30% of Confiscated Firearms in California are Homemade

[thackney]

30% of Confiscated Firearms in California are Homemade
https://www.ammoland.com/2019/08/30-of-confiscated-firearms-in-california-are-homemade

Several media outlets in California have teamed up with the anti-Second Amendment organization, The Trace, to investigate and write about homemade guns in California. They claim that BATFE sources say 30 percent of guns confiscated in California are homemade. Given there are over 400 million guns in private hands in the United States, and the border between California and other states is porous, and only lightly regulated; it seems an extraordinary number. From nbcbayarea.com:

An Investigation by NBC Bay Area in partnership with NBC San Diego, NBC Los Angeles, and the non-profit journalists at The Trace found that law enforcement agencies across California are recovering record numbers of ghost guns. According to several ATF sources, 30 percent of all guns now recovered by agents in communities throughout California are homemade, un-serialized firearms, known on the street as “ghost guns.”

Guns have been made at home and in small shops for the entire history of the USA.  From criminaldefeselawyer.com:

Individuals in this country have been making their own guns for centuries. The practice is deeply rooted in our constitutional history and tradition. Legal scholars have recognized that the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to keep and bear arms would be meaningless in practice unless the state afforded individuals the ability to exercise that right—which includes making their own guns.

For the past almost half-century, however, the sale and subsequent control of firearms have been heavily regulated by federal law. It may come as somewhat of a surprise that even in this era of regulation, it is still completely legal to make and own a homemade gun. Even more surprising is the fact that a gun made wholly or even twenty percent at home need not be registered and its owner is not required to be licensed.

The individual manufacture of guns has not been illegal or regulated at all until very recently, and then only ineffectively. California recently required people who wish to make guns at home to apply for a state-supplied serial number before they make the gun. The law has been largely ignored....

[roamer_1]

The individual manufacture of guns has not been illegal or regulated at all until very recently, and then only ineffectively. California recently required people who wish to make guns at home to apply for a state-supplied serial number before they make the gun. The law has been largely ignored....

I have said that for some time... I am a fair machinist... Nothing special, but competently capable to handle, say, any machining necessary to rebuild an automotive engine, and experienced at same. I possess all the hand tools necessary to machining (dial indicators, micrometers, etc), part and parcel, as a normal part of any fairly well outfitted set of tools.

There is no magic here. A reasonably outfitted automotive/welding shop  (which I have) with the addition of a simple tooling lathe and a fly cutter, and any reasonably adept mechanic can manufacture a gun from scratch...

The only part if it that would be a little baffling to me is cutting the rifling into the barrel. And that can be pretty easily overcome, I am sure.

It can be built pretty easily by any fairly competent and handy guy. That is not going to change, cannot be changed. How the heck can anyone control that?

[thackney]

I have said that for some time... I am a fair machinist... Nothing special, but competently capable to handle, say, any machining necessary to rebuild an automotive engine, and experienced at same. I possess all the hand tools necessary to machining (dial indicators, micrometers, etc), part and parcel, as a normal part of any fairly well outfitted set of tools.

There is no magic here. A reasonably outfitted automotive/welding shop  (which I have) with the addition of a simple tooling lathe and a fly cutter, and any reasonably adept mechanic can manufacture a gun from scratch...

The only part if it that would be a little baffling to me is cutting the rifling into the barrel. And that can be pretty easily overcome, I am sure.

It can be built pretty easily by any fairly competent and handy guy. That is not going to change, cannot be changed. How the heck can anyone control that?

You don't need that much work.  You buy all the parts and only a 80% finished receiver.  Very little work to finish then assembly.  No milling machine or lathe required.  Buy a jig set up and you won't even need a drill press.  Easy to finish the receiver in an hour.

https://www.80percentarms.com/

[roamer_1]

You don't need that much work.  You buy all the parts and only a 80% finished receiver.  Very little work to finish then assembly.  No milling machine or lathe required.  Buy a jig set up and you won't even need a drill press.  Easy to finish the receiver in an hour.

https://www.80percentarms.com/

Right.
FOR NOW.
I am speaking to a day when they have closed that access hole. No matter what they do to control manufactured parts, serialize manufactured parts... Doesn't matter at all, as any reasonable back yard mechanic can make a gun.

In fact, the only thing in the whole process not easy to make would be the primer in the cartridge. everything else is a relatively simple process.

[thackney]

Right.
FOR NOW.
I am speaking to a day when they have closed that access hole. No matter what they do to control manufactured parts, serialize manufactured parts... Doesn't matter at all, as any reasonable back yard mechanic can make a gun.

In fact, the only thing in the whole process not easy to make would be the primer in the cartridge. everything else is a relatively simple process.

Those parts and jigs will always be for sale.  Today, they are still for sale as legal items.