

                • ElDuderino@lemmus.org
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                  1 month ago

                  That’s what I hear. Private citizens shouldnt be banned from having arms that we let policemen use against civilians.

          • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            What’s a “forced reset trigger” and why does it cost $9500 then?

            The point is that’s nitpicking the definition.

          • SynAcker@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 month ago

            Now you can drop in a forced reset trigger (FRT) for about $250 into any AR15. This still meets the definition of a semiautomatic rifle (one pull of the trigger per round fired) while enabling the user to shoot at fully automatic speeds.

  • quylaa@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Not ram, but I had a 2tb ssd fail last week that I bought 2 years ago for $170. The same drive is now $1060 MSRP. What kind of AR can I get for that price?

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      You can get a pretty nice one. You can also build yourself a custom one pretty cheap. Buy a cheap lower receiver (the part that is legally a firearm) like an Anderson through a licensed dealer doing the background check and everything. Don’t worry about the “quality” of the lower - it’s just a piece of milled aluminum that everything attaches to. Think of it as your PC case. It just holds the parts that matter.

      Then you can buy the rest of the parts piecemeal and build it out. Though for a lot of people the better option is to buy a pre-assembled upper (includes the barrel, gas block, etc) since it requires a few more specialized tools to assemble and is the easiest part to fuck up, a lower parts kit (with it without trigger - milspec lower kits with triggers are cheap, but buying a nicer trigger is one of the best upgrades you can do easily), buffer tube assembly, stock, and mags.

      An Anderson lower is gonna cost about 40-60 bucks online, plus whatever the locensed dealer you use charges for a transfer fee (it’s shipped to the dealer who does all the paperwork, has the background check run, etc. Usually between 20 and 50 bucks. Sometimes they’ll already have them in inventory for cheaper than the cost of online plus transfer fee).

      Looking at parts packages on Palmetto State:

      Basic assembled upper: about $200

      Lower Parts kit: There’s a great deal on a lower parts kit with trigger, buffer tube assembly, stock, and red dot for $219

      Bolt Carrier and charging handle: $90

      Mags: 10-15 buck each

      So you’re looking at $600-ish starting to build your own complete package. Higher priority upgrades for a beginner would be better triggers, barrels, and optics. But don’t spend a ton on fancy barrels and bolts and shit if you’re just gonna be shooting cheapo ammo. The most-precise AR in the world doesn’t mean much if your ammo isn’t consistent enough to shoot a tight group.

      For $1000 and otherwise the same package, maybe get a magnifier for the red dot, a better drop-in trigger, and maybe step up to an upper package witha barrel with 1/7 twist (stabilizes heavier ammo than the 1:9 that’s more standard) and .223 wydle chamber (a little better than 5.56 for reasons that would take a long time to explain).

      Or even better, just spend the money on ammo. It’s the actual expensive part of shooting. You’d be amazed how quickly you can turn $500 into noise at the range.

      Also don’t cheap out on earpro. Wear plugs and earphones. ARs are stupid fucking loud and single shot can permanently damage your hearing, and even suppressed they can cause damage over time.

    • djdarren@piefed.social
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      1 month ago

      Me with a stack of DDR3 laptop ram I’ve somehow acquired over the past couple of years: nervouslol

    • saltesc@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Considering how big the ‘just for posing online’ market seems to be in America, I’m surprised gun manufacturers haven’t done RGB editions yet…

      • unitedwithme@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        They do red or green dot sights though 😁 it’d be a little awkward focusing on your target with flashing lights distracting your sights.

      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialBanned
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        1 month ago

        I thought to myself, surely someone has already done this – maybe not as a mass-produced product, but at least as a home-made joke…

        But a cursory image search is turning up absolutely nothing of the sort.

        I think you’ve just identified an untapped market here!

      • OwOarchist@pawb.socialBanned
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        1 month ago

        But with the price that high, 5% of the price is still a pretty significant chunk of change.

    • DaGeek247@fedia.io
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      1 month ago

      Ish? You can get a solid enough ar15 for about 800$ these days, just gotta know where to look. https://www.smith-wesson.com/product/mp-15-sport-iii pcpartpicker says that 64gb ddr5 is about 800$ at the absolute cheapest, so ram being higher priced is a fair take, even if it’s not entirely 100% correct.

      Fwiw, this meme has been around for about a year now, and it was very much true the last time I priced things out. Guns just started to catch up, price wise.

      *edit

      I checked the actual store prices for the gun I listed, not the MSRP, and its definitely cheaper than ram. Meme is 100% correct. Barebones ram costs more than barebones ar15.

    • Theatomictruth@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      I was gonna quibble with you until I priced a decent AR just now. It’s been a while since I was in the market, prices really jumped there too.

  • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    Life is cheap nowadays while RAM is needed by the “fucking around with shit we know nothing about but want more money” bros.

  • stateofaffairs@lemmy.today
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    1 month ago

    I heard this on a podcast and think it explains quite abit about the mentality of these executives. They are effective altruists with long termism, mixed in with a healthy dose of narcissism and greed of course. But the later two are not what I want to discuss.

    Effective Altruists, or those subscribing to Moral Ambition have a sort of ends justify the means look at it all. You do everything you can to amass power and wealth so you can make the world a better place. When you add that in with longtermism, that all the suffering now is meaningless because it’s the countless billions of humans coming later that matter, and you gain some clarity regarding their worldviews and morality. That is, of course, without considering what they think “a better place” means. To these individuals, it’s a world shaped in their image. How they see fairness, and work, and love. And it is not a place most human beings, I wager, want to see come to fruition.

    I must be clear I am not saying this is right, nor altruistic, nor condoning it. I find the entire amalgam of ideas and influences rotten. It just offers some perspective on what is driving these people.

    • mobyduck648@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      It’s amazing how much the wealthy have cloaked their avarice in virtue since recorded history first began. This is among the oldest tricks in the book, and we fall for it again and again.

      • stateofaffairs@lemmy.today
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        1 month ago

        Indeed.

        “Ignore the disparity, civil war, and malice! Here is a theatre in marble too!” - Pompey, probably. “Ignore the death of a past-time, climate destruction, and war! AI will solve climate change and get humanity to the stars.” Our new overlords.