Infantry Firefights in Forested terrain.

[Michael Emrys]

It really astonishes me again and again how houses are build in the US. It must have some kind of advantage else they wouldn't be build like that but there are no such houses here.

It's simple. Almost nothing in this country is built to last. It's meant to be torn down and replaced after a generation or two, even if it is more desirable than the thing that replaces it. "Newness" has a value all its own; Americans worship it for its own sake. It's the same reason that good products disappear off the shelf to be replaced by mediocre or even outright crummy ones. It is believed, with some justification, that the "new improved!" stuff will outsell the older product even when the "improvements" are purely imaginary and hype.

Michael

[Tarquelne]

It really astonishes me again and again how houses are build in the US. It must have some kind of advantage else they wouldn't be build like that but there are no such houses here.

There were some really big advantages when the basic building style became popular after WWII. Very cheap and fast compared to preceding methods. Now... not really. For a little more initial outlay there are several newer methods that give a much better house (IMO) with, among other things, a far greater resistance to small arms fire. If that sort of thing is important to you.

[JasonC]

I really don't think "lasting" let alone resistence to small arms fire has anything to do with it. Buildings constructed with medieval materials and techniques needed vastly more material to carry the same structural loads. They also were built without any central heat or air conditioning and the physical structure itself was expected to play such roles. Early modern buildings are in the same boat, pretty much. There is no technical need for any of those things any more. Loads are carried by steel beams; the frame is just that, a mere frame. Climate is regulated by direct control systems. You might as readily ask why steel and glass office towers aren't made of granite.

The point of the demonstration incidentally was to contrast carbine caliber ammunition - which goes through wood and drywall, flak jackets and furniture just fine, but not structural walls of brick or cinderblock, let alone stone - with rifle ammo, which goes right through all of the above. Yes 2 feet of stone will stop a rifle caliber round. So will 4 feet of packed earth or 2 layers of tightly packed sandbags. But a car door won't, and a layer of bricks won't, and a typical tree - in case everybody forgot, the point - won't. The largest tropical hardwood in a Borneo jungle maybe, but not your average pine etc in your average developed-world, regrown forest.

[c3k]

And worse, while energetically penetrating a hardwood or pine trunk, there is a possibility of the round causing wounding due to the splinters. (Minor, but there nonetheless.)

[GreenAsJade]

Bring tweezers?