Question #1287: Weapons designer

[Ask Satya Operator]

I find that I may be able to design mil-spec (military specifications) weapons but Satan probably won't approve of my career choice because of the very thought of designing literal killing machines.

But on the other hand, I will show you a reported quote from a well known weapons designer from the 1890s. (tech was complicated back then)

"In 1882 I was in Vienna, where I met an American whom I had known in the States. He said: 'Hang your chemistry and electricity! If you want to make a pile of money, invent something that will enable these Europeans to cut each others' throats with greater facility." - Hiram Stevens Maxim

I still think I should ask before I go further with my thoughts on making killing machines.

 

[Ol argedco luciftias]

None of the gods would be bothered by this.

Weapons are not bad things. They are tools, and like any other tool they can be used in many ways. A car is a useful tool, but somebody can use it in the wrong way and hurt somebody. A baseball bat is a tool for a children's game that children are playing at school, but it can be very bad if a person is hit with it. You can not worry about if somebody is choosing to use a tool in the wrong way because the tool is designed for a good purpose.

The main purpose of a weapon is defensively to protect yourself and protect your family. Of course it is a bad thing to harm somebody, but harming that person is necessary if that person is putting yourself or your family in extreme danger. If a violent criminal breaks into your house trying to rape and murder your family, the greatest and most virtuous thing would be to shoot him so he is prevented from harming your family. And you are helping the world by giving people the ability to defend themselves.


Hiram Maxim is a good person to learn from. He was a genius successful in everything that he did. He had a very successful career inventing electrical systems and inventing new useful chemicals, and had no training and no experience in designing guns. But his Maxim machine gun was the most successful design ever made. Every country in WWI and WWII were all using this same design from Maxim. The British government did a test with a maxim gun where they were able to continuously feed it more ammo belts and more water for the cooling jacket, and they spent 7 days firing more than 5 million rounds. After this, the gun was disassembled and all parts were inspected and none of them were damaged.