[mercwear]

I have to agree with the initial comment on the article, this is a fear mongering piece. Anyone that has a working knowledge of firearms can put together a usable weapon using readily available parts. In fact, a trip to home depot is all you need in order to build a crude (and pretty dangerous) shotgun. I also think it goes without saying that a criminal would probably opt to spend the $1,200 required to buy this CNC device on a weapon (or weapons) that have already been assembled.

[mcmancini]

And to underscore how a usable rifle may be constructed with readily available parts, I present a personal favorite, the AK-47 built from a receiver recycled from a shovel: http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DI...

[gknoy]

I will admit that I rather wish I had the skills and knowledge necessary to do something like that. Amazing.

[ctdonath]

Easily acquired. Your new hobby awaits you.

[poopchute]

I wouldn't exactly say those are readily available parts. The guy needed all sorts of metal working tools and a kiln to melt the shovel down.

[mcmancini]

Everything he used can be found in a home workshop, especially the workshop of someone with metalworking experience. I'd guess you'd have easier time finding these tools than a home CNC mill that can handle Al.

[drzaiusapelord]

Not to mention, its been trivial to build "zip guns" with basic tools. Crude pistols aren't that tough to make, especially when the heavy lifting (making of reliable and safe ammo) is already done for you.

[diydsp]

>> crude (and pretty dangerous) shotgun

> "zip guns"

This helps people make a fully automatic machine gun, an AR-15, not a single-shot gun.

[hga]

No, it takes a semi-auto 80% receiver and finished the remaining 20%. (And after that, "Some assembly is required," e.g http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=11004/learn/ .)

But if you want to be concerned, look at how utterly simple a full auto (simpler that way, e.g. firing pin is a bump in the bolt face) 9mm Sten gun is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten

(A semi-auto AR15 is a much more capable weapon, BTW.)

[angersock]

What's darkly funny to me is that those things are illegal. Perhaps the biggest event in favor of keeping such weapons outlawed was the North Hollywood shootout (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Hollywood_shootout, basically IRL Payday), and yet only two people--the robbers--were killed!

[hga]

Actually not. Only ones manufactured after 1986; there are roughly 250,000 in private circulation (and I can dig up a current case where a police department is selling a vintage 1920s Thompson sub-machinegun so they can buy stuff they need).

ADDED: per the NRA's page on California gun laws, in theory its even legal to have and transport one, although evidently the permits to do so are never granted (well, I assume except for Hollywood...).

2 known illegal uses of legal machine guns in private hands in the US ... one by a cop....

[sudowhodoido]

This. Sten plans to give you an idea how easy this is:

http://stevespages.com/pdf/sten_mk2_complete_machine_instruc...

Really don't need much of a machine shop to knock one of them out.

[diydsp]

Sorry, i forgot to mention the numerous modifications which can make an AR-15 automatic.

It's true this device alone doesn't make an automatic weapon, but it certainly catalyzes the process of making an untraceable automatic weapon.

Once you have made an untraceable semi-auto AR-15 with this device, you can then make it untraceable auto with numerous ways.

[hga]

It turns out the BATF has a metric in terms of tools, skill and time needed to turn a semi-auto gun into full auto, and has banned ones that fall below that threshold, like MAC-10 and -11 clones with fixed firing pins in the bolt face.

And, no, it doesn't catalyze this, or at least no more than allowing the sale of millions of finished AR-15s. Those are a lot closer than a 80% receiver and a pile of parts, "Some assembly required".

[ctdonath]

It turns out the BATF has a metric in terms of tools, skill and time needed to turn a semi-auto gun into full auto

The metric is absurd. As one gunsmith noted, he could turn a VW Bug (car) into a machine-gun well within the BATF metric.

[diydsp]

> the sale of millions of finished AR-15s

ITYM millions of traceable AR-15s.

If someone wants an untraceable machine gun, they can buy this device and perform mods.

∴ This device catalyzes making untraceable machine guns.

[lwhalen]

Your belt-loop, or a rubber band, can make any semi-automatic firearm (pistol or rifle) 'automatic'. Check Youtube videos for 'bump-firing'. It's worth mentioning that fully-automatic firing tends to be a waste of ammo if you're trying to do any kind of accuracy shooting. Even the US Military doesn't recommend firing the M-16 (looks identical to the AR-15 you're panic-pantsing about, but only available to active duty military or those with a VERY expensive ATF 'green card') in full-auto due to accuracy concerns.

