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Making an AR-15 In the Wired San Francisco Office
An anonymous reader writes: Wired's writer Andy Greenberg writes about his experience fabricating an AR-15 lower receiver with the Ghost Gunner CNC mill. (That's the same device that was demoed in a Slashdot video earlier this year.) Greenberg points out that CNC millng isn't new, but reports nonetheless: "Aside from a single brief hardware hiccup, it worked remarkably well. In fact, the Ghost Gunner worked so well that it may signal a new era in the gun control debate, one where the barrier to legally building an untraceable, durable, and deadly semiautomatic rifle has reached an unprecedented low point in cost and skill."
Its not an assault rifle. Those have been banned nationwide since 1986, and controlled/registered nationwide since 1934.
Semi-auto rifles are legal in California, but the state heavily regulates cosmetic features for some reason(I guess to prevent feelzbad).
AR15's can be made legally with proper care two different ways. Heck even after NY tried to make them illegal, those ingenious gun owners came up with a way to make them fit within the law there.
Actually from a regulator perspective it is. That is the serialized part that is considered a "firearm" every other part is just a gun part and not a firearm and thus not regulated under the 1968 Gun Control Act.
The whole discussion about making your own guns, sort of reminds me of the day I realized how easy it was to make beer. So easy that any 14 year old can walk into any random supermarket and buy everything they need to make a couple gallons of beer for less than it costs to actually buy the beer (as it should be!).
So all these prohibitions against selling alcohol to people under 21 are all pretty pointless, even kids without friends older than 21 can get their hands on unlimited supplies of the stuff with just a little thought and effort.
So the latest hopla about making guns is sort of a resurgence of the zip gun culture. Only the results are probably more accurate on the whole.
You can make a damn effective single-shot shotgun with plumbing parts from the hardware store for about $12.
It is not an "assault rifle" if it does not feature "A pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon." So depending on the grip that is attached to that lower, it is fine. Also, no flash suppressors, folding or telescoping stock, thumbhole stock, or grenande launchers. It also must not be a .50 BMG. The other option is to "permanently" attach a magazine that holds ten or fewer rounds of ammunition to the lower. If the rifle sticks within these parameters, then it is not an assault rifle.
There are plenty of guns in California that are based on the AR-15, AR-10, and AK-47 platforms that comply with the law.
Legally, it is.
Everything else is spare parts and can be bought/sold/traded without tracking or registration. The lower receiver is defined as the gun and is the part with the serial number.
The day the Stasi come to collect your registered guns, the only part you have to account for is the lower receiver. Everything else not present can be explained away as sold at a gun show, traded with friends, etc. Or perhaps it's buried out in the woods. So if people can make their own LR and dig up the hidden bits, the confiscators are royally screwed without a major change in firearms regulations.
Have gnu, will travel.
Home brewing was illegal from prohibition until Carter legalized it which is what started the U.S. micro brewing revolution.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
Kids want to get drunk now, not in a month.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Especially surreal when my wife learned to shoot same weapons in PRC at 12 years of age as part of the school curriculum, when around here we'd probably try to bring someone up on charges for doing that. Sometimes the gun control side sounds like the "abstinence only" education argument. Both seem to think lack of knowledge and superficial fixes will solve unrelated problems (i.e. sociopaths running amok).
Ghost Gunner...may signal a new era in the gun control debate
Presumably he means a "new era" of debate in which gun-rights advocates are not resoundingly winning that debate. This week's news is that the Texas legislature approved campus carry and both houses of the Maine legislature approved constitutional carry. And those immediately followed the Federal Courts rollback of carry restrictions in DC. And last year Illinois legalized concealed carry.
I don't see how Andy Greenburg using a "Ghost Gunner" is going to reverse that trend.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Dammit... I thought my case was impeccable until that IANAL statement: "But some random coward said so, he even linked the source, twice!"
Its a felony to buy a gun with a restraining order; its right there on the form 4473. People who say its incredibly easy to buy a gun usually aren't talking about doing it legally. In California there is a 10day wait even if you're a woman trying to get a gun to protect yourself from the ex you had to get a restraining order against.
Its not an assault rifle. Those have been banned nationwide since 1986, and controlled/registered nationwide since 1934.
You mean ownership of fully automatic weapons has been banned since 1986. Assault Rifle is essentially a made up term which can apply to what ever the government nitwits want it to apply to. It does not mean fully automatic weapon.
DAM lack of edit. I mean ownership of fully automatic weapons BUILT after 1986 has been banned!. Nearly anyone can own a fully automatic weapon built before 1986.
It all starts at 0
Whoever thinks that making guns cheap and easy to fabricate without skills is a good idea, is nuts.
It doesn't matter if it's a good idea or a bad idea. It's the world we live in now.
It was probably not a good idea to let murderous dictators and their regimes know about the equation E=MC^2. We would definitely be better off if crazy people lacked the information to make nuclear weapons. But that's not even a question worth considering, because that information is already out there. We live in a world where the knowledge of how to make a nuclear weapon can be found on wikipedia.
There is no good way to keep bad people from owning cars, cell phones, computers, kitchen knives, baseball bats, etc. Now guns are in this category as well. It is just a fact that in the 21st century, making a precise replica of a simple physical object is no longer hard nor expensive. Arguing whether it should be is pointless.
Actually:
"Assault Weapon" is the term made-up by gun-control spin doctors.
