Gun Control & RKBA
Related: About this forumI Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable.
The AK-47, perhaps the world's best-known gun, is so easy to make and so hard to break that the Soviet-designed original has spawned countless variants, updated and modified versions churned out by factories all over the globe. Although US customs laws ban importing the weapons, parts kitswhich include most original components of a Kalashnikov variantare legal. So is reassembling them, as long as no more than 10 foreign-made components are used and they are mounted on a new receiver, the box-shaped central frame that holds the gun's key mechanics. There are no fussy irritations like, say, passing a background check to buy a kit. And because we're assembling the guns for our own "personal use," whatever that may entail, we're not required to stamp in serial numbers. These rifles are totally untraceable, and even under California's stringent assault weapons ban, that's perfectly within the law.
I'm left wondering: Seeing how easy this is, are build parties monitored? Do hand-built weapons ever surface in crimes? Are the cops worried? When I call local law enforcement representatives from Los Angeles, Orange County, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove, they say they've never heard of such a thing. "That doesn't happen here," says Bruce Borihanh, an LAPD spokesman. But a cursory browse of online gun forums is enough to show that, well, clearly it does. There seems to be one about every month. Plus, I just attended one less than an hour's drive from his office.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/05/ak-47-semi-automatic-rifle-building-party
Anyone have any experience with build parties?
Ron Green
(9,821 posts)jehop61
(1,735 posts)about your equipment problem.
hack89
(39,171 posts)only ARs in my safe.
Buzz Clik
(38,437 posts)Don't forget your safe words.
Something like "Don't kill me!" or, "Holy shit! I shot myself" come to mind.
gejohnston
(17,502 posts)Make it themselves?
hack89
(39,171 posts)A stamped AK-47 receiver blank is incredibly easy to make...it's just a flat piece of steel with a bunch of holes drilled in it and a couple of bends. You can download a printable template showing you where to put the holes and bends off of the Internet. In less than 30 minutes and for less than $10, anyone with a garage and a decent set of tools can make one.
They make these things by hand in electricity-free dirt-floored workshops in Pakistan using only hammers, chisels, and hand drills. A $100 trip to Harbor Freight and a $10 steel purchase at Home Depot will let you do the same thing here in a fraction of the time.
rl6214
(8,142 posts)I think I'll have to try my hand at an AK.
Howzit
(967 posts)[img][/img]
Pakistanis have been making copies of guns by hand for a very long time - guns cannot be uninvented and banning them raises the price, creating incentive for smuggling and local manufacturing:
Nika
(546 posts)virginia mountainman
(5,046 posts)I know several folks, that build their own semi auto, AK's, AR's, and FN FAL's all the time, its a hobby to them. You would not believe just how well made some of these homemade rifles are.
I, by trade, am a CNC machinist... and I cannot wait to get one of these, for my kitchen table.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/otherfab/the-othermill-custom-circuits-at-your-fingertips
Yes, the possibilities are endless..
FreakinDJ
(17,644 posts)Why would you want a 3 axis router that would struggle to cut aluminum
beevul
(12,194 posts)I'm a machinist as well.
virginia mountainman
(5,046 posts)Use slow cutting speeds, and you can make lots and lots of intricate small parts with it..
You know the kind you need to make legal semi-auto firearms. Strangely the illegal full autos, are very much simpler to make at home. The bigger parts are much easier to make than the smaller ones.
ileus
(15,396 posts)Could be a fun little rifle for the whole family to go plinking with....iron sight fun time.
quadrature
(2,049 posts)nt
Straw Man
(6,613 posts)Although none of these is, strictly speaking, an "AK-47," Saiga makes AK-pattern rifles in .223 and .308, as well as .410, 20-gauge, and 12-gauge smoothbores. And, of course, the standard 7.62x39mm.
derby378
(30,252 posts)5.45 was the Warsaw Pact standard for a long time, up until its dissolution in the early 90s, and Russia still uses it as its primary infantry round. When some former Warsaw Pact nations like Poland realigned themselves with NATO, they started designing AKs that could use the standard NATO 5.56 round.
Straw Man
(6,613 posts)Just to clarify, the Saiga version is capable of shooting both .223 Remington and the military 5.56x45.
virginia mountainman
(5,046 posts)petronius
(26,581 posts)(Although I'm pretty sure that's not the message the writer was trying to convey. )
I just hope some of our more gun-panic-prone legislators don't read the article, and decide that this complete-non-problem that they'd never even heard of is actually a harbinger of the end of the world...
hack89
(39,171 posts)I know it failed because there is a whining post in ATA.
I too, would like to see the results.
I thought Skinner's answer was classy.
CokeMachine
(1,018 posts)Oh well life goes on for W -- never mind.
mokawanis
(4,434 posts)for a bunch of gun nuts to shoot themselves or each other.
CokeMachine
(1,018 posts)to wet themselves over. Not you specifically but ....
Do I hear an echo -- sorry different group.
premium
(3,731 posts)CokeMachine
(1,018 posts)is it's the only group that has blocked me. Hold on, I think I hear something! Nevermind it was just an echo from somewhere else.
dookers
(61 posts)Guns have been hand built from scratch since their invention hundreds of years ago and just now peoples heads are exploding.
CokeMachine
(1,018 posts)Nimajneb Nilknarf
(319 posts)I noticed a bit of a ruckus in the ATA forum about this thread. A couple of individuals have taken umbrage at the sharing of technical information.
In colonial times the domestic manufacture of weapons became a matter of urgent necessity. I'm not surprised that the practice continues, as the need for firearms for self-defense has diminished little in two centuries and some.
Sharing information brings people together. It's good to see the spirit of cooperation and openness at work.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)Unless the builder/owner has a federal license, which isn't easy to get.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)trying to see if this was a semi or fully automatic. Didn't see it mentioned.
hack89
(39,171 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)hack89
(39,171 posts)the echo chamber has a sad.
DonP
(6,185 posts)They seem to feel a burning need to shut down any and all differing opinions from their safe "haven and still come here to disrupt. Even with their haven they are arguing repeatedly with Skinner to shut down any and all points of view they don't approve of.
How very "progressive" and rude of them.
Hate the 2nd amendment and not too terribly fond of the 1st either it seems.
Oh well, at least they haven't told us "we all want more dead children" for a week or so, or did I miss one?