Friday, January 14, 2022

Capitalism treats socialism as damage and routes around it.

Case in point, gun control. Pushed to the extreme, gun control causes people to make their own. 

Yes you read that right. Defense distributed has taken their Ghost Gunner desktop CNC to the next level. They are now offering jigs and code to mill a zero percent receiver (raw billet blank aka brick of aluminum) into a lower receiver. Life finds a way to be ungovernable.

They're talking about the lower receiver for an AR-15, one of the most overly-complicated poodle shooters ever constructed. (I've never been a fan. Sorry, Arms Chest Denizens.) Requiring a bunch of complicated machining done on a CNC mill. A mill that usually costs thousands of dollars, requires a lot of learning and fiddling about, and is generally not something to be undertaken lightly.

Until a bunch of wise-asses decided they could make a cheap CNC that sits on a desktop and works off programs downloaded off the internet. A CNC machine that Joe Average can make out of stuff you buy at Fome Pepot and WallyMart. You can make the whole thing yourself, or buy one already made. And then start making AR-15 lower receivers out of aluminum, or carbon reinforced plastics, or any exotic material you'd care to come up with. As many as you want. Forever.

Coincidentally, the only part of an AR-15 that is controlled and serial numbered in the USA is the lower receiver. The rest of it you can get by mail-order. If the government changes those rules, gee whiz boys, the CNC can make uppers too.

I've talked about this before.There are easier things to make than an AR-15. I'm not going to list them here because Lucy is watching, but a little look at history shows all sorts of things an enterprising lad could make out of aluminum, plastic and steel. If guys can do it by hand in a busted-ass hut in Pakistan, guys can do it in North America with power tools.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousFriday, January 14, 2022

    Honestly, you can make a (not very safe and *I* wouldn't try shooting one) shotgun out of parts from your favorite local hardware store. The only thing you need to get elsewhere (unless it's a COOL hardware store) is ammo / shells.

    And if you're sufficiently inclined, well, pretty sure those can be home made as well.

    Can't stop the signal, Mal

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  2. The PhantomSaturday, January 15, 2022

    Zip guns have been a thing forever. One of the links in the linked article shows lots of examples of those.

    This is a little different, these are near-production quality firearms being made in home-shop conditions by relatively unskilled guys. As the black market price of smuggled guns goes up, enterprising jackasses will get busy and fill that market. When you can sell a zip gun for $1000, shady guys will make zip guns. That's just how life is.

    I used to think the government kept going with this type of prohibition because they were stupid. Turns out I was stupid and they've been getting exactly what they wanted, all this time.

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