"Assault Rifle" is a US military term for a fighting rifle in intermediate caliber (not pistol, not long action) capable of full-auto and/or burst fire.
AR-15 is (as you know) not an Assault Rifle.
M4 is an Assault Rifle.
They function differently, but to most folks, they appear exactly the same. This is how gun-control types inject fear, uncertainty and doubt into the debate.
The GCA banned the manufacture of transferable "machine guns" made after May '86.
The GCA, therefore reduces the supply-side of the equation for transferable full-autos. Transferable M-16s cost in excess of $10,000, plus the $200 excise tax to transfer them from one owner to the next.
An individual may legally own a full-auto capable weapon provided that they pass the strict NFA (National Firearms Act) requirements and that the weapon was made before May of '86.
IANAL etc
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www.fairtax.org
Don't know. But I'm pretty sure it's "known to the state of California to cause cancer."
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
The barrel is 1) the hardest part of a gun to make
Not really.
And now the problem becomes tracking a 'gun' made up of several serialized, traceable parts. Barrels need to be replaced due to wear or when a weapon is re-chambered for different rounds. I'll guarantee that, should a system be developed to track multiple gun parts, it will be brought down by a relatively small group of gun owners switching parts around and submitting the required paperwork frequently.
Or I'll just design a rifle and name it an AR'; DROP TABLE Barrels;--
Have gnu, will travel.
OK so they ban mills. I can make a mill from stepper motors and linear slides. Going to regulate those as well?
You ae missing the point. Libertarians (actually the agorist wing) is doing this because this is how your bring down the State. Just like the drugs are finally starting to be legalized only after it becomes obvious how tyrannical and unjust the drug war is.
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
When I was in high school, small town...4,000 population, middle of the country. If you saw a pickup truck in the school parking lot, including teachers, 99% of the time, there would be 1 or two guns in a gun rack, on the rear window. One being a shotgun the other being a rifle. Also, if it was hot outside, the windows would be down, if it was raining, the doors wouldn't be locked. Guys ran around with a skoal can in the hip pocket & a buck knife on their belt. Not one incident of "gun related crimes" EVER happened in schools. You had a beef with someone, you took it across the street AFTER school, duked it out for a while, declared someone the winner, someone the loser. Few days later you'd be hanging out in town having a beer with the same guy. Try that now, they'd toss you in jail and throw away the key. So, that begs the question...WHAT has changed? Perhaps single parent families, everyone living in a sub division with privacy fences, who have no idea who their neighbors are, schools/federal government removing any mention of God from every day life, the increase of violent video games, children growing up with a lack of respect for their elders, or anyone else. SOMETHING has changed since the days I attended high school in the 70's, and NOT for the better.
Just to clarify, making a gun is legal in the US, for anyone legally able to possess one.
Provided that the gun in question is not automatic. Automatic means either that specially trained ATF technicians are able to coax it into firing more than once with a single pull of the trigger, or that it uses an open breech design.
Open breech means that the gun rests with the bolt back. Pulling the trigger releases the bolt to move forward into battery, where the gun fires. Special parts are needed to cause the gun to stop after a single shot, and the easy removal of those parts makes the gun automatic, even if those parts are present.
By contrast, in a closed breech gun, the trigger releases a firing pin or striker, starting the cycle. Special parts are needed to prevent the gun from firing again until the bolt returns to battery. Removal of those parts turns it into a nightmare machine, unable to reliably contain the pressure of the burning propellant.
But a closed breech allows a disconnect in the action, requiring that the trigger release for each cycle. Without those parts, or with worn parts, the gun is an automatic. With those parts, it is semi-automatic, or self-loading. Or, a lever allows the user to select between the two, making a select-fire gun.
To summarize:
Open breech = automatic (by decree)
Closed breech, disconnector = semi-automatic
Closed breech, no disconnector, or selectable disconnect = automatic.
Private ownership of automatics requires special licensing of the owner, and a special tax stamp paid on the gun. Those stamps have not been issued since 1986, but owner licenses are available.
An ordinary person can also get licensed to manufacture automatics, but because the ATF won't issue a stamp for their product, they can't make an automatic for personal use. They can only use that license only to make guns for entities that do not require NFA stamped guns, which basically means military and law enforcement.
Or, a person can get licensed to possess an automatic, and purchase a pre-1986 stamped gun. (Note that conversion devices like the Lightning like and the Drop-In Auto Sear [DIAS] count as guns here, as far as the law is concerned, even though they aren't guns.) Expect to spend about $10k getting started in this hobby.
Luty's SMG is an open breech design. Don't even think about building one. But the book is a good read. It will help you understand how the Taliban held off two global super-powers mostly using guns they made themselves. In caves. With hand tools.
Note 1: Conversion of an AR-15-clone is simple. Drill one hole in the right place, drop in one part, one spring and one roll pin, potentially swap out a few other parts, depending on the exact design of your clone, and you are done. But drill that hole without proper authorization and you are looking a 10 year felony sentence.
Note 2: Since we are living in a post-Constitutional, post-Rule of Law era, any owner of a semi-automatic gun can be arrested and charged for NFA violations at any time. The ATF technicians have years of experience getting guns to double fire, and access to soft primers that will fire nearly unprovoked. They also have all the time in the world to tinker with your gun, and they get paid a salary to do it. They will get your gun to double fire at least once, and away you go.
See that "Preview" button?