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I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

motherjones.com

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Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#81

Post by MChristopherson »

mikeash wrote: post #51
Cushman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would you have preferred to see this reported? What "this"? That somebody built a rifle from a kit is not exactly newsworthy.

I had no clue that it was legal to build an AK-47 from a kit. I doubt I'm alone.

He did not build an AK. He built a copy of the defanged, non-fully-autmatic, "for gun enthusiasts" version of the gun. He did not build a fully automatic machine gun. He built something that is in every way equivalent to a hunting rifle you can buy at a sporting goods store: he built a semi-automatic rifle.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#82

Post by drdaeman »

DanBC wrote: post #19
jerrya wrote: post #16

Substitute "Homebuilt PC without DRM" for AK-47, pretend it was written in 2023, not 2013, and then reread the article as well as the comments at Hacker News.

Your analogy fails because a homebuilt PC without DRM is currently illegal under anti-circumvention laws. EDIT: Obviously the problem is with circumventing the DRM - but in the context of the post I'm responding to (people home building machines with no DRM) I thought I was obvious.

Actually, it's the opposite.

Homebuilt PCs are completely legal everywhere I know. Not including any DRM-related software or hardware does not constitute a crime, as PC has no parts that are mandatory by law.

On the contrary, homebuilt firearms are illegal to create and/or possess in some jurisdictions (but completely legal in others, laws on this matter vary from country to country).

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#83

Post by angersock »

glurgh wrote: post #67
presidentender wrote: post #3

This has been legal for a very long time, and is the cause of approximately no violence. Much as with the discussion of 3d printed firearms, it's not so much that the behaviors of gun owners and gun builders has changed as it is that the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The author refrains from espousing an opinion in the piece, but only just, and frankly I disagree with him. The…

the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The prevailing argument of gun advocates, at least in the US, is that "it's not our guns. it's those other, bad people's guns". It would probably help their case if they stopped arguing that owning a potentially deadly piece of gear is some universal human right not subject to regulation like, say, owning a car. Most car owners cause approxima…

"All drivers need a license and insurance."

One wonders, why? At least in the case of licenses and insurance, we see folks all the time (anecdotally illegal aliens doing work, though I'm curious how well statistics actually back that supposition up) drive with neither, usually to no ill effect.

Insurance usually doesn't seem to help very much in the case of a totaled car, and mostly just seems to be a captive market for insurance providers. Drivers licenses are more for glorified identification than a seal of approval of your driving prowess--look at the highways near any major city.

And yet, here we are, with millions of firearms owned and honestly not that much death and dismemberment because of it, all without licensing and insurance.

We don't need a compromise--it's a solution in search of a problem.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#84

Post by lifeguard »

lifeguard wrote: post #63
at-fates-hands wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Completely agree. Mother Jones is a known Liberal magazine and despite the approach to not insert the authors opinion, you can clearly see the point of the article is we need to have the ability to register guns with the government. I'm constantly shocked at how uninformed gun control advocates are.

@at-fates-hands I bet you didn't know 60 people were accidentally killed by firearms yesterday. And the day before that, and the day before that. About 30 people are killed in attacks -- every day. And another thing, why is it gun patriots never give a fig about the other rights in the Constitution, like freedom of speech, religion, and assembly? I think you guys just like to play with guns. It takes a cold dead hand…

Talk is cheap. I never see gun nuts do anything promoting civil rights.

EDIT: I did once meet a militia member at a non-gun civil rights event.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#85

Post by garbowza »

djahng wrote: post #66

Please excuse my ignorance on this matter, but why are people so concerned about "untraceable" guns (i.e. guns without serial numbers)? IF a gun is used in a crime, how important is it that there's a serial number stamped on the receiver? As opposed to, say, ballistics showing that a particular gun was used in a crime because of the rifling marks found on the bullet fragments and the firing pin indentation on the she…

Because they can side-step background checks and be resold to anyone.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#86

Post by bifrost »

So the part that makes this guy a derp - he built what could have been a fully legal weapon, except that he didn't install the magazine lock correctly. What is a magazine lock? Its a device that lets politicians pretend that they're "doing something" when in reality it just makes them look stupid.

