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Nah, computer periphials don't make a good AK. Well, maybe a Model M keyboard could be used for a receiver flat. But a shovel could do the job pretty good... (with photo evidence)

Shovel into AK - http://www.northeastshooters.c...

Both of my AR's were obtained without a background check. I bought both from a private seller. 100% legal.
Honestly this is all mental masterbation. You can easily build an AK47 lower without a milling machine and just some hand tools and a old shovel.

In fact.... here you go....

http://www.northeastshooters.c...

The AR15 is not the best platform in the world, it's just popular. if you really want a gun that can take insane abuse and easily built with hand tools.... AK47 is the gun to build to be subversive..

Just to add to your point that even under limited conditions you can build a gun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

Or even Russian assault shovels

Politics aside, Kalashnikov was something of a genius. Or at least a commonsense visionary.
He only had access to relatively crude manufacturing processes and a basic idea of what he wanted.
And he managed to turn out a product that is, by any stretch of the imagination, RIDICULOUSLY successful.
Things that'd be considered weaknesses or defects in other weapons systems are some of the very things that are considered strengths in the Kalashnikov rifles.

My favourite AK-47 related escapade ever, forge an AK-47 receiver out of an old shovel:
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning!

Challenge: Do the same with a Colt M4 (and yes, it has to fire)

Pretty cool. Pretty cool... But I have to say the project that impressed me the most is where someone made a working AK out of a shovel... Well a shovel, a barrel blank and some pare parts. http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning!

As well, it's typically only the receiver that is stamped with a serial number, as this is what the law considers the actual 'firearm' part of the gun. However, depending again on make and model, a receiver is not difficult to construct from equipment available at your hardware store -- and yes, for less than $1000 too.

My favorite is the AK receiver made out of a shovel.
 

These are zip guns. The plastic printed one is obviously dangerous and unreliable even by the standard of zip guns (which usually start with a pipe from a hardware store and go downhill from there). This is a "look at what's possible" statement, and nothing more, especially in America where you can make a perfectly serviceable AR15 from some kit parts and a CnC mill, and legally so in most places.

Heck, you can make a working AK47 for a shovel without advanced tools, if you're skilled.

The technology will only improve. The plastic gun is just "here's a new way to do this thing we can do in other ways - so far it's useless, but this way is very likely to improve".

How about a shovel?

How about a working AK-47 made from a shovel and a home forge.

Inventing an automatic weapon is serious engineering. Following a design (especially one designed around sloppy tolerances like the AK) just isn't that hard. For a less labor-intensive solution, CnC milling machines will do the job from a simple program at manufacturer quality (or better) today.

There are interesting legalities to all of this, but given good legal advice and a blueprint you could likely start from iron ore and a tree, and make a working AK.

Making anyone with a printer a "gunsmith" is just plain irresponsible.

You probably have a mistaken understanding of how difficult it is to make a gun at home with quite basic machining equipment. Here's a detailed photo-record from a guy who legally made an AK-47 from a shovel. Making an AR-15 (requires much more accurate tolerances) is a bit harder, but most cities have machine shops that regularly provide "maker spaces" (to use the geek term) for doing it right, to high precision.

A 3D printer will make a crappy zip gun. Very primitive metalworking tools will make a working AK-47. A CnC milling machine will make a perfectly fine assault rifle: insert billet, run program. The part of the gun that is legally the gun is the lower receiver, which while difficult to invent is still just a piece of metal. An assault rifle "kit" will include a well-made piece of metal that, with a few holes drilled in the right places, becomes a lower receiver. The rest of the kit is legally irrelevant.

3D printing a lower receiver is new and therefore scary to our rulers, but has little practical application. There's already a legal framework (IANAL, know your local laws) that allows you to buy an "almost" receiver, drill a few holes in the right places, and now you have what is legally a gun. You can't legally sell it - because now it's a gun - but you can legally make and own it (in many places, anyway).

TLDR: the work needed to transform a piece of metal from not-legally-a-gun to legally-a-gun is "precisely drill a few holes". 3D printing is difficult and expensive by comparison.

There's no such thing as an AK-47 permit in Texas or elsewhere in the US, assuming you're referring to the semi-auto variant.

Assuming that one is not otherwise prohibited from possessing firearms (e.g. not a criminal), it's perfectly legal to make any otherwise-legal firearm for personal use in the US. For example, if one wished to build a semi-auto AK-47, that's fine (here's a guy making one from a shovel he bent into the appropriate shape, while here are the stamped/punched flats that you'd need to bend, drill, and heat-treat to make your own semi-auto AK receiver, the only regulated part). If you wanted to build a full-auto one, that's forbidden. You can make silencers, short-barreled rifles/shotguns, etc., but ONLY after getting the appropriate tax stamp from the ATF.

The DOD must ban the sales of all shovels: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/build-yourself/179192-diy-shovel-ak-photo-tsunami-warning.html

To build a one of AK it might require better than 50K. And that is probably a low estimate. To try to hammer out such pieces using methods familiar to black smiths would at best yield an inferior product.

Or not. Googling "ak from a shovel" will turn up a lot of links (here's one) to the guy who built himself an AK-47 from a shovel -- mostly using blacksmith techniques. (Okay, he did buy the barrel blank ($30) and a few other bits).

You don't even need sheet metal, but you can can actually make an AK from parts purchased at home depot, such as a shovel.

*sniff* That was beautiful, man, just beautiful.

Ingenuity FTW.

In what way is using a 3d printer different than me making a semi-AK out of a sheet metal and supplies from homedepot?

You don't even need sheet metal, but you can can actually make an AK from parts purchased at home depot, such as a shovel.

The canonical 'assault rife', the AK-47, is pounded out in factories that look more like garbage dumps than anything else. If you look at pictures of the magazines you see a bunch that look, well, rather primitive. But they work.

In fact, with enough skill, one can bang an AK-47 receiver out of a shovel, as shown here: DIY: Shovel AK.

An AK47 made from a shovel. http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning!?p=2695046&viewfull=1#post2695046

And a " Romy sans-barrel AK kit: $200"
And a "Barrel blank: $30"
And at least couple hundred in welding tools, grinders, etc.

Heck, there's a fellow out there who made an AK-47 out of a shovel.

An AK47 made from a shovel. http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning!?p=2695046&viewfull=1#post2695046

That's correct, even a shovel can become an assault rifle.

Its more likely this is actually modelling the passage of a new batch of guns through the criminal underworld.

And then... These new guns dissolve into sea-foam after three or four uses?

I think you greatly overestimate the difficulty of getting a gun in the US.

You can literally pick one up during your lunch break, if you have a clean record. If you don't have a clean record, you need to go through all the trouble of buying from a show, or a third party (ie, private resale) rather than a licensed dealer. FWIW, a five minute Google search turns up about 1500 guns available through private sellers in my area (and though I don't live in NJ, I live well within a half-day's drive of it).

And going even further, the US only considers the lower receiver the actual "firearm" for regulatory purposes - You can buy everything else totally unregulated. And for someone handy with a torch, you can build a receiver yourself out of some pretty crude starting materials.

So, your entirely premise fails one simple test - It depends on not having guns readily available, which simply doesn't hold true.

If these guys want to be taken seriously, they probably should build an AK with a shovel and a vodka bottle :D
http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning

Of course, you'll still have to follow the retarded rule about having a certain percentage be American parts if in America, but hey...AK parts kits are cheap and not that hard to build.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning