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Spring-gun
A spring-gun, also known as a booby trap gun, is a gun, often a shotgun, rigged to fire when a string or other triggering device is tripped by contact of sufficient force to "spring" the trigger (firearms), trigger so that anyone stumbling over or treading on it would discharge the gun. Setting or maintaining a spring-gun is illegal in many places. Uses Spring-guns were formerly used as booby traps against poaching, poachers and trespassers. Since 1827, spring-guns and all man-traps have been illegal in England. Spring-guns are sometimes used to trap animals. Although there have been few reported cases of use, there have been several unconfirmed cases over the 20th century. In the 18th century, spring-guns were often used to protect graveyards, offering an alarm system of sorts to protect newly buried bodies, which were often stolen by grave-robbers who supplied anatomists with cadavers. Spring-guns were often set to protect property. For this purpose, spring-guns are often plac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder Incident
The Gunpowder Incident (or Powder Alarm or Gunpowder Affair) was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 21, 1775, two days after the Battles of Lexington and Concord (and well before news of those events reached Virginia), Lord Dunmore ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the gunpowder magazine, magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia, to a Royal Navy ship. This action sparked local unrest, and militia companies began mustering throughout the colony. Henry led a small militia force toward Williamsburg to force return of the gunpowder to the colony's control. The matter was resolved without conflict when a payment of Pound sterling, £330 was made to Henry. Dunmore, fearing for his personal safety, later retreated to a naval vessel, ending royal control of the colony. Background Military tensions began to rise in the Thirteen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katko V
John Michael Katko (; born November 9, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for New York's 24th congressional district, based in Syracuse, from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously was an Assistant United States Attorney who led the organized crime division at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Syracuse. In that role, he helped to prosecute gang members under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. In the 116th Congress, he was a co-chair of the House moderate Republican faction, the Tuesday Group. He was the sole chair of the renamed Republican Governance Group for the 117th Congress. Katko was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump during Trump's second impeachment. On January 14, 2022, Katko announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022. In January 2023, he was named a senior advisor for the Washington, DC–based lobbying and consulting firm Hil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republikflucht
''Republikflucht'' (; German for "desertion from the republic") was the colloquial term in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) for illegal emigration to West Germany, West Berlin, and non-Warsaw Pact countries; the official term was ''Ungesetzlicher Grenzübertritt'' ("unlawful border crossing"). ''Republikflucht'' applied to both the 3.5 million Germans who migrated legally from the Soviet occupation zone and East Germany before the Berlin Wall was built on 13 August 1961, and the thousands who migrated illegally across the Iron Curtain until 23 December 1989. It has been estimated that 30,000 people left the GDR per year between 1984 and 1988, and up to 300,000 per year before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Legislation As of 28 June 1979, the wording of § 213 StGB was: (1) Unlawfully crossing the border of the German Democratic Republic or violating legislation regarding temporary residence within the German Democratic Republic as well as transit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inner German Border
The inner German border ( or ''deutsch–deutsche Grenze''; initially also , zonal boundary) was the frontier between the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the West Germany, Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. ''De jure'' not including the similar but physically separate Berlin Wall, the border was an irregular L-shaped line, long. It ran south from the Baltic Sea and then east to the border of Protection of Czechoslovak borders during the Cold War, Czechoslovakia. It was formally established by the Potsdam Agreement on 1 August 1945 as the boundary between the Allied-occupied Germany, Western and Soviet occupation zones of Germany. On the Eastern side, it was made one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers, defined by a continuous line of high metal fences and walls, barbed wire, alarms, anti-vehicle ditches, watchtowers, automatic booby traps and minefields. It was patrolled by 50,000 armed GDR borde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
SM-70
The SM-70 (''Splittermine Modell 1970'') is an East German directional fragmentation antipersonnel mine developed specifically to combat ''Republikflucht'' (defection) across the Inner German Border (''Grenze'') into West Germany. Design Erich Lutter, an SS leader who headed Department II D 4 (weapons) in the Reich Security Main Office, developed the concept in 1942 for automatic shooting systems on the fences of concentration camps and ghettos known as Scharfschützenmine (Sniper mine). This was intended to prevent prisoners from escaping with minimal personnel expenditure. Lutter's designs were never realized. According to the journalist Georg Bensch, his plans fell into the hands of the victorious Soviet power after the Second World War. In the GDR, these plans were used to develop their own automatic shooting systems. In 1966, the first devices under East Germany were developed with the help of the military technical institute "VUSTE" in Czechoslovakia between Salzwedel and A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-personnel Mine
