WEBVTT - Myanmar: Printing the Revolution, Part Three 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:07.920 Hey everyone, I'm Robert Evans, and welcome to episode three 0:00:08.039 --> 0:00:11.639 of Printing the Revolution. Here's my partner, James Stout. 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.680 In the spring and summer of twenty twenty, millions of 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:20.160 Americans had versions of the same experience. State forces killed 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.480 the helpless man, Protesters took to the streets in anger, 0:00:24.000 --> 0:00:26.800 and armed agents of the state responded with mass violence. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.479 A lot of people's lives changed forever in fairly short order. 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.200 What happened in Me and Mara after the military coup 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:38.159 was that story turned up to eleven within days. The 0:00:38.200 --> 0:00:42.080 military had used live fire and demonstrators zor our saws 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:45.200 for today's episode. We're twenty two years old. At the time. 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.760 He spend his days working as a delivery driver, hang 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:52.440 out with his girlfriend playing video games. On the day 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.160 the coup started, he was playing pubg after a long shift. 0:00:57.960 --> 0:00:59.880 Soon he and his girlfriend took to the streets with 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.600 thousands of other gen z Burmese kids. The state responded 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.480 with massacres, often firing automatic weapons into the crowds. So 0:01:08.680 --> 0:01:12.560 had n't been particularly politically active before this moment. In fact, 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.959 he felt pretty poorly towards revolutionary supposing the government in 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:18.959 the jungle, seeing them as rebellious trouble makers. 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.840 In the past, we thought that the military is a 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.160 group that loves all the people and all the different 0:01:26.160 --> 0:01:29.600 groups in the in the country. And then there's just 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.880 a few people who really hate the military. But especially 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:41.959 after the one who we face it with our own foreheads, 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:46.880 with the guns. We can face the evil the military 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:50.560 and all the human rights and things that people who 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.480 hated the military before we're talking about. We understand it 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:58.040 now because we had to face it ourselves. And then 0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:00.320 they're going to tell us terrorists, and how very much 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.280 they call us. We know that we're finding for human 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:08.520 rights and we know that each person deserves these basic things, 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:13.880 you know. So so even when we capture a soldier, 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:17.800 we don't kill them immediately as they're unarmed. You know, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.520 when they capture a PDF, they torture and kill them 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:27.400 very very horrifically or horrendously, and they kill and do 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:32.640 and hurt all the citizens and ordinary bystanders. So for us, 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:37.640 what they're calling as rebels before, we're not rebels. They're 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.839 the ones that are rebels, so we have to call 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:43.200 them rebels. They're the terrorists. 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.680 But as violence against protests escalated, so all began to 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:49.840 see through the lies he'd been told by the military 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:50.400 or his life. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:55.560 What we were calling as rebels are what we kind 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.240 of become. But we know why we are now rebels. 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:04.960 That's because of their terrorism, their oppressive reviews, and their 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.160 violation of human rights. That's why we have to revolt 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:08.799 against them. 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:14.080 For a time, protects responded creatively with giant potato guns 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.679 meant to fire leslietho protectiles long distances. These homemade guns 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.760 to be fired in volleys well. Other protested protected them 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.840 with shields. Some of these tactics were effective at point, 0:03:26.200 --> 0:03:28.600 but it quickly became clear that the government was willing 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:32.320 to massacre everyone's standing up to them, So his girlfriend 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.119 and their friends quickly decided that non violent resistance wasn't 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.080 going to work, but they didn't give up. 