The Gun is Different

This is a question that I always bang my head into. What makes a gun so different that it needs to be treated in such an absurd way. The recent thing that’s gotten me to tumble this question around can be found here.

On Thursday, Montana unfinished firearm frame manufacturer Richard Celata of KT Ordance received a hand-delivered “cease and desist” letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives…There’s only one problem: Celata’s not doing that. He has manufactured parts for gun owners who wish to build their own firearms, a perfectly legal activity that ATF apparently wishes to squelch through threat of prosecution

The discussion continues over at Uncle’s when a reader notes that KT Ordnance makes partially finished gun frames, and evidently there are forbidden markings on the frame where the finishing work needs to be done.

OK let’s break it down a bit. A working firearm is essentially a sum of parts. It makes sense to pick a single part as the “Gun” so legal restrictions aren’t passed say if I change grips, or sights, or want to add a caliber conversion kit. So a part of a gun is chosen and that becomes the serialized part. Of course its different on every damn gun. Grip frame on a 1911, its the upper receiver on a Browning Buckmark, lower receiver on an AR-15, upper receiver on an FAL, and its the barrel and chamber of a Mosin Nagant that’s considered the “Gun”.

This of course means you can convert a Remington Long-Action action receiver for a 700 rifle and make just about any gun under the sun without any further federal involvement (unless somehow you take something that has never been a working gun but is considered a “Rifle” and make it into a handgun…we’ll save that stupidity for another day) but to re-barrel a Mosin Nagant into .308 is impossible without federal involvement. (But why would you want any other caliber than 7.62x54R?)

So let’s focus on just a 1911, because they’re awesome and KT Ordnance sells 1911 kits. A 1911 frame is considered a “Gun” and all the local and federal restrictions apply to it, if I politely asked my dear Smith and Wesson on a field trip to Springfield to forgo any further build-up and hand me a 1911 frame hot off the line, they’d first need to stamp a serial number into the gun, and have me go through a background check, and have me show a Mass permit. Also I’d be curious how this would be covered under our “Safe Handgun Roster”.

But still, interesting still, without some knowledge of gunsmithing I can’t get this frame to shoot, as the parts will still require some fitting to get everything working. Still that’s a gun. But what about the block of steel bar stock on the other end of the factory? Is that a gun? The receiver of a Sten Gun can essentially be made by bending a piece of sheet metal and welding and heat-treating it. Is all sheet steel a “Gun”? Nope it needs to be formed into a “gun” first. Seems KT Ordnance might have done a bit too much forming before selling unfinished frames. But who cares? I mean precision machining seems like an integral step to gun making, but really is it? Oleg made this great post.

But let’s assume no fancy projectiles. Assume nothing but two pipes, some sheet metal (steel, aluminum, brass would all would do fine) or plastic, three springs (one each for trigger/sear return, magazine and bolt) and…that’s it. A fourth spring for an extractor is optional for blowback firearms, especially if the ejection port is on the bottom. Look at this STEN-like design and envision it without the barrel jacket, with buttplate integral to lengthened receiver (which would also reduce the cyclic rate) and a smooth, unrifled pipe for a barrel. The chamber can be reinforced with a larger pipe segment to help contain the pressures. Use any shotgun ammunition, slug or shot. Sights are optional: just a front post or bead would do, or a laser pointer taped to the barrel.

The end product would fire automatically but slowly enough to make single shots possible. With loose clearances, it would leak some gas but away from the operator and generally be effective to 15-20m with shot and perhaps 50m with slugs.

He’s talking about a full-fledged Machine gun there, albeit primitive as hell, but something that likely could be made in any autobody shop with nothing more than you could find in a hardware store. No Precision machining needed, just pipes and simple metal working tools and springs. (and even springs can be made pretty easily)

In the end why do we put up with this bullshit? The whole “Gun Death?” category is here to show that violent people are something to be concerned about, not the tools they use, and of course guns are used far more frequently to SAVE lives than to take them, furthermore when you include food harvesting and recreation, harm done by guns is almost insignificant.

In the end we’ve been brainwashed by the anti-gun forces into thinking that somehow a gun is different than any other tool or item in the universe. Is it?

I’m starting to think Not at all….