So you can print your own receiver (no serial number, of course), using pirated software, if I read this article correctly, and buy the rest of the parts on line.
I wasn’t aware that home-gunsmithing was a thing, legal if you don’t sell it or give it away (?). What’s the law on that?
The author’s point is that the long awaited time of non-registered (serial numbered) guns is now upon us.
The gun seems to be OK in the lead-slinging department. Does anyone have any experience with it or with home gunsmithing? I know a lot of guys who tinker/make their own ammo (self-loaders?–what is that called?) hamg around here…
This is possible only because of a strange quirk in how the laws are written. The AR-15 is a modular design. The only part of an AR-15 that is regulated by law is the lower receiver. The lower receiver is mechanically very simple - it’s a block of aluminum with no moving parts, just holes and mounting points to attach other components. It does not have to be particularly strong, nor of particularly good quality, and other than remaining intact and not flexing under recoil has no operational function. All the parts of the AR-15 that are difficult to manufacture and require precision, strong materials, complex machining, etc. are unregulated - the barrel, the bolt carrier, the gas system, etc.
And not finding a link I did a Google and went from there.
I’m more a flintlock person myself but I would guess the work needed to actually produce and finish something like this is a little past the home-tinkerer stage. Besides some tools you aren’t going to find in Sears you are going to need the skill and background to work within very precise tolerances. Your average gun nut isn’t going to be close to able to do this.
Legal? Possibly or probably not. But that could depend on several variables; the biggest being if you made one to be easily converted to a full auto. Or produced it to be more easily converted to full auto than a factory version. You can make or modify something into a machine gun but only that paperwork from Uncle Sugar makes it legal for you to have it.
It’s not the serial number per se that is the issue. Some guns produced before 1968 don’t have one but those are few and far between — and more important to the discussion here legal. In some ways its your intent and reasoning for wanting to produce it.
In the US, are there jurisdictions where uppers can be acquired without leaving a paper trail or having to show ID?
If not, making the lower oneself doesn’t change much.
ETA: I see the lower is the only part regulated. Does that really mean anyone can buy the upper in an untraceable way? Do other guns work like that?
Pretty much. You can acquire any part for any rifle at any local shop or on Amazon or whatever. The only regulated and tracked part is the receiver, which is where the serial number is.
You are allowed to build your own receivers for personal use, but you can’t sell or transfer them without the right licenses. You can even buy a completely unregulated “80% receiver,” which is basically a receiver minus a few machine holes, and finish it yourself.
I own 10 guns. All given to me from family. The oldest is about 100 years old. The newest, about 25. I really doubt any are registered in any way. Many don’t even have serial numbers.
A question though… If I wanted to buy a new rifle, other than the info that I give for warrantee purposes, that rifle is registered with the government?
I have three of their lower receivers, but I’m still waiting for the two ‘retro’ uppers I ordered a couple of years ago. Thanks for posting the link. Through it, I see that they should be producing the uppers within a few months.
The gun show loophole is also still a thing in many states. I had a friend who went to a gun show recently in Kansas. He just walked around and eventually found a shady looking guy with 2 ARs slung across his back. He handed over about 800 bucks cash (one AR was 800, one 900) and slung the 2 ARs across his own back. Totally legal in most states - the seller only is supposed to check your driver’s license to make sure you are a resident of the same state. (but most of these cash transactions I doubt they bother)
My friend has a clean record, but he could have had anything on his record.
Then, my friend walked around a little more, found a table selling 30 round magazines (no paperwork on those even in a gunshop), picked up a few, found a table selling boxes of ammo, grabbed a couple, and he was ready to rock. The ARs he purchased had their firing pins installed and everything - technically I guess he could have loaded the ARs right there in the gun show though obviously security would have something to say about that.
He walked right on out of the show. No one said anything. Back to his car, and gone. 2 guns that not a shred of paper exists that he owns em. My friend is paranoid and believes the government will both ban this type of rifle (maybe, they were illegal before) and seize all the ones they can. (logistically difficult, and hard to do if the government doesn’t have a record of where to look)
Anyways, I dunno. My thought is if you’re gonna have huge gaping loopholes like this that make the law meaningless, why *have *a law? Why have background checks at all if anyone can just evade em? Either fix the loopholes or stop bothering with background checks.
There is no loophole!! Your friend could have done the exact same thing anywhere else in your state. He could have met that man on craigslist, Facebook, at the park, or at dinner. Your state does not require background checks or registration. That has nothing to do with gun shows, so there is no “gun show loophole”. Dealers are required to fill out forms and conduct background checks. Private persons selling the occasional firearm are not required to do this. Your friend did not buy from a dealer, he bought from some random guy and they did a private sale.
I have purchased about a half dozen firearms from people on Facebook. Are you going to call it the “Facebook Loophole” as well?
Uppers can be had without no more trail than any other purchase (did you use cash or plastic?) from various places I won’t bother naming. The S&W version runs around $400 and change.
Not really. There is no such thing as a federal list of the firearms you own. Which is why keeping records for yourself is so important in case anything gets stolen or your houseboat sinks. You fill out a form which is usually kept by the dealer, he calls in a background check, and everything is good to go as long as you qualify. There MAY (and its a very big “may”) be some record that you bought something once but I’ll believe it when I see it.
On inherited guns - long guns; no problem anywhere that I am aware of other than maybe New York. On handguns - technically if its done within a direct blood line (parent to child, child to parent, child to child) the same holds true. However if it goes from say me on my death to a cousin or friend, there should be a transfer and the person should fill out the same form as they would making a purchase from a stranger or shop. That is as of 2012; things could have changed.
Okay, I didn’t realize “Ghost Gunner” was the name of the actual device. I thought the OP was making a reference to CA Senator De Leon’s comical “this is a ghost gun” comment from last year. The OP did use the term “print”. So I thought we were talking about printers. The Ghost Gunner is not “printing” anything.
Looking at the Ghost Gunner machine, it appears that it requires an 80% lower to do its thing. It cannot and does not mill a lower from scratch. So what the hell good is it? People have been able to mill their 80% lowers into a finished product using power tools and jigs for years! The only thing this Ghost Gunner does is make it a little bit easier. It’s not like it took any kind of skill to finish an 80% lower using jigs for one tenth the price tag of a Ghost Gunner.
Those aren’t loopholes. That is the way the law is written. They’re not evading laws, they’re following laws. The “gun show loophole” is nothing of the sort and isn’t even limited to gun shows.
If you don’t like the law, that’s fine. Work to get it changed (which I think it should be). But quit using terms that insinuate that people who are following the law are doing something shady or underhanded.
Also, AR-15s were never illegal. Never. Production of AR-15s with two or more listed cosmetic features was banned for a decade, but AR-15s were readily available and remain so.