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:42.680 As we get into June, there's two paths, right. We 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:47.400 can be normal, we can on the streets. We can 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:51.760 ask for the people's power back, and since that's not working, 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:53.680 we know that what we have to do is we 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:57.240 need to hold these bunds, get these guns. And on 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:00.560 the military side, all they know is that they will 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.560 solve this by folding guns so the only thing, the 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:06.960 only path that's left for us is to take those 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:11.760 guns for ourselves. So around the end of May, we 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:17.040 started entering training school. So the downtour is the word 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:23.119 we use, and something like this corner part so one, 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:27.880 corner part one to two. So talking what that means 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:31.200 is that in the huntings huntings that we were doing, 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:35.560 hunting rifles that we were using for that. So we 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.800 kind of start started and we fought first and demoso, 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.279 if we can ask the military nicely, then there's no 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.800 reason for us to be using guns. But since they 0:04:46.839 --> 0:04:50.440 don't listen to our demands or our requests at all, 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:54.440 then and since that all we can do, all they 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:57.400 are saying, all they're doing is using the guns and 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.039 being terrorists trying to shoot us. So the only things 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:03.240 that we can do to get what we need and 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:06.480 what we want is to take the concept for ourselves. 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:09.719 And so, like hundreds of people his age, Zow headed 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.760 into the jungle in May of twenty twenty one. The 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:15.039 decision wasn't an over night one or an easy one, 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:19.960 but after protesting non violently, then meeting state violence with 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:24.080 community defense, then seeing his peers gunned down in the street, 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.920 he didn't have many other choices. He'd picked up a megaphone, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:31.160 then a shield, and now he was heading in the 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.680 jungle to pick up a rifle. The only problem was 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:41.640 that there weren't any rifles. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:49.160 He left with his girlfriend and quote with the blessing 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.279 of his parents. Keep that in mind for later. When 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:54.440 he first went to the jungle, Zol went to a 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:57.279 two week training camp where the Carinni People's Defense Force 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:00.240 taught him the basics of guerrilla warfare. But they didn't 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:03.200 have enough weapons to arm him and his friends. So 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.840 these Jinz militants began their fighting careers with twenty two 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.480 caliber rifles. If you aren't a gun person, the twenty 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:13.800 two was one of the smallest widely available bullets. Like 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.600 any bullet, it can kill, but as a caliber it's 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.240 better suited for shooting rabbits than soldiers. These twenty two 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:23.520 rifles were handmade locally and only fired one shot at 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.839 a time. But it was those rifles that Zaw, his girlfriend, 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:30.360 and their friends carried into their first gunfight with the Tatmadaw. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:34.520 After battling like that for about three weeks, the shooting stopped, 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:37.919 he said in an interview, we conducted over signal. After 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:40.839 the shooting stopped, we grouped together money to buy arms 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.960 by asking for donations. They were massively outgunned, but determined 0:06:45.000 --> 0:06:46.839 to fight on with the weapons they could make and 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:49.920 buy on the black market until they could find something better, 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:53.640 even if that meant taking guns from dead soldiers. The 0:06:53.680 --> 0:06:56.560 military's guns are extremely good, of course, compared to point 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.479 two twos, he said. We fight with the mindset that 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:01.960 we must win. Our minds are always prepared to take 0:07:02.040 --> 0:07:04.800 their guns when a soldier falls. It's a mindset to 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.400 want the enemy's arms to beat your own arms. You 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.560 need to want to resist injustice because we are fighting 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:12.880 for what is right. We do not get sad even 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.600 if we die. We are happy even when wounded. We 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.720 no longer care if our arms are matched unevenly not. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:23.120 Despite their enthusiasm, PDF units all over the country were 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.760 finding themselves in the same desperate situation when thousands of 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:29.280 young people in Myanmar decided to take up arms against 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.680 the government. They're just warn enough guns to go around. 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.920 Ak pattern rifles sell for three thousand dollars on the 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.720 black market, and ar's sell for up to seven thousand dollars. