Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter
In the wake of Defense Distributed winning the right to freely publish its blueprint for its “Liberator” 3D-printed gun, the gun control outrage machine went into overdrive:
In breach of agreement with the State Dept, Cody Wilson did downloand about 2500 copies of blue prints for 3D guns. It is out because of the Trump Admin. WE NEED TO MAKE THIS THE DEFINING ISSUE OF THIS ELECTION. Every candidate should be forced to take a stand on this.
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) August 1, 2018
3D GUN UPDATE: today, @SenBillNelson took to the Senate floor to ask the Senate for “unanimous consent” to immediately take up and pass his legislation to block the online publication of blueprints used to make fully functioning 3D-printed guns. #NoRA (Thread) pic.twitter.com/hRucDATVTu
— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) July 31, 2018
Sen. Menendez calls for the regulation of 3D-printed guns: https://t.co/UptEdSdHA7
"Look, I don't care if a gun is made out of metal, if it's made out of plastic, if it can fire a bullet and take someone's life then it should be regulated" pic.twitter.com/7jeIidXhzN
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) August 1, 2018
The most egregious bit of hyperbole was courtesy of Sen. Chuck Schumer, who displayed his ignorance on “ghost guns” in just two sentences:
“I am sounding an alarm that come Aug. 1, America is going to get a lot less safe when it comes to the gut-wrenching epidemic of gun violence,” Schumer said. “Ghost guns are not only scary, they’re outright dangerous in the way they can mimic the look and the capacity of a hardened, fully semiautomatic weapon.”
In spite of the fact that Liberator plans have been available for years (and are still available in many places on the internet), Schumer thinks an arbitrary legal date will all of a sudden mean Chicago gangs will take to the streets armed with “ghost gun” Liberators that are as fully functional as regular firearms. The truth is, Schumer blatantly ignores the truth not only on the Liberator, but what a “ghost gun” actually is.
While Wikipedia’s “A ghost gun is a gun with no serial number” definition is enough to make Schumer look stupid, for the sake of argument, we will go with a more robust definition from Quora…
It is a firearm manufactured for personal use in compliance with 18 USC 922(r), Federal, State and local laws. Such firearms are made for personal use and are more-or-less untraceable as they are not required to be registered or serialized.
Hence the made-up term “Ghost Gun”, a gun that is ephemeral, that doesn’t exist in any form that can be traced or observed unless its owner chooses to reveal its existence.
…which is especially relevant when the legality of a “ghost gun” is considered:
The key to such guns is ALL laws must be followed. They cannot be manufactured for commercial sale as this requires an FFL07. They must not violate the National Firearms Act of 1934 in general. If the firearm is assembled using foreign made parts, it must comply with 18 USC 922(r) in order to be considered a “US Made” firearm.
So a prohibited person cannot legally own any firearm, “ghost” or otherwise…
…but more importantly, the term has traditionally been applied to “unfinished” lower receivers and firearms into fully functioning ones, as the LA Times described in its fearmongering on the dangers of “untraceable” ghost guns:
“Criminals are making their own weapons because they cannot buy them legally … or they are paying other people to make those guns for them to get around the gun laws,” said Bill McMullan, special agent in charge of ATF’s L.A. Field Division. “This is a trend among Southern California gangs.”
An unfinished lower receiver, sometimes referred to as an “80% receiver,” can legally be purchased without a serial number from a seller who is not a federally licensed firearms dealer as long as it is missing the key components that would make it a firearm.
The lower receiver then can be completed easily by drilling a few remaining holes into the unfinished metal shell. It is then ready for a barrel, trigger mechanism, stock and upper receiver to be attached.
Aside from the LA Times (falsely) believing that milling a fire control cavity and the other gunsmithing work required to finish a lower receiver can be “easily” done, the newspaper made sure to omit the recent California law which makes such activity illegal unless the finished receiver is registered:
In July 2016, California passed AB 857 which requires all completed firearms to have a serial number applied by Jan 1, 2019. An 80% lower is not a firearm, so a serial number would only be required once the 80% lower is completed. Unfinished 80% lower receivers do not need a serial number.
