I was watching an ep of “Mythbusters” recently in which they successfully duplicated the ricin umbrella gun. They mentioned that they had a law enforcement officer at all times (and he was on camera for most of it) onsite for some reason that I don’t quite recall, but I got the idea it was basically because they had to.
So, at what point in making a firearm would I need to have some kind of government approval? Is it at the point that I have a “firing” of an explosive charge? Crossbows can be pretty nasty. Do crossbow manufacturers need to be “authorized” to make them? If so, then when does government approval come into force? (Obviously slingshots and pea shooters don’t make it, and probably not blow guns.)
IIRC, you need to have a license from the BATF to make a gun, and there must be a serial number on the receiver. Handguns have the s/n on the frame. Rifles have (I believe) s/ns on the bit that contains the working bits. For example, a bolt-action rifle would have the s/n stamped on the receiver. An AR-15 would have the s/n stamped on the lower receiver.
There was a time when you could buy ‘kits’ to make a STEN or a MAC-10. These included everything you needed except the receiver. The STEN’s receiver was a metal tube, and the MAC-10’s receiver was made from a folded flat piece of sheet metal. Nothing wrong with having a tube or a sheet of steel – but the moment you made the cutouts or folds, you were in possession of an illegal part; not only because they are machine gun receivers, but also because you didn’t have a license to make any kind of gun. IIRC, machine gun parts are now controlled as well.
slight hijack, but what about gun accesories. case in point i own a spas-12 shotgun and was looking for some divertors for it but the only ones around seem to go for 200-300 bucks! i have seen them up close and they seem really simple to machine. they would not be original, but who cares? not me.
Oh – Mythbusters is based in California. Assuming the guys have the appropriate licenses to manufacture a firearm, they’ll still run into California’s ban on ‘camouflaged’ guns. I believe it is illegal in California to possess a gun that lookes like something else. For example, I know that guns that look like pens are banned. (So are blowguns, cane swords, and the like.)
On a tangent, there is a derringer that is available in a variety of calibers; but in California you can’t get the .45 Colt model because it can also chamber a .410 shotgun shell. Under California law, this makes it a ‘short-barrelled shotgun’.
Anyway, I suspect the cop was on the set to supervise the manufacture of the umbrella gun because of a loophole that might allow making one for ‘law enforcement purposes’.
Under US federal law, any device that propels a projectile by combusting fuel is a firearm. States can have additional restrictions and some get pretty ridiculous; in Illinois for instance a Taser or stun gun is considered a “firearm”, and carrying one concealed or using it on anyone falls under the same laws as firearms [???].
I’m not totally certain, but in the US, if the gun is for your own use and you are otherwise not prohibited from posessing a gun, I recall that it doesn’t need to have any serial number at all. Only if it is ever sold to someone else does it need a serial number, and for that you have to go through the BATF and register as a manufacturer. There are some technical requirements as to overall length, barrel length, action type, ect. --generally speaking, except for the serial number requirement, your home-made gun has to fulfill the technical requirements that any regular gun sold normally would. By far the easiest type of semiauto-action to make is a blowback-type that fires from an open bolt and uses no disconnector (a mechanism that allows only firing once per trigger pull), but this exact type is classified by Federal laws as a machine gun because basically …it is.
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Also: Sten guns use a piece of tubing for the receiver; there are some Sten gun plans floating free on the net in PDF format. MAC-10/Cobray/SWD/ type pistols use a piece of sheet metal folded into a channel, with some particularly-placed holes made. The latter kits are still legal and (where the receiver is left a flat sheet of metal) are called “flat kits”, and are still available through various channels. SWD/Cobray flat kits are available at gun shows, and sometimes through ads in Shotgun News. A variation on the flat kit is one that contains no receiver part at all, but has all the other pieces and plans showing how to cut out, drill and bend the receiver. I don’t ever remember seeing Sten gun kits but I never looked for this sort of thing and I’m sure they’ve been done as well. The reason that there are som maky kits for these guns is that both these guns were originally designed to be very easy to manufacture.
There are web forums where US shooters do post pics of guns they have manufactured. Almost always they use the barrel from some commercially-manufactured gun for one of the reasons in the first paragraph above–that Federal law says that any gun that fires a single-projectile must have a rifled barrel, and making your own rifled barrel is a technical pain to do. It’s cheap and easier to just use the barrel of an existing gun instead.
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That isn’t the only firearm the Mythbusters have made. They also made a log cannon once (big log hollowed out in the center, with a carved stone ball); does anyone remember if they needed a cop present for that one, too?
You might want to look up a cite for that. I don’t think it’s true (except, maybe, for blackpowder guns – which can even be bought through the mail). It wouldn’t be a good thing if someone read that statement, made a gun for personal use, and then went to prison for it.
Best bet: If you want to make a gun, call the BATF first.
The federal law defining firearms is a bit more specific, it must use fixed ammunition, that is to say cartridges. Muzzle loading arms and at least one breechloading rifle - early Sharps rifles which use a paper cartridge - are not even addressed by the BATF and may be purchased without a form 4473 and even purchased by mail providing they don’t violate local law. The log cannon wouldn’t even be considered a firearm by the BATFE. Oddly enough a flamethrower isn’t either.
I had a little fun with the young clerk when I bought my Uberti made Colt’s 1847 Walker replica. He commented that he didn’t have to fill out paperwork since it wasn’t a “real gun.” I pointed out that the Walker was the most powerful production handgunin the world until 1935 and if he liked I could demonstrate… on him. He was then educated that it may not be a firearm but is sure as hell is a real gun.
The ricin gun umbrella is another matter. If it uses a cartridge and has a projectile it sounds an awful lot like a AOW which is covered by federal law. It’s not terribly difficult to get authorization to make one legally, just a lot of time and red tape but only a $5 tax stamp.
There are semi-auto MAC weapons and it is legal to make one. The difference beteen the machine gun and the semi auto version is mainly in the bolt but the reciever has an extra hole for the selector switch. Sten guns are a different matter as there is no semi auto version.
Johnny L.A., you actually don’t need a federal permit to make a firearm as long as it isn’t for sale and you only make one. The BATFE has information about this on their FAQ page. It must of course have a serial number and not violate any laws.
Johnny, here’s a cite for you from the source. I presume it needs to be updated to reflect the sunset of the semiautomatic assault weapons ban. Not that the prohibition on “nonsporting” arms only applies to using imported parts.