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.320 The GDP per capita in twenty twenty was just twelve 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.480 hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty five cents per person, 0:07:45.960 --> 0:07:49.240 and unlike militias in Syria and Iraq, the pro democracy 0:07:49.280 --> 0:07:53.720 EAOs and Myanmar don't have the benefit questionable benefit of 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:56.080 the US flooding the region with its fire hose of 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:59.680 guns and money. Undeterred, Zaw and his squad took to YouTube, 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:02.000 where they they found videos explaining how to make two 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.880 two three caliber bolt action rifles. Again, if you're not 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.240 a gun person, two two three may not sound very 0:08:08.240 --> 0:08:11.280 different than twenty two, but whereas twenty two is commonly 0:08:11.360 --> 0:08:14.280 used to shoot squirrels, two to three is the standard 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:17.520 rifle round more or less for the US military. These 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:19.960 new bolt action two two threes All and his friends 0:08:19.960 --> 0:08:22.560 were making could not match the rate of fire of 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:24.920 a modern rifle, but they could at least match those 0:08:25.000 --> 0:08:29.000 rifles in stopping power. Once these gin z insurgeons had 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:32.120 the technique down, they created a detailed album on Facebook 0:08:32.280 --> 0:08:34.560 showing how everything from the stalk to the barrel could 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:37.360 be made with pipes, lumber, and hours and hours of 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:41.720 detailed hard work. Unlike their guerrilla warfare instructors, These kids 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:43.760 had grown up on the Internet rather than the jungle, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.880 so they knew that if it exists, there's a subreddit 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.960 for it. It was the Internet that came to their rescue. 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.720 Three D printed guns have been around for a decade, 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.360 but the early models didn't work well and suffered from 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.680 a pretty bad reputation due in part to Cody Wilson, 0:08:58.960 --> 0:09:03.520 the pedophileitarian activists we discussed last episode. Jake Hanrahan of 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:06.520 Popular Front has covered the printed gun movement extensively. 0:09:06.920 --> 0:09:09.480 Cody Wilson made his whole thing like, I'm the guy 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:11.520 with the three D printed guns, and he was on 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.400 this moral crusade. The three D printed gun lads, particularly 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:17.480 the Terrence Dispense, were like, yeah, don't give a shit 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:19.440 about that. We're just putting our stuff out into the world. 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:21.920 Obviously they got their ideas, but they weren't really wedded 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.160 to this idea of it being one person. 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:27.679 Deterrence Dispensed was a group of anonymous activists who were 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.559 more concerned with making printed guns that worked than making 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.199 a name for themselves. Hammerhan was connected to one activist 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:37.120 who used the pseudonym j. Stark through the group, and 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:40.760 after three years of conversing online. Hamrahan met Stark in 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.160 Germany to produce a documentary. Jay Stark died of a 0:09:44.160 --> 0:09:47.120 heart attack following a police raid last year, so we 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:49.640 spoke to Hanrahan about Stark's worldview. 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:53.959 His whole worldview comes from this idea that you know, 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.640 it's everybody should have the right to be able to 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:02.440 fight tyranny. And if you can't fight any like, you're fucked. 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:04.520 And the way to fight tyranny in the modern era 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.240 is firearms. We know that, you know, there's there's no 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.679 you can't argue, it's there's no peaceful march gets rid 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.040 of a fascist dictatorship or whatever. But he he was, 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.080 he he was you know, there's some people would say 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.280 he was far right. Some people say he was an anarchist. 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:22.400 Some people say he was a US patriot type. I mean, first, 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:24.719 he wasn't even from America, and he had a lot 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:27.160 of he liked the laws in America, but he wasn't 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:29.840 like some of the American kind of fan boy or 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.280 anything on that sense. He liked the gun laws, he 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:35.280 liked the freedom of speech lords, which I do as well. 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:38.040 You know, like personally I in this country, you know, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.280 if you tweet the wrong thing, even in jest, like 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.400 police will literally come to your house in Britain like 0:10:42.440 --> 0:10:45.800 it's happened, it's fucking mental. So yeah, he liked that 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:49.600 kind of thing, and I think, I think for him 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.000 it was he was very tonal vision. You know, he 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.880 was very tonal vision. It was just freedom, freedom of freedom, 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:57.720 and if you said, well what about this, what about that, 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.520 he was like, I don't care about that until the 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.720 freedom there, there's no point looking at anything else. And 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:05.360 so his brain was always on people that are living 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.520 on the tyranny, you know, and it genuinely would. I know, 0:11:07.600 --> 0:11:10.960 there's a lot of people, even leftists, particularly leftists, had 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.160 tried to completely smear him as a white supremacist. They 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:15.920 were saying, oh, everything he said in that doc that 0:11:15.960 --> 0:11:21.239 I made was really it was secret anti Jewish white supremacy. 