Silencers etc.

[KayJuran]

Okay, I have quite a few questions for this.. I need some research done for a short story / prologue that I'm planning. Originally this was going to be fantasy, but I don't think it will be anymore, and if it isn't then research suddenly becomes more important..

1) Silencers. How do they work? Do they stop sound, or just muffle it? How do they attach to the gun? Will they attach to any gun or only certain types? If the latter, then which types?

2) Tracking phone calls. How does this work? Would anyone be able to do this, or only the police? If this needs decent technology, then would this be hard to get hold of?

3) Needles. Is there anything that you could inject into someone that would make it look like they had died from natural causes?

There'll be more questions soon if anyone can be bothered to respond, but I'll save those for later..

Cheers,

--Kay

[backgroundbob]

1. Remember, always visit Mecca before asking advice

2. Tapping technology isn't too specialised nowadays; if you know the right markets, it's nothing vastly expensive. You just attach a piece of equipment to the phone line itself and you're off - obviously you need to know where to buy the thing, a basic knowledge of electronics and access to the phone line, but it's nothing a person can't read up on out of a book.

3. Um... not quite so sure: I believe there are drugs that can be used to make it look as if a person's had a heart attack. If the coroner isn't specifically looking, they may well miss it. If they're alert, however, and exam the body not long after death, they will be able to find it.
I'm not absolutely certain, but I don't think there's anything that can fake death without leaving some kind of trace for a good doctor to find. Of course, it probably wouldn't be public knowledge even if there was...

Hope that helps!

[Grif]

To trace phone calls, you'd need to be inside the phone company.

Phone companies are able to trace phone records. You usuallly need to file a police report before you can get it traced.

As for faking your death drugs, you might be able to fool some people, but coroners wouldn't be convinced when they started the autopsy.

[backgroundbob]

Ooops, I mixed up tapping and tracing - Grif's right: if you want to record a phonecall, it's much easier than finding out where it went. For that, you do need to get into the phone company records.

[KayJuran]

Wait.. which one's which? I think I meant tapping actually, but I'm not sure..

*confuzzled*

Also, how far do you think a mother would go to save her son/daughter?

[backgroundbob]

Tapping is when you record what someone says over the phone; tracing is when you look at the records to find out who they phoned and when.

For tracing, you need access to the phone company records; tapping is easier, you just need to be sneaky

EDIT: depends on the mother. A lot would give their own lives for their children, I think.

[KayJuran]

Ah, that helps a lot, Bob.

So, for tapping, would you just need to know the person's phone number?

[backgroundbob]

You'd need to actually get to their physical phoneline, where it comes out of the house, and put a piece of equipment on it - that'll record what they say, and/or transmit it back to the tapper.

[MH Mijolnir]

Uhm, for needles, take a huge freaking 'pump'/whatever it is that holds the liquid/medicine, and just fill it with air.

If there's enough air in the shot and you hit a vein, thereby injecting air into the bloodtream, the heart will freak out and kill over when the air gets to it and trips it up.

[KayJuran]

MH - Seriously?! 'Cause I never would have guessed that if you hadn't told me.

Oh, another question.. back to silencers again. If you shot someone using a silencer, would anyone hear you from the next room, or a hallway outside..?

[Phoenix]

depends on the quality of the suppressor. Silencers don't exist. You may or may not depending on how well made the suppressor is.

[sabradan]

Phoenix is correct. Most "silencers", more correctly called suppressors, no matter how well made they are still make a small "thwak" type sound when the bullet is fired. How far away that sound is heard is all dependent upon the quality of the suppressor.

As for needles...why would u want to makle it look like natural causes, when I can tell you how to get rid of a body so it'll never be found....

[MH Mijolnir]

I know how to do that too. Hogs. Big fat pigs. Boars. Feed your corpse to that and you'll never see it again. It'll eat everything. Bone, muscle, etc. etc.

And yes, fill the syringe with a lot of air, inject it into a vein, the heart will spaz out and then they die.

Helpful?

[KayJuran]

Helpful, but also scary..

I guess that's what I get for asking.

[sabradan]

MH, thats true, but its more than just hogs. Because when the hogs defacate, shall we say, faint traces of DNA are still traceable (for any smart enough to check). So, at that point, you release chickens into the Pigs pen, because they'll eat other animals defacation (gross, I know). Repeat the process once or twice more, and you're corpse will never be found again.

Lets just say I have quite a few shady contacts IRL....