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The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

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Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#51

Post by stevemck »

Guns scare the shit out of me.

When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear.

I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry.

I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at gunpoint and at a moment of misjudgement he/she shoots me.

It is pretty hard to get killed by being punched. On the other hand, it is pretty easy to lose your mind for a second and shoot someone

I hate this project, because now the barrier to entry of owning a unregistered gun is so much lower

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#53

Post by jonifico »

stevemck wrote: post #51

Guns scare the shit out of me. When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear. I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry. I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at g…

Totally agree. Particularly since US citizens are so obsessed with guns and violence. I mean, look at all the shootings and massacres happening, by people of all ages and races, it's crazy! Couldn't stand living in a society like that where everyone's allowed and legally motivated to keep guns.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#54

Post by chromaton »

discardorama wrote: post #33
chromaton wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This machine is likely to have a very low machining speed due to weak motors and other motion components. You are unlikely to be able to out-compete a professional machine shop making small parts. So while this is nice for hobbyists, it is unlikely to pay for itself in a professional situation. If you want a machine to pay for itself and be more generally useful, you would be better off spending the money on a Chines…

However: consider the time taken to hunt around for a machine shop; the latency (when the machine shop can actually schedule you in); things like "business hours", etc. and suddenly this machine may become competitive with suitable automation.

I had been through exactly that a number of times before starting a business where you can order custom parts online 24/7.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#55

Post by fragmede »

Someone1234 wrote: post #46
alricb wrote: post #37

The main reason this allows you to build an AR-style rifle is that US firearms law focuses on receivers (per U.S.C. Section 921(a)(3), which are in many cases quite easy to manufacture. For instance, many Kalashnikov receivers are made of stamped sheet metal. The pressure-bearing parts, like the barrel or the bolt, are much harder to manufacture, at least for rifles. Most European countries will therefore regulate th…

Plus the way the law is structured in the UK, you cannot out-clever it. It is a "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."-type of law. So for example, a farmer (without a firearm licence) tired of people stealing created a trap, a thick cardboard tube, hung on a string pointed at the doorway, set to ignite and shoot shrapnel when the door was opened. The farmer…

> Plus the way the law is structured in the UK, you cannot out-clever it.

Funny, that. The US has a similar on the books with regard to drugs - the Federal Analog Act -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analog_Act - if some compound is "chemically similar" to a schedule I or II drug, then it can be treated as if it were also on those schedules.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#56

Post by skrowl »

jonifico wrote: post #53
stevemck wrote: post #51

Guns scare the shit out of me. When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear. I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry. I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at g…

Totally agree. Particularly since US citizens are so obsessed with guns and violence. I mean, look at all the shootings and massacres happening, by people of all ages and races, it's crazy! Couldn't stand living in a society like that where everyone's allowed and legally motivated to keep guns.

All of the mass shootings in the US have occurred in "gun free zones" (for example schools) where law-abiding people can't legally bring guns. Regardless of what your TV told you, non-law-enforcement people in the US can't legally walk into a school with a gun.

As it turns out, criminals don't really care where they can legally bring guns and will happily walk past a "NO GUNS ALLOWED HERE!" sign.

When gun grabbing legislation is passed, it only hurts law-abiding people, not criminals. Criminals will still get and use guns whenever they'd like.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#57

Post by Scalestein »

stevemck wrote: post #51

Guns scare the shit out of me. When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear. I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry. I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at g…

really? Have you had bad experiences with gun wielding Americans? I acknowledge that the US certainly has a lot of guns and armed robberies/crimes are highly publicized, but if you aren't in a sketchy neighborhood the likelihood of running into a malicious person with a gun is very very low

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#58

Post by Shivetya »

stevemck wrote: post #51

Guns scare the shit out of me. When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear. I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry. I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at g…

I see the opposite, I see a world where the predator on the street corner cannot be sure I am armed, who has to pause and think before he mugs me or another, are they armed? They have to think twice about that home invasion as well.

You vastly over exaggerate the issue here, this level or paranoia needs medical assistance.

Gun laws will not make people safer, making an already illegal act; using a gun against someone/something; even more illegal solves nothing.

We have a major problem with drugs. There is too much money in this because of the illegal nature of it. From the use and sale of drugs to prosecution, treatment, and imprisonment. The establishment has too much to lose to give it up and those in that system have too little to lose to not resort to violence.

Fix the drug laws, find good work for those who have too much idle time, and then we can work on the culture of violence that pervades many inner cities.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#59

Post by moron4hire »

stevemck wrote: post #51

Guns scare the shit out of me. When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear. I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry. I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at g…

You are ridiculous.

Re: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home

#60

Post by ctdonath »

bambax wrote: post #2

What does it mean to sell a machine the sole purpose of which is to exploit a "legal loophole"? Can't the machine be made illegal the minute it's available to the public? You can't sell all the ingredients, tools and instructions to build a meth lab ( "Breaking Bad in a Box" !) so what's so different with a gun?

Wrong analogy by far.

Owning and/or making your own "AR15 lower" is legal (your local jurisdiction may vary, but for point of discussion...). Meth 100% isn't.

The legal nuance addressed by this machine is: if you (as private individual, or as industry manufacturer) make an "AR15 lower" for sale, you must register the manufactured part with the government ... but if you make it for your own use (to wit: not for sale), you don't have to register it.

Those wanting "unregistered guns" could make an "AR15 lower" out of a block of steel, at home, for personal use, and be completely legal. YES, you can sell a CNC machine, block of steel[1], tools, and instructions to build a gun.

Surprise: guns are legal in the USA, and you're allowed to make one for yourself without registering it (some jurisdictional limitations may apply, but the general point is absolutely true).

[1] - Hobbyists strained the limits of what constitutes "make" and "block of steel" (what if it's cut to the exact outer dimensions? what if I drill a hole? how close to the final shape constitutes "not made"?); the government ruled that doing 80% of the work required to convert a block of steel into an "AR15 lower" was as far as you could go and the object still not legally considered an "AR15 lower" (any farther and it may be incomplete but close enough to be considered a gun). This machine takes an "80% AR15 lower" and finishes the work.

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