If you treat it like real mail it ends up exactly the way the OP describes: a few high-value messages at risk of being lost in a deluge of low-value, often unsolicited, noise. My real mail is so full of stuff I don’t want and don’t care about that it makes me resistant to looking at it at all - in fact, the only reason I do (and irresponsibly infrequently at that) is because of mail that occasionally arrives that has legal or financial implications.
I think it’s reasonable to expect that sender-controlled messaging ends up in this state, particularly when the messaging platform is incentivized to support this model.
The question, though, wasn’t whether ATF agents might interpret the regulations one way or another, but what the regulations are. Millions of people purchase legal and freely available components for their legal firearm with a serial number, and do not run afoul of the law. As soon as we are talking about components or firearms requiring a NFA tax stamp we’re in a different category though.
The only part that is actually considered a firearm under federal regulations is the lower receiver, so it is the only item that is controlled and requires paperwork. Everything else (with the exception of prohibited or specifically regulated items such as suppressors) is a generally available component that does not require the ATF to approve the purchase. Laws state to state on other components may vary, such as magazine capacity.
> She had gone straight to the lethal option and had no other recourse.
Not true. I presume that PSNI, like any law enforcement agency in the U.S., operates with some form of a use of force continuum that ranges from officer presence to deadly force. One of the most important aspects of that continuum that is taught to officers is that you can move up and down the continuum as the situation dictates. If you draw your sidearm you are not obligated to remain at that level of the use of force continuum. You should continue to make every effort to gain control of the situation, and deescalate.
At the same time, you are not obligated to use a lower level of force than that which you are facing, and a kitchen knife is a deadly weapon. It's very much a training issue as much as anything to educate officers in deescalation techniques, less-lethal weapons and control techniques, and scene management to minimize casualties. In the situation you describe though, it was absolutely appropriate for her to draw her sidearm, while still doing everything in her power to regain control of the situation so that she would not need to use it.
> Wait if the county police become your police if there's no other police department, then why does any city spend their taxes on their own police?
Policy-wise the motivations for retaining a city police department can be differences in crime between urban and suburban/rural areas, and population density & subsequent patrol officer density - and as a subset of that, response times. I would imagine that cities, and specifically the elected leaders, are also under significant pressure from police unions to retain their departments. Furthermore, disbanding a police department for any major city means that the county or state police department suddenly has to take on the workload of what was previously being done by hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of city police, and no department is prepared for that.
> And presumably if there's no county police the state police have jurisdiction.
There are many cities in the US that are outside of any county, and are their own incorporated entity on par in the hierarchy with the surrounding counties. As such the state police would be the most likely department to take over policing. Again though, that's a major resource burden and logistics problem; any feelings about the pros and cons of reduced police presence aside no policy maker is likely going to be comfortable with that kind of impact.
The county police became the de facto police department for Camden, which is a model for what would likely happen in any city: the police or sheriff’s department for the next largest jurisdiction encompassing the city would start policing the city.
Interestingly, I implemented every mitigation listed in the article: kill the web server process, remove and add an empty directory at `~/.zoomus` to prevent it being re-added, remove Firefox's content type action for Zoom, and disable video turning on when Zoom launches. When I visit a Zoom join link or the POC link above, Firefox prompts me to open the Zoom client to join the meeting, and when I click "Open Link" the client opens just as it should and joins the meeting.
This seems to confirm that there is no functionality to create a seamless experience for the user that actually requires the presence of the web server. If you don't have the client installed the page can prompt you to download it the same as it would the very first time you download and install it. You can ask your browser to remember the link association and not be prompted for which app the link should open going forward. These are minor steps, even for a regular user, and ones with which most users are likely already familiar.
To me this further illustrates that the web server is truly just a ploy on Zoom's part to keep their hooks in users' systems, and have a way in that the user isn't privy to. Any other excuse they are giving about "enhanced experience" is dubious at best and deceitful at worst.
I think it’s reasonable to expect that sender-controlled messaging ends up in this state, particularly when the messaging platform is incentivized to support this model.
ETA: typo fixes