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:23.640 And then it came out that he wasn't even white. 0:11:23.720 --> 0:11:25.360 You know. It was like very good, very good, you 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.720 fucking idiots. So there was a lot of that going around. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.680 But I honestly believe that deep down he was just 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.440 tunnel vision, focused on this idea of every Until everybody 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.480 is not living under tyranny, I must go on this 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.640 mission and Okay, if someone shoots up at school with 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:42.800 what I've invented, so be it. You know, which I'm 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:45.600 not saying that's good, but that was just his idea. 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:47.120 You know. He was like, so be it. Fuck it 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:50.040 if I can. You know, he was very genuine when 0:11:50.040 --> 0:11:51.640 he was on about the wigas, or he was on 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:54.160 about the mistreatment of Kurds from Turkey, and you know, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:55.760 he was like, look, if we can build something that 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:58.319 can help them, well, sorry that the West might get 0:11:58.360 --> 0:12:01.880 fucked up because of it, but I'm focused on this now. Obviously, 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:06.920 in practice that would be chaos probably, but you know, 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:08.520 he just saw it the way he saw it, and 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:08.960 that was that. 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:12.640 The cavalier attitude Stark seems to have had to how 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:15.760 his invention might be used is of course worthy of criticism. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.560 But the revolutionaries on the ground in Myanmar were not 0:12:18.760 --> 0:12:22.679 concerned with ideological debates over the ethics of homemade firearms. 0:12:22.960 --> 0:12:26.439 They needed guns, and they needed them now. J. Stark's 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:30.280 FGC nine, which stands for Fuck Gun Control nine millimeter, 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:33.560 was simple to make, easy to use, and relied entirely 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:36.440 on parts you could print or buy in any hardware 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:39.640 store in September of twenty twenty one, a post popped 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:42.520 up on the foss cads subreddit, which is dedicated to 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.680 the manufacturing of three D printed guns. Stark is a 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:49.079 hero there. The post said, wanted to say thanks to 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:51.840 this community, the creators of FGC nine and the various 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.760 mods when we could you guys are literally empowering the 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:58.720 armed revolution against dictators in one of the most underdeveloped countries. 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:01.600 We are now equipped with FGC nine and starting the 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:06.040 armed revolution to the coup leader dictator. As one poster comments, 0:13:06.120 --> 0:13:08.880 the account quote went from posting about mobile games to 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:12.040 how did three D print SMGs? To desperately asking people 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.200 to pay attention what was happening in me and mar 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:18.480 Then after the FGC nine post, it was deleted entirely. 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:21.480 Jay Stark never lived to see this. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.000 He would have loved it. What everything that he was doing, 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:30.040 that was the main focus in my opinion, that like, 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:36.000 it couldn't be a more perfect, like practical actual realization 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.320 of his project. You couldn't pick a more perfect version 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.480 of it to happen like that, you know. And there's 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.080 a lot of talk of oh, where there's a load 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:47.480 of drug dealers in Amsterdam I have FGC nine's. There 0:13:47.520 --> 0:13:50.719 was a Nazi recently arrested with one. You know, these 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.719 people are awful, of course, but the most prevalent use 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.440 of the FGC nine, at least from what I've observed, 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.000 has been from the Red was in my mum making them. 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:03.080 I think I've seen like thirty of them so far. 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:04.840 You know, that's a lot of them, And there was 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.480 one was found stashed in a bush. My theory is 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.680 there left the round for ambush attacks and areas that 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:18.640 are not as fully controlled by the rebels. 