[rgrieselhuber]

This is why gun owners get nervous when people who don't understand firearms try to legislate their ownership.

[tjradcliffe]

Your comment implies that there are two classes of people, "gun owners who understand firearms" and "non-gun owners who do not understand firearms". A casual glance at the deplorable accidental and unintentional discharge rates in the US statistics should make it immediately clear that gun ownership and understanding firearms have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

I say this as a non-gun-owner who was taught to shoot the old fashion way, by a 12 year old friend who got a rifle for Christmas when I was 11, and have subsequently taken enough firearms training, including in the armed forces, to understand firearms well enough to be terrified of the huge number of ignorant clowns who own them, no matter how well-informed and responsible the majority of gun owners are most of the time.

It is also worth pointing out that since the point of firearms is to make it really easy to kill things it would be disingenuous and stupid to claim anything other than "a gun owner only needs to fail in their understanding or self control for a moment to kill someone", and anyone who believes of their fellow gun-owners, "we never make mistakes"... well, people like that have good company in murderous tyrants the world over.

Everyone makes mistakes now and then. When people with guns make mistakes, other people die. Because the purpose of guns is to make killing really easy, and when you have a technology that makes something really easy you get more of it. To claim otherwise is to claim that intercontinental travel was as common before steamships as after, which is false.

Guns are a tool to solve a problem: killing things. Gun advocates in the US claim that this tool, and this tool alone, can be applied to the unrelated problem of personal safety. I say this is an unrelated problem because it is: in every other developed nation it has been solved more effectively than it has been solved in the US, without substantial reference to guns.

Let me say this again: the problem of personal safety has been solved better (people are safer) in every other developed nation without ubiquitous firearms. This is just a fact. Murder rates in Canada are lower than in the US. Murder rates in England, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Switzerland (where firearms are all inaccessible, remember), etc are all lower than in the US. People in those countries are safer than in the US, despite the freedom of all Americans to carry firearms and the overwhelming victory of the gun lobby in the US in the past couple of decades.

So anyone who advocates firearms as a good solution to the problem of personal safety is like someone advocating bloodletting for personal health. It is a solution that has been tried and failed. It's time to move on to something else, like civilization and the rule of law.

[angersock]

So, the two groups actually pointed out by the parent post were "gun owners" and "people who don't understand guns"--we can infer the existence of "gun non-owners" and "people who understand guns". So, don't go putting words in their mouth.

That said, yeah, many gun owners don't really understand guns in the technical sense, and have very silly biases (consumer preferences, really) about what is a valid arm to possess. A lot of older hunters I've met, for example, get grumpy if they see you with any rifle that isn't a bolt-action.

I tentatively disagree with the problem of personal safety being solved in those other countries: you've stuck with the metric of "murdered", whereas there are additional ones still of note to the average citizen such as "assaulted" and "robbed". Also, we can trot out the tired refrains about diversity and whatnot and argue that those populations don't map onto ours, but let's save space.

I might agree that the firearms are not a good solution to the problem of personal safety, but they are a solution and one that has worked. I think that the problem that they help prevent is creating an irreversible monopoly in force and ensuing tyranny, which is what happens once you disarm your populace. As a veteran, surely you appreciate that.

EDIT: Changed qualifier on "one that has worked well" to "one that has worked"...don't want to blow my reply quota picking nits on the difference between "well" and "good".

Also, forgot to mention: parent's point about letting people who don't understand something regulate it is correct--if you can't even articulate the different sorts of firearms and differences thereof, why should you be allowed to restrict anyone's access to them? It's just as annoying as legislation about computer stuff.

[hga]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolyn_McCarthy#Gun_control last paragraph: "When [Tucker] Carlson pressed [Congresswomen Carolyn McCarthy] twice more on the question about barrel shrouds, she admitted that she did not know what a barrel shroud was, and incorrectly stated, 'I believe it is a shoulder thing that goes up.' Carlson replied with, "No, No it's not.'"

In case you don't know the meaning of the word shroud: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrel_shroud

[ctdonath]

A casual glance at the deplorable accidental and unintentional discharge rates in the US statistics should make it immediately clear that

...there isn't a substantial problem therewith. Not zero, of course, but by your line of reasoning cars should be outlawed immediately because of the actual accidental & unintentional harm rates therewith ... and the same issue with guns being orders of magnitude less.

