gun making tools
Photo courtesy Carl "Bear" Bussjaeger

Back in May, one of the Senate’s most dedicated anti-gun members, Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal introduced S.3743, the Untraceable Firearms Act of 2020. The target, of course, is those scary objects of gun-grabbers nightmares…ghost guns. Blumenthal’s bill would, among other things, ban the possession of programmable manufacturing devices like CNC mills and 3D additive printers…unless you’re a licensed manufacturer.

Not to be outdone in the legislative stupidity department by the other house of Congress, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin declared, Hold m’ beer! and filed his own version in the House, H.R.7468, the Stop Home Manufacture of Ghost Guns Act of 2020. Congress.gov does not yet have the text posted, but you can read it here, compliments of the Firearms Policy Coalition.

Raskin’s bill wanders a little bit farther down Insanity Lane than does Blumenthal’s.

‘‘(aa)(1) It shall be unlawful for any person, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to transfer or offer to transfer to any person other than a licensed manufacturer a firearm manufacturing machine.

‘‘(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), it shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed manufacturer, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to possess or purchase a firearm manufacturing machine.

The bill doesn’t merely ban 3D printers and CNC machines, mainstays of modern manufacturing. It bans any “firearm manufacturing machine,” which Raskin defines as . . .

‘‘(A) a device designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be used primarily to make, or convert a product into, a frame or receiver for a firearm; and

‘‘(B) any combination of parts designed or intended for use in making a device described in subparagraph (A) and from which such a device may be readily assembled.’’.

Several years ago, I knew a gentleman who was finishing an 80% AR lower using nothing but common household tools. An electric drill — handheld, not a drill press — a vise, a few files, and some sandpaper. Why? He just wanted to prove he could. Why the heck not? Lots of people have done it and still do.

These are the kinds of tools our latter-day Luddite legislator would ban given the ignorant, sloppy way his bill is worded; tools that are in common use across the world, and have been for thousands of years.

You might want to rethink that stock you own in Home Depot and Lowe’s.

 

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55 COMMENTS

  2. They can’t and won’t stop the message, arms have been built in this nation since before it was a independent nation.
    Now what needs to be focused on is the violation of any elected officials oath of office and the penalties incurred for that violation.

    • Eventually we will have trees for that. It will be a while, unless the Democraps are far more successful than I expect in the next election. The problem for them is they love the sound of the echo chamber known as Twitter and they think they are gonna win big in November.

      They likely will refuse to accept the outcome of the November elections and that is gonna be a big mess, I hope they don’t start CWII (I am too fat and way too old to participate on our side).

      • Leftists don’t initiate civil wars. They ruin everything until young men, with no prospects of advancement or of starting a family of their own, initiate the war for them. Every leftist in the country could start shooting tomorrow and we’d have it under control by Sunday, because there just aren’t enough of them. That’s why they seek to put young people in insurmountable debt, to tax them into oblivion when they try to get out of it, and to drain them of their wealth through inflation when they don’t join in the debt/indoctrination machine we call College.

        Make no mistake, killing the economy and causing a Color Revolution in the United States is exactly what the Democratic Communist Party is after, and they’re willing to go as far as working with China to corrupt the WHO into letting a deadly pandemic spread unchecked for the better part of a year. A pandemic which mostly kills the old and the out of shape. To put it bluntly, you’re already in a civil war, you just haven’t started fighting back yet.

  3. “…a firearm manufacturing machine…”

    Hmm. When I finished out my P80 frames, I used only a cordless drill and a box cutter blade. No CNC, no drill press, no sanding wheel, no Dremel…and they turned out better than anything I’ve seen on the YouToobz. So will my drill and box cutter be exempt, or caught up in the insanity?

    This will never pass. The bills we really need to watch out for are the more moderate ones submitted under the guise of “common sense” legislation. Dingbat bills like these above are, fortunately, too far off the rails to get anywhere.

    • They are after the Ghostgunner. Table top cnc mill to finish 80% lowers. Way too expensive, I make do with a jig drill press and a router.

      • That second bill was to go after the jigs. For all the ‘reporting’ Carl did, he is even less informed than the people crafting the bills. The stuff is worded not to ban and make illegal CNC machines and 3D printers general as much as the files or purpose built equipment. The ghost gunner makes a lot more sense if you are cranking out more that a couple of lowers (I wonder who would need to do that)

      • Several recent cases have highlighted the fact that an AR lower does not, in fact, meet the legal definition of a firearm. Therefore, if I use any device to make an AR lower I have not used said device to make a firearm and thus the law is moot.

        Maybe we should just keep that to ourselves for now.

  4. Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
    Just more virtue signaling B.S. from America’s worst political cult.

  5. I believe that THAT ban would be the straw that finally ends the gun ban nonsense, not an actual gun ban.

    That’s because it’s reaches far more people makes even less sense and is patently unenforceable and would affect far more multi billion dollar industries.