If you build an 80% lower into a 100% lower after July 1, 2018, you must FIRST apply to the California DOJ for a serial number, pay a fee, and they will then assign a serial number that you must apply to your firearm. If you built your firearm prior to July 2018 and already engraved a serial number of your choosing that is compliant with ATF regulations, the text of the law seems to indicate that this should be in compliance. However, we have heard that CA DOJ has made statements suggesting that people must engrave a new DOJ issued serial number on their lower even though the lower receiver already has a ATF compliant serial number engraved on it.
To quickly summarize the above, every activity pertaining to building, completing, or possessing “ghost guns” by prohibited persons is already illegal under federal law, and heavily regulated under many state laws.
So, why is all of the “ghost gun” talk pertinent to 3D-printed guns? That question is even more relevant when you take a closer look at the Liberator itself:
The Defense Distributed gun can be best described as a .380 caliber, single-shot, plastic piece of shit. And before you say “cheap”, take a close look at what The Atlantic, a super-liberal mainstream media outlet, stated about the Liberator:
But 3D printing, still being a young technology, is slow. The two firms I spoke with each suggested that printing the various small parts would take hours — eight hours in one’s estimation.
Nor would it necessarily be cheap. The firm that ultimately offered to do the printing suggested that, given the number of objects and the fact that it was important to ensure that they were well-milled and that I wanted it quickly, the final price would be a bit above my budget: $1,500.
I wish the best of luck to anyone that attempts to build a Liberator for under $4,000 and safely fire it 10+ times. But, even if it can be done for less than that, why would a criminal waste the money on the very limited Liberator, when the parts for a “ghost” AR-15 can be ordered online and “completed easily”, as the LA Times puts it?
The liberal hysteria surrounding “ghost guns” is nothing more than the latest round of liberal virtue signaling and inability to cope with the fact that President Trump is indeed… President. In spite of the fact that all activity regarding home finishing of firearms is already widely-available yet illegal and off-limits to prohibited persons…
…this will not stop the big-money gun control machine from using the Liberator as its latest tool to make legal gun ownership as arduous, time consuming, and expensive as possible.
Well,Defense Distributed did not have it’s grand library opening today,sigh…….,yet again another unlawful/unconstitutional court order,huh!
On the upside and just by coincidence this site came alive today: http://www.codeisfreespeech.com/ ,great plans,not just plastic so give it a peruse!I would also like to thanka poster here who mentioned looking into the TM31-210,search it out,and the AG’s screaming about plastic firearms!
I am sad to say while great sites information and all have yet to see a plan for the
Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator,hope to see that bad boy in the near future.
This is more a free speech issue at moment then a firearm rights issue,so,get and share as always information,happy reading/tinkering!
That would be me, and the reason TM 31-210 rocks is everything contained therein has been tested at Frankford Arsenal and only the simplest, safest, and most reliable designs are included in the manual.
.22,while impossible to be a grey man on sites like this with these discussions was trying to keep you out of direct cross hairs of govt. fusion centers!I figure me putting up my link would keep em focused(I am putting up my code link across many sites)on me,I did thank you in other article but guess we are destined to share a holding cell!So,might as go all out,here is a link for the manual:http://www.gunfreezone.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/improvised-munitions-handbook.pdf ,enjoy felow readers and see you down the road!
That’d piss me off if someone kilt be with a plastic gun.
Would it be OK if say the poly had strands of metal in it?
Menendez, ironic in that he can’t even control himself.
Schumer is an enemy to freedom. He knows as long as the public has guns his ass is on the line. He knows that the criminals don’t respect the gun laws of New York. But he is not concerned about the criminals. He is concerned about the public. Because one day the public is coming after him. What is disgusting about Schurmer is he is not about relationship. He is about division. He is a disgusting individual.
This is some serious Fake News.
You can get all the 3d gun designs off thepiratebay.org right now. They’ve been available for years free of charge and probably torrented millions of times by now.
If anybody believes this judge accomplished anything, they’re retarded.
The judge is just one more pointless leftover of the past. A legacy of the analog world.
