Just dang. I may be a bit slow, but just holding up a 30 round magazine in D.C. is a crime with a penalty up to a year in prison?
A small metal box with a spring?
Come on people. It is not like it is a 100 watt incandescent light bulb or a 60 oz. Coke.
/s
You have to keep up to date on these things. A good party member knows instinctively what to say and do. I have that on good authority from comrade Orwell.
You might be able to get away with taking a picture of one with the intent to brandish and display such a picture of a dangerous device, such as a box with a spring in it...;-)
“Just dang. I may be a bit slow, but just holding up a 30 round magazine in D.C. is a crime with a penalty up to a year in prison?”
prole doublethink plusgood, bellyfeel crimestop upfile database, unpurge—minitrue
Ignorance is Strength
“A Party member lives from birth to death under the eye of the Thought Police. Even when he is alone he can never be sure that he is alone. Wherever he may be, asleep or awake, working or resting, in his bath or in bed, he can be inspected without warning and without knowing that he is being inspected. Nothing that he does is indifferent. His friendships, his relaxations, his behaviour towards his wife and children, the expression of his face when he is alone, the words he mutters in sleep, even the characteristic movements of his body, are all jealously scrutinized. Not only any actual misdemeanour, but any eccentricity, however small, any change of habits, any nervous mannerism that could possibly be the symptom of an inner struggle, is certain to be detected. He has no freedom of choice in any direction whatever. On the other hand his actions are not regulated by law or by any clearly formulated code of behaviour.
*In Oceania there is no law. Thoughts and actions which, when detected, mean certain death are not formally forbidden, and the endless purges, arrests, tortures, imprisonments, and vaporizations are not inflicted as punishment for crimes which have actually been committed, but are merely the wiping-out of persons who might perhaps commit a crime at some time in the future. A Party member is required to have not only the right opinions, but the right instincts. Many of the beliefs and attitudes demanded of him are never plainly stated, and could not be stated without laying bare the contradictions inherent in Ingsoc. If he is a person naturally orthodox (in Newspeak a goodthinker), he will in all circumstances know, without taking thought, what is the true belief or the desirable emotion. But in any case an elaborate mental training, undergone in childhood and grouping itself round the Newspeak words crimestop, blackwhite, and doublethink, makes him unwilling and unable to think too deeply on any subject whatever.”