The problem isn't accidental casualties (those are in fact quite rare). The problem is people willing to cause grave harm to others, a group which does not include a vast number of people who are not willing to cause grave harm to others save for stopping the former from doing so - but whom you are quick to lump together. Break down US murder rates, and you'll find the bulk of the problem firmly within certain subgroups; disarming other US subgroups (as you advocate) won't solve the problem, as up-arming those groups has decreased murder rates in their areas.

[barrkel]

by your line of reasoning cars should be outlawed immediately

Cars have lots of valuable uses. The valuable uses of guns are a lot fewer.

[Osiris]

Cars kill tens of thousands of people a year. Human drivers should absolutely be outlawed, as soon as the technology is feasible to do so.

[kefka]

SCOTUS reaffirmed the ruling in 2013 that police are NOT required to protect. So, whom do you want to take responsibility for your safety and security?

I know what I want if I have to take care of my safety and security. It's the same weapons the police carry.

[cobrausn]

Sure, the problem is 'solved' until you are the one stuck trying to defend yourself without the proper tools because others wanted to not own a gun and have less of a chance of ever being caught in a situation where that decision would impact them. I consider each and every crime against a forcibly disarmed citizen to be an order of magnitude more a tragedy.

[giardini]

Guns save more lives than they take; prevent more injuries than they inflict:

https://www.gunowners.org/sk0802htm.htm

Articles, anecdotes and statistics:

https://www.google.com/?q=guns+save+lives

[dreamweapon]

Guns save more lives than they take;

Whether or not this is true, "guns" != fun toys like the AR-15 or the M&P15, the ownership of which is touted by pro-gun activists as some kind of an inalienable right.

[scott_karana]

Switzerland is a horrible example of a country where guns are inaccessible: mandatory militia services with the ability to retain your weapon afterwards; Government subsidized ammo costs for training and sports in the general populace; a 29% household firearm presence rate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

[philh]

> Let me say this again: the problem of personal safety has been solved better (people are safer) in every other developed nation without ubiquitous firearms.

Don't these countries have lower murder rates than the US has non-gun-related murder rates? As in, even if you removed every gun in the US, and even if all the crimes that would otherwise be committed with guns now just don't happen, the US still would have a higher murder rate than these countries.

(This is off the top of my head, please correct me if I'm wrong.)

In which case, it seems unlikely that the US' murder rate can be attributed to guns. You don't explicitly blame guns yourself, but I think this is worth noting. (And "civilization and the rule of law" isn't a solution, it's an applause light.)

[MrMember]

At first glance that seems to be the case for some countries. In 2011 the US had a homicide rate of 4.7 per 100k, with a firearm homicide rate of 3.6 per 100k. The United Kingdom had a homicide rate of 1.0 per 100k in 2011.

[prostoalex]

> A casual glance at the deplorable accidental and unintentional discharge rates in the US statistics

What do the statistics imply? Per gun-owning capita is the rate of accidental discharge higher, lower, or within the median compared to other populaces around the world?

[anonbanker]

Expat living in Canada. I don't feel nearly as unsafe walking down the roughest block in Edmonton. I still have a decent chance of being stabbed and robbed, though; A 1:37,000 chance.

However, I am very excited to see how this technology will be used in Canada, or if it will even make a blip on the crime radar.

[igetspam]

No. It helps them make a semi automatic rifle, an AR-15, not a machine gun. One pull, one shot.

[venomsnake]

So? Every person in US has legal access to 4 tons of screaming death on demand. The amount of assaults done by car is minuscule.

[venomsnake]

Don't say that. They will outlaw education next. Any person with high school knowledge of physics and chemistry can mcguyver himself a lot of really deadly stuff.

Or just buy a drone, strap something light and sharp to it, and just nodedive it into the target.

[neverminder]

They already did that. Roguesci (Rogue Science) Explosives & Weapons forum was brought down by US government. That place was the most solid source of information I've ever seen in this particular area. http://www.amateurpyro.com/forums/topic/3641-what-happened-t...

[jboggan]

As an illustration of the above point about Home Depot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwCP2Og__Go#t=94

[ChuckMcM]

Exactly, and it never too "tens of thousands" of dollars to buy a mill unless you were buying one new. A used Bridgeport that can turn out all the parts for say .45 cal automatics (or lower receivers for an AR15) can be had with minimal tooling for less than $10K and usually less than $5K.