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:27.400 Foss Cad, a community of mostly US based Guan printers, 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.960 lost its collective mind, and it didn't take long for 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.200 people to make the connection between the post and a 0:14:33.240 --> 0:14:37.520 desperate plight of me and Mars Spring revolution. Soon after 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:41.040 the post, the tat Mador started posting pictures of FGC nines, 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:46.000 often without sites captured from fighters in Yangon. On the 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:50.120 twenty first of September, the Tatmador's Ministry of Information released 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:56.400 a statement. I Miat Thwei and Ye mint Ang were 0:14:56.440 --> 0:14:59.960 found with an FGC nine Mark two pistol five round 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.240 pounds of nine millimeters ammunition. They were arrested along with 0:15:04.280 --> 0:15:08.680 their drone. The military alleged they were an urban unit 0:15:08.840 --> 0:15:11.760 from the same generation z E Freedom Army that Zoor 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.880 was a part of. That same month, the military posted 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:20.040 pictures of three more captured FGC nines, suggesting that at 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:24.760 least five have been captured by late September. Then two 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:29.880 months later a new post popped up and the fosscat subreddit, Hey, 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:32.440 I'm back and the guy who posted a thank you 0:15:32.520 --> 0:15:35.800 note back in September here. Now that the FGC nines 0:15:35.840 --> 0:15:39.200 are ready known by the dictator, I can proudly announce 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:41.920 that we're from me and mar. Yes, we are mass 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.720 producing FGC nines to fight back against the Dictator. More 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.560 info about our production will be published later this time. 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:55.400 The user u slash daddy umcd hung around to answer questions. 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:58.800 Those bastards didn't know we had the tech back then. 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.040 Now that everything in public, we can proudly say we're 0:16:02.040 --> 0:16:05.680 from me and Mah. We are mostly responsible for production 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.520 on R and D, even though we also involved in 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.800 other ground missions. We distribute the FDC nine to a 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:14.760 lot of different urban guerrillas in urban and rural areas. 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:17.760 Some of the units got arrested a few weeks ago, 0:16:17.920 --> 0:16:20.760 which you might have already seen on the subreddit. Apart 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.880 from the FDC nine, there are other equipments and weapons 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.600 that are being produced with three D printers, he wrote. 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.200 He said his team were residing in ethnic armed organization areas, 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:35.560 mainly the Koran National Union and the Kachin Independence Army 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:39.720 controlled zones. He posted that they tried other three D 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.120 printer designs, such as the PLASTICOV, which is a printed 0:16:43.240 --> 0:16:46.720 AK forty seven receiver, but getting the other parts made 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.960 it impractical. By contrast, the FDC nine can be made 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.520 entirely using a three D printer and some hardware store parts. 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.000 According to another source, ME and Mars small motorcycle repair 0:16:59.000 --> 0:17:02.600 shops made quick work the metal barrels and bolts. Electrochemical 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.280 machining was used to make more barrels. They also had 0:17:06.280 --> 0:17:08.840 the chance to buy a few clock barrels from Thailand, 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:12.719 Daddy UMCD said, but those cost a lot more than 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:17.920 the FGC nine barrels. While his account continued to post, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.440 the military continued to share photos of captured FGC nines. 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.000 Three workshops that had been using lathes to make the 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:28.240 barrels were raided. A photos of three more captured guns 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.760 popped up in November alongside bolt action rifles. It still 0:17:32.800 --> 0:17:35.200 had stickers on their stocks from what looked like US 0:17:35.280 --> 0:17:41.000 gun shops. Production and decentralized locations continued despite the raids, 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:45.879 while other groups fought on with homemade revolving rifles, crewded 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.560 homemade wooden stocks, and other improvised weapons. A telegram channel 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:54.320 with instructions in Burmese on how to make the guns 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.119 made sure that even when one shop or gunsmith was 0:17:57.119 --> 0:18:00.800 taken out of the fight, the knowledge wasn't lost. Although 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:03.760 filament for their three D printers were becoming harder to get, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.960 they'd stockpiled a lot in advance. Daddy UMCD tried to 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:15.280 manufacture automatic FGC nines and another printable model called Professor 0:18:15.320 --> 0:18:19.040 Parabellum square tubes up machine gun, but nothing else seemed 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:22.439 as easier as reliable as the FGC nine. Of course, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:25.399 read it being read it, people questioned the veracity and 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:30.439 utility of his posts. He responded, FDC nines are just 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:32.800 part of the game because they could be produced with 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.960 what we have at the lowest cost. Available rifles of 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:38.679 four thousand to seven thousand US dollars at our border. 