    And that’s what will sink the gun banners.

    Overreach.

    • If they get the house, senate, and WH, they will.

      Count on it…

  6. What is a “licensed manufacturer”? Do they only mean gun makers or anyone who manufactures anything: carpenters, shoemakers, airplane builders?

    • I came to comment in the same vein.

      An individual can be in the hobby or business of righteously and legally manufacturing all sorts of things without any licensing. To be honest I am not even aware of any general “manufacturing license”, in my state or any state for that matter.

    • I have a driver’s license, an FCC Ham Radio license, and an FAA pilot’s license. I have plenty of licenses, I guess I’m covered to operate my mill, lathe, and 3D printer…..

  9. I forget who it was now but there was a female politician that tried to ban computers in her state. I wish I could remember the details.

  10. Well, not that I agree with the legislation (I most emphatically do NOT), but . . . who is this going to hurt the most??

    I managed to get a “B” in metal shop (hard to do; “A”s were standard) and I am perfectly capable of making a functional firearm with a $40 trip to Home Depot. It is the KNOWLEDGE that matters, not the tools. I venture to advance the proposition that more people on “our side” of the gun control debate possess this knowledge (and skills) than on “their side”. Comes “the revolution”? We already HAVE guns. They will mostly not have them. If they succeed in their idiot quest to make quick, simple manufacture of firearms illegal . . . who will still be able to make them???

    Be careful what you wish for, you might get it. In this case, good and hard.

  11. It shall be unlawful for any person, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to transfer or offer to transfer to any person other than a licensed manufacturer a firearm manufacturing machine.

    Ah, our beloved federal government’s third magical incantation — in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce — that nullifies our nation’s Declaration of Independence and our United States Constitution.

    (The other two magical incantations are: “public safety” and “compelling government interest”.)

    • Heaven helps us all if our beloved federal government ever passes a law using all three magical incantations.

  12. In a nutshell, no one, NO ONE AT ALL can own any power drills, CNC, etc, including prototypers, engineers, hobbyists, shop classes, etc. No one can own a computer because that aids in the design of the gun, no one can own electric motors, no ICE engines, no air powered tools, nothing that is a “machine” that has an automated process.

    Not even a lawn mower because that engine and belt can be used to make a lathe, if crude.

  13. Blumenthal still has PTS ever since he returned from Vietnam even though he was never there.

    There isn’t a more slithery snake to be found in Washington than this D!ck.

  14. The crisis of ghost guns is a narrative being promulgated by the ATF, FBI and a few city departments, mainly New York shitty and DC.

  15. It just occurred to me….It’s the word ‘Ghost’ that is problematic in these troubled times.

    Typically, Ghosts, Spirits, Specters, Phantoms, what have you… are depicted in movies, literature as ‘White’. Even Halloween costumes consist of a ‘White sheet’ and saying Boo! while bumping into stuff cause you did not cut the eye holes correctly.

    Hence..”Ghost Guns” are Raacccist!!! Even looking online at a Poly80 is a thought crime and Raacccist!

    apologies..I need to go find someone and take their meds..been one of those days lol.

    • “apologies..I need to go find someone and take their meds..”

      Good idea! 🙂

  17. Bows and arrows won’t be far behind, and the manufacturing of knives and slingshot too. Of course the authorities and their private army will have the latest high tech weaponry available.

  18. This may well be long-settled law by this time next year. I hope not, but I would bet on it with how things are looking at the moment.

    • “This may well be long-settled law by this time next year.”

      Doubtful, unless you know something I don’t.

      SCOTUS ruled the ‘NY Pistol’ case was moot, and denied cert. to the 10 other potential gun cases that remained on their docket.

      Roberts was the swing vote, and he voted with the Leftists.

      We are fucked for probably a few more years, or worse…

  19. Don’t forget to add Grand Pianos and steel string guitars to the list. The string you are buying for either one had better actually be for playing piano or guitar, not for bending it into a gun spring, and placing it in a kitchen oven (which should also be on the list), baking the newly formed spring at 450 degrees to heat treat it.

    Oh! And DO NOT FORGET the ball point pen used to wind and shape the spring!

    Oh!!! And the trees!!! We should ban those too! Someone might cut one down and use the wood, to build a new stock for his “AR-14” assault rifle. He should prove he is actually making a stock for his double barrel shotgun instead, so he can shoulder it comfortably when he pulls a “Biden” and “fire[s] two blasts.”

  21. They made really great guns back in the Stone Age, mostly at the Rock Island Armory and Rock River Arms.

  22. Get out and vote….get everyone u know to vote for freedom and throw out the Commies! We have too many Commies that have been let in our once beautiful Country by the Commies to destroy America! We must throw them out!

    The fighting in the streets will only get worst until a civil war…..sound familiar….yes just like all the other crap hole places around the world!

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