Ban Drill Presses!

 Daniel in Brookline brought this article to my attention:

Outlaw Gunsmithing 2 – Going Mobile

Synopsis: Having written about how I “made” my own AR-15 lower receiver using a curiously shaped paperweight and a helpful CNC operator (see the post “Outlaw Gunsmithing” for full details), this is the next that series, which will include some more detail (and a number of photos of the process).

Now, before we get started, IANAL, nor do I play one on the internet. My understanding jibes with that of the author - that the "80%" receiver is not bound by Federal law, although state laws may or may not change things depending on location. I can only assume that chunks of aluminum send Mayor Bloomberg into a blind panic. I do know that you can buy complete uppers with no checks, as well as parts kits, stocks, and all the parts you need to finish an AR-15 pattern rifle.

So, assuming the premise behind the 80% lower receiver is correct, this means that one could assemble a modern sporting rifle completely legally without paperwork of any kind. Now, we're already detailed how an AK-47 pattern rifle can be made from a shovel; now we have the other ZOMG ASSAULT WEAPON also possible without the assistance of an FFL. Magazines can be printed using a 3D printer. Ammunition can easily be assembled in the home (heck, even *I* have made my own ammo).

And a ban or bans is going to stop this?

The only *REAL* reason for a *ban* on semi-automatic weapons is to prevent the citizenry from being armed. There are far too many guns already in circulation for any intellectually honest person to think that simply banning them will keep them out of the hands of criminals or the insane. There are literally millions of AR-15 pattern rifles alone in circulation, and tens or hundreds of millions of magazines. Unless the forces against freedom are willing to go door-to-door to collect every single one, any ban will fail.

And if they propose going door-to-door, they know their measure will fail.

I think the reason they're doing this is not to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, nor even to prevent determined citizens from being armed in the true spirit of the Second Amendment. I think the real reason is far more insidious - I think they're trying to erase the gun culture completely. Make the ownership of firearms onerous and fraught with legal peril and the number of gun owners drops precipitiously - we saw that in MA in 1998 when they passed the new gun control law. The number of gun owners in Massachusetts dropped by 85% after the law - now imagine a new draconian Federal law having the same effect.

Stamp out the gun culture and all the 3D printers in the world are meaningless. If folks have no interest in firearms because they've never known about them, in a few generations even more sweeping regulations can be made. Think the 1986 Hughes Amendment that forever fixed the number of legally transferable machine guns. Sure, it took 50 years, but they got around to making ownership of new machine guns illegal and existing machine guns prohibitively expensive. End result? Fully automatic weapons are more and more rare, and the few that are left are little more than toys for the independently wealthy...

If anything, the ban(s) they're proposing now are little more than a smoke screen. The indoctrination in public schools - where the vast majority of our children are "learning" - tells kids that a breakfast pastry shaped into an "L" is a dangerous gun and results in the child being suspended. What unmistakable message does that send? The child isn't going to grow up to view firearms as necessary tools for the preservation of life and liberty; no, they're going to grow up thinking it's something so nefarious that something shaped in its image - no matter how harmless, is something to be feared and vilified.

Over a few generations, with each generation facing more and more restrictions, how much longer before the gun culture in America resembles that in "Great" Britain or Australia?

That is all.