Mag locks serve no purpose in crime prevention because they don't have some sort of magic anti-criminal switch, they just annoy people trying to obey the law and criminals ignore the law so they don't bother.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#87

Post by Cushman »

mikeash wrote: post #51
Cushman wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How would you have preferred to see this reported? What "this"? That somebody built a rifle from a kit is not exactly newsworthy.

I had no clue that it was legal to build an AK-47 from a kit. I doubt I'm alone.

Sure, but you don't know about that because you're not interested in guns. Like, how many people know you can legally build and fly an RC drone from a kit? Or that you can legally build and drive a car from a kit? There are enthusiasts, and there's everyone else. The things you don't know may be interesting to you, but that doesn't make them news.

But, sure, you could see a piece in Vanity Fair about my trip across the country in my hand-build automobile, why not. What we have here is this article coming out in the midst of a huge argument about how to reduce traffic fatalities, noting especially how there is absolutely no oversight over hand-assembled vehicles. (Okay, those have to pass inspection, but leave that aside.) Where hand-assembled vehicles account for roughly no traffic fatalities. Surely you can see how that article in that context is rather disingenuous, to put it charitably.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#88

Post by Taylorious »

minamea wrote: post #61
presidentender wrote: post #3

This has been legal for a very long time, and is the cause of approximately no violence. Much as with the discussion of 3d printed firearms, it's not so much that the behaviors of gun owners and gun builders has changed as it is that the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The author refrains from espousing an opinion in the piece, but only just, and frankly I disagree with him. The…

What? How is this not a disgrace? This article means that practically anyone anywhere in the US can have an AK-47 with no licensing. How is that supposed to make me feel safe? What if I sneak into my GF's house and her dad tries me right then and there, and decides that the punishment for fucking his daughter is death. Oh, and what do you know? He has an AK-47 for it so all my hopes of running away are dashed. People…

"People shouldn't have the power to kill other people so easily - not unless they're the police or army."

And why should some some 18yo kid in the army have that right but not a middle aged adult? Because some other army guy yelled at him for a few weeks and gave him a uniform?

You mention a father could go crazy and kill you for sneaking in to screw his daughter, but what if you were a rapist sneaking in to rape his daughter? Might be nice to have way to defend your home in that situation. That being said, I don't believe that assault rifles should be legal though.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#89

Post by unimpressive »

minamea wrote: post #61
presidentender wrote: post #3

This has been legal for a very long time, and is the cause of approximately no violence. Much as with the discussion of 3d printed firearms, it's not so much that the behaviors of gun owners and gun builders has changed as it is that the prevailing discourse in the political arena and the news is different. The author refrains from espousing an opinion in the piece, but only just, and frankly I disagree with him. The…

What? How is this not a disgrace? This article means that practically anyone anywhere in the US can have an AK-47 with no licensing. How is that supposed to make me feel safe? What if I sneak into my GF's house and her dad tries me right then and there, and decides that the punishment for fucking his daughter is death. Oh, and what do you know? He has an AK-47 for it so all my hopes of running away are dashed. People…

You should know that, unless you have a 24/7 guard watch (and maybe not even then), if someone truly wants to kill you, there's nothing stopping them.

I mean, courts will try them afterwards, but that's no consolation to your corpse.

Yes I am aware that the parents example would probably fall under "crimes of passion". The man would still want him dead for more than long enough to make it reality.

Re: I Built This AK-47. It's Legal and Totally Untraceable

#90

Post by andrewflnr »

minamea wrote: post #64
jstalin wrote: post #6

Considering that rifles are used to kill fewer people in the United States than knives, fists, hammers, or bats, Mother Jones' attempt at scaring people about those who build their own guns rings a little hallow. But I get it, AK-47s look scary and so we should all be outraged. https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/...

This is bullcrap. When someone has a rifle pointed at you, you don't care what the statistics are. You know your life is in danger and much, much more so than if someone had a knife or "blunt object". How is it supposed to make me feel safe that anyone can have a rifle? I'll just trust in their goodwill and hope they won't kill me with it if I piss them off?

The question is, how likely are you to end up with a rifle pointed at you? Not very.
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