An anti-personnel mine or anti-personnel landmine (APL) is a form of land mine, mine designed for use against human, humans, as opposed to an anti-tank mine, which target vehicles. APLs are classified into: blast mines and fragmentation mines; the latter may or may not be a bounding mine. APLs are often designed to injure and mutilation, maim, not kill, their victims to overwhelm the logistical (mostly medical) support system of enemy forces that encounter them. Some types of APLs can also damage the tracks on armoured vehicles or the tires of wheeled vehicles. The International Campaign to Ban Landmines has sought to ban mines and destroy stockpile. For this purpose, it introduced in 1997 the Ottawa Treaty, which has not yet been accepted by over 30 states and has not guaranteed the protection of citizens against APLs planted by non-state armed groups. Use Anti-personnel mines are used in a similar manner to anti-tank mines, in static "mine fields" along national borders o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gas Mine
Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as oxygen) or from different atoms ( compounds such as carbon dioxide). A ''gas mixture'', such as air, contains a variety of pure gases. What distinguishes gases from liquids and solids is the vast separation of the individual gas particles. This separation can make some gases invisible to the human observer. The gaseous state of matter occurs between the liquid and plasma states, the latter of which provides the upper-temperature boundary for gases. Bounding the lower end of the temperature scale lie degenerative quantum gases which are gaining increasing attention. High-density atomic gases super-cooled to very low temperatures are classified by their statistical behavior as either Bose gases or Fermi gases. For a comprehensive listing of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th century BC. The definition of manslaughter differs among legal jurisdictions. Types Voluntary For voluntary manslaughter, the offender had intent to kill or seriously harm, but acted "in the moment" under circumstances that could cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed. There are mitigating circumstances that reduce culpability, such as when the defendant kills only with an intent to cause serious bodily harm. Voluntary manslaughter in some jurisdictions is a lesser included offense of murder. The traditional mitigating factor was provocation; however, others have been added in various jurisdictions. The most common type of voluntary manslaughter occurs when a defendant is provoked to commit homicide. This ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burglary
Burglary, also called breaking and entering (B&E) or housebreaking, is a property crime involving the illegal entry into a building or other area without permission, typically with the intention of committing a further criminal offence. Usually that offence is theft, larceny, robbery, or murder, but most jurisdictions include others within the ambit of burglary. To commit burglary is to ''burgle'', a term back-formed from the word ''burglar'', or to ''burglarize''. Etymology Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634) explains at the start of Chapter 14 in the third part of '' Institutes of the Lawes of England'' (pub. 1644), that the word ''Burglar'' ("or the person that committeth burglary"), is derived from the words ''burgh'' and ''laron'', meaning ''house-thieves''. A note indicates he relies on the ''Brooke's case'' for this definition. According to one textbook, the etymology originates from Anglo-Saxon or Old English, one of the Germanic languages. (Perhaps paraphrasing Sir Edward ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Mines
A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, which are designed to disable tanks or other vehicles; and anti-personnel mines, designed to injure or kill people. Land mines are typically pressure activated, exploding automatically when stepped on by a person or driven over by a vehicle, though alternative detonation mechanisms are sometimes used. A land mine may cause damage by direct blast effect, by fragments that are thrown by the blast, or by both. Land mines are typically laid throughout an area, creating a ''minefield'' which is dangerous to cross. The use of land mines is controversial because of their indiscriminate nature and their potential to remain dangerous many years after a conflict has ended, harming civilians and the economy. With pressure from a number of campaign grou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital city of Bonn, or as the Second German Republic. During the Cold War, the western portion of Germany and the associated territory of West Berlin were parts of the Western Bloc. West Germany was formed as a political entity during the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, established from 12 States of Germany, states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided between the Western and Eastern Bloc, Eastern blocs. Germany was divided into the two countries. Initially, West Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, representing itself as the sole democratically reorganised continuation of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