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.600 Fgcs are under one hundred dollars. Rifle parts are ten 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.600 times more expensive than lock parts. To all those who 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.400 are saying that these photos as sus we don't want 0:18:50.440 --> 0:18:53.040 to blame your suspicion if an if you remember the 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.199 thread I posted in September, you'll remember that we are 0:18:56.200 --> 0:18:59.320 mass producing FGC knights. The ones in the photos you've 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.040 seen were supplied by us. There are many groups like 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.399 this now we do the main production, just like I 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:09.160 explained in September. Then, Daddy UMCD went on to thank 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.160 the other members of the subreddit, claiming their active help 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.959 was the only reason he and other revolutionaries have been 0:19:15.000 --> 0:19:18.480 able to overcome certain technical issues. We wouldn't be here 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.560 without you guys, especially with someone who shared with me. 0:19:21.640 --> 0:19:25.960 The buffer spring and fire control groups bring measurements, he said. 0:19:26.800 --> 0:19:29.879 By late November, photos of FGC nines in the hands 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:33.880 of fighters emerged, and they showed sites. This time they 0:19:33.880 --> 0:19:38.639 had longer barrels and homemade suppressors too. The FGC nines 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:41.479 were apparently used by urban units for close up fighting 0:19:42.160 --> 0:19:44.159 and for the training of new fighters, since they have 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.639 essentially the same controls as an AR fifteen or sixteen rifle, 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.679 both of which are common in ME and r's rebel units. 0:19:51.880 --> 0:19:54.920 We have successfully streamlined a variety of techniques to produce 0:19:55.359 --> 0:20:01.640 FGC nine one thousand plus efficiently. Our primary forces arequipped 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:05.520 with proper rifles. FGC nine's are for guerrilla warfare. We 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.200 started using those in Hit and Run and Special Task 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.560 Force missions too. We don't share much about the missions 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:14.199 to the public yet. It will definitely come, and when 0:20:14.240 --> 0:20:17.479 it does, are updated here if I'm still alive, ha ha, 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:23.320 wrote Daddy umcd on the foscat subreddit. Even with production 0:20:23.400 --> 0:20:28.960 and full swing, ammunition remained a problem. Although some regions 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:32.200 can produce twenty two and nine millimeter home According to 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:36.200 Daddy umcd, five five six can be purchased in large 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:40.240 quantities at the border with Thailand, but it isn't cheap. Instead, 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.840 the PDF relied on raiding police and military outposts in 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:47.840 the same way the EEOS had for years. Nine millimeter 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.159 is the most common center fire pistol around in the world. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.800 That's why Deterrent's Dispense picked it for the FGC nine. 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.560 C's weapons often only have a handful of rounds, but 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.119 that's enough to kill a soul and take his weapon. 0:21:01.920 --> 0:21:04.320 Jay Stock might not have been around to see his 0:21:04.400 --> 0:21:07.560 invention used to fight Trney, But Hammerhan thinks he would 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:08.720 have been happy with the results. 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:11.600 He would have been made up. I think that's everything 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:14.119 he wanted to achieve, You know what I'm saying, That 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:16.400 really is everything you wanted to do. 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:19.679 Even the National Unity Government MI and Ma's government in 0:21:19.720 --> 0:21:22.640 exile has come around to any some of Jay Stark's 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.800 ways of thinking. According to Daddy umcd our, Minister of 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.120 Defense Minister already promised about the right to bear arms 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:31.480 at the first day of the revolution. 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.720 Promises made by revolutionary governments are not exactly solid commitments, 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:38.840 but it's not hard to see why a generation of 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.200 kids like Zaw, forged by an asymmetrical conflict with a 0:21:42.240 --> 0:21:45.800 government that possessed a near absolute advantage in armaments, might 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:49.159 be committed to staying armed even if they win. At 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:51.480 the moment, the future of their struggle is very much 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.359 end doubt. Scrolling through Facebook photos of Zaw and his 0:21:54.440 --> 0:21:58.320 comrades as a surreal experience. They look not just young 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:02.200 soldiers mostly look young, but they look like students kids 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.440 from some weirdly militarized university. Photos on Facebook show them 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.120 sprawled out together in the grass and Camo fatigues bearing rifles, 0:22:10.320 --> 0:22:12.919 but each glued to their phones as they cuddle in together. 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.320 Zaw and his girlfriend, who he described to us as 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:20.040 the girl I love, fought alongside each other until January 0:22:20.080 --> 0:22:21.040 seventh of this year. 0:22:21.640 --> 0:22:26.679 The battle that we started, she was coming within and 0:22:26.880 --> 0:22:30.520 you know as halficens. A weapon landed near her and 0:22:30.680 --> 0:22:36.439 it hit her like so their bone broke, so she 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:37.440 had to go to the hospital. 0:22:37.840 --> 0:22:40.480 Three D printed and homemade guns have helped, but Zaw 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:43.240 and his friends are still fighting against a modern military 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:47.320 with planes, night vision goggles, and tanks. Despite this, more 0:22:47.320 --> 0:22:49.919 than a year after the coup, they're still fighting and 0:22:49.960 --> 0:22:53.199 more soldiers deffect to join them weekly. It's hard to 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.359 see what victory looks like. The cities will be another 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:59.480 battle altogether, but in the jungle camp where Zaw video 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:02.400 calls us, it's impossible to see what giving up might 0:23:02.440 --> 0:23:05.879 look like. Either he's still fighting, his girlfriend is healing, 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:08.240