All this will do is drive more and more people to download the plans free and save them, since they’re freely available.
https://www.thepiratebay.org/tag/Defense+Distributed
https://www.thepiratebay.org/torrent/23755208/DEFCAD_Firearm_Complete_Files_-_3D_guns_Defense_Distributed
Chucky Schumer and his discription “fully semi-automatic gun”. What a maroon
The more I learn about my government, the more I love my guns.
Guns have only two enemies – rust and politicians.
“Criminals are making their own weapons because they cannot buy them legally … or they are paying other people to make those guns for them to get around the gun laws,”
I’d like to see the statistics on that.
And if it is a true statement there are statistics to back it up.
And if there aren’t then it’s a deliberate lie.
But you can bet no one will get to call him out on it one way or the other.
Statistics? They simply make shit up, just like NASA did for decades in regards to Mercury.
http://milesmathis.com/mercice.pdf
The use of homemade guns without a serial numbers in a crime is objective, not subjective, and have physical evidence to verify them. A recovered criminal gun either has or does not have a serial number on it.
I know of only one, and the crime was that it was an unregistered short barreled rifle, not a crime that involved its use to commit some other crime (which is what most people consider to be “gun crime”).
The 3-D printer to accomplish a serious metal firearm is cost prohibitive to any average person . Yes you can make a plastic weapon BFD does anyone remember Zip guns a block of wood a steel pipe a finishing nail and heavy rubber bands , crude but effective . Simple tools turns out a simple weapon . Shop class the one class where I was teachers pet LOL
As for the left asswipes with their panties in a wad over this face it “THEY” will never let up on anything so block them when we can and ignore their stupid laws as much as possible . Stay prepared !
Forget Me Not !
We used to mill barrels and or cannons in shop class on the lathe. Or make polish cannons when tin cans were still tin.
Did you ever soak a tennis ball in lighter fluid and then fire it? Pretty cool. We reinforced Pringle cans with duct tape and put them on the end as an attachment and fired empty beer cans.
One night two Black guys who were obviously drunk came by our dorm and started yelling stuff about white motherf’ers. We charged up the cannon, loaded a beer can and fired it at them a good fifty yards away. The can whizzed by one guy’s head and they then set a new world record over the next hundred yards across the parking lot. Ahh youth.
Our greatest gun salespeople the U.S. GOV. Is at it again! who wants a plastic gun? Go buy the real thing baby!
For anyone to build an AR-15, whether with an 80% receiver or one printed from polymer or heck, even a legal one purchased in the daylight they need all the tools.
Once your lower receiver which is the part legally considered to be the firearm is ready you would have to attach all the pins and screws, the magazine release, bolt release, the grip and the trigger assembly, the safety, the buffer assembly and tube, numerous springs and pawls, the buttstock.
If you buy a complete upper receiver you would be ready to go. If you want to build the upper you need all sorts of clamps and a really big vise, torque wrench, barrel nut wrench, punches, roll pin drivers and more odds and ends.
I have modified and customized a number of AR’s and built two complete rifles. You will wind up with the better part of $500 in tools and fixtures if you are going to do it correctly and get good results.
Some parts are more or less proprietary or oddball and are not available at the hardware store. The average criminal gave up a paragraph or two back.
Its easy enough to buy a complete upper (with bolt/bolt carrier group, etc), stock w/buffer tube, lower parts kit, and 80% finished receiver online. Assuming you can pass a background check and buy a 100% finished lower with parts kit installed, its very easy to attach the stock/buffer and complete upper.
The hard part is successfully finishing an 80% receiver. Much easier said than done.
It’s really pretty damned easy.
People have done it with everything from hand drills to Dremel tools,
X-Acto knives and files.
Try doing one from a 0% forging or, better still, an aluminum billet and you require a few precision machines and a good bit of skill to do it successfully but it is not beyond the ability of most hobbyist machinists or anyone who has had any actual machine training in school.
If you want more of a challenge, do a 1911.
As soon as I saw a picture of a Liberator, I wondered who would want such a piece of crap.
TM 31-210 freely available for decades.
End of story.
Damn hell, you say that there printed out ghost gun is fully semiautomatic? Holy shit. Better ban that right now….