“The laws should be the same for the gun you buy and the gun you make. Our system of background checks and registrations are in place to ensure public safety. There’s absolutely no reason these checks and registrations should apply to guns made by a licensed manufacturer, but not apply to other, equally dangerous, weapons.” – California Rep. Mike Honda in Dem pushes to regulate homemade guns [at thehill.com]

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52 COMMENTS

  1. “There’s absolutely no reason these checks and regulations should apply to guns.”

    They never stop talking when they should.

  2. Those laws regulating and prohibiting people making their own methamphetamine are working so well, right Mike?

    Anyone that thinks they can “prohibit” someone making something in their own home has delusions of godhood.

    Cue resumption of discussion on “prohibited persons…”

  4. If you were to propose a bill requiring OSHA inspections of every garage with a table saw, do you think they would support it? Sure, table saws aren’t “made for killing,” but then again a professional carpenter must abide by a host of safety regulations to ensure public safety, so why shouldn’t that apply to your amateur attempts at cabinet making as well? Next up; FDA inspections of grandmas oven!

  6. Their fantasy land is fascinating.

    Why so upset at guns though? Meth is destroying plenty of live and despite the many regulations they’ve made to deter it people keep making it.

    In the meantime, I can no longer get Nyquil that works worth a damn. Thanks a lot, politicians.

    How about trying to come up with real solutions instead of passing more worthless laws. We have plenty of laws already. Doesn’t seem to be stopping the criminals.

  10. Whatever happened to ‘what you do in the privacy of your own home is nobody’s business but your own’?

  11. Didn’t know there is a wide spread problem with home made guns. Don’t know any of my friends or relatives who has one. We kind of like to buy reasonable quality guns that go bang without taking a finger off or put out an eye.

    Well except when we were kids we would make rubber ban guns and run though the alley shooting each other. Even at that, no one ever lost an eye or suffered more than small bruises if you got nailed really close up. Such fun and great exercise, and no never caught by a parent or neighborhood busy body. But we knew to sneak out after dark to engage in convert operations

    • When I was in high school we’d take the innards out of a Bic pen, make a spit wad of the proper caliber (this was an art!) push a straight pin through the spit wad and have a highly accurate blow-gun. The best target was the back of the neck, because the victim would feel the dart and instinctively swat at it, making it go in further. If we had had access to any kind of quick acting poison, it would have been a lethal weapon. If you used water instead of spit, it would have been untraceable.

      I also have never known anyone with a home-made firearm and further, I’ve never heard of a major violent crime committed with one. So what problem is this guy trying to solve?

      • We did something similar in Jr. High. End of a shoelace (aglet plus about 1/4″). Fray (unbraid) the 1/4″. Push a straight pin from the frayed end through the axis, so that it protrudes about 1/4″ beyond the aglet. A nice little dart that could be blown (very accurately and forcefully) through any drinking straw.

        The downside was that once you’d used up your shoes’ materials for 4 darts, the only way to obtain more ammo was to get shot.

    • Closest we ever came to a homemade gun was dropping Roman candles into three foot long PVC pipes with the other end capped, then running around shouldering them and screaming “RPG!” at the top of our lungs as they fired off.

      1980s + middle school boys + watching the original “Red Dawn” wayyy too many times = this kind of behavior.

      There was really no chance for the math ever to work out any other way.

    • Plenty of people have “home made” guns, usually in the form of AR-15s with 80% receivers. I don’t know that one has ever been used in a crime.

      Of course criminals could make a pipe shotgun or whatever easily, but not as easily as they can buy a real gun from another felon.

      • Yes one was used in a crime in SoCal. A prohibited person built an AR from an 80% lower, an armed with that and a black powder pistol, he went on a rampage that started with his father and brother and continued down the street to a nearby college campus, where he was shot to death by police. Five died, as I recall. i don’t know how many wounded. It was this incident, and the prevalence of so-called “build parties” at shops that had pre-programmed CNC machines, that supposedly led to the DeLeon “ghost gun” bill that is now sitting on Governor Brown’s desk in California. Among other things, that bill will require the serialization and registration of all unserialized long guns made since 1968 and all handguns other than “antiques” (as defined by federal law) that do not have serial numbers engraved on the receiver. Generalizing, antique guns are those manufactured prior to 1898 for which there is no readily available commercial ammunition (e.g. black powder guns, but not Colt SAAs). And to register a newly serialized firearm, one must pass a background check.

        Presumably this new federal proposal is based on the DeLeon bill.

    • It’s California. They’re just planning ahead to where the only gun more dangerous than a single-shot .22 is home-made because they’ve banned everything else. EX: Australia, Brazil (And criminals will of course dutifully turn them in and not smuggle in from elsewhere, because that would be wrong.)

  12. Mike,
    lets stop beating the disarmament drum and focus on the real issues in CA……WATER! Desalination, more storage, better management…..these things matter.

    • Ah but water is a hard problem. (Heh.)

      Which CA politician is going to propose something that would inconvenience the chosen lifestyles of the coastal city dwellers?

      On the other hand, making up a problem just so you can be seen to solve a problem? Much easier to do without risking your sinecure, I mean job.

    • Why would he work on a real problem? Government like to let problems fester to prove how badly they are needed.

  13. I wasn’t aware that the licensed manufacturers underwent a background check every time they finished assembling a rifle. Seems cost prohibitive. Instead whether you are a licensed manufacturer or a garage gun builder, It doesn’t need to be registered and serialized until it’s being sold/ transferred. Seems like the law is consistent, Honda.

    • If modeled on the California bill now pending, unlicensed manufacturers (i.e. homebuilders) would be required to obtain a serial number from the government and engrave it on the receiver as part of the manufacturing process. Licensed manufacturers have to comply with federal law, and the bill would not apply to them.

  14. I have seen lead pipe “Zip” guns in Police Demonstrations that showed “confiscated homemade weapons”, but I think Honda is after more serious stuff like home built AR-15’s. That seems to be a “fashion” in Sacramento these days. It never stops, here.

    • Speaking of fashion … .

      Truth be told, when I saw the pic my first thought was of Robert Lynn Asprin’s M.Y.T.H. Inc. series’s character the fairy godfather.

  16. is it just me, or do all the elected representatives from California look like they came out of the circus?

  17. Sounds like Mr. Honda may be trying to pick up where Calif. state rep. Leland Lee left off. Let’s see how that works out for him.

    • Let’s start again. this a reprise of the DeLeon ghost gun bill that passed the Legislature in California and is now on Brown’s desk. Honda is a US representative, not a state rep.

  18. This is another way to go after Ares Armor–since sending in the ATF Thugs ended up backfiring in court. Not to mention all of the hobbyists and garage machinists who are fed up with the additional BS requirements for purchasing only CA compliant firearms. Sacramento is dead set on restricting guns more and more (regardless of whether that actually reduces the number of firearms that criminals get their hands on). This is another example of making law-abiding citizens into felons, thereby removing their rights. It’s also a way to make sure that any guns made get put on their registration list for future confiscation.

    • This bill wold not apply to Ares. The issue as to Ares is whether it is deemed a “manufacturer” or a dealer in firearms based on the particular design of the EP Armory polymer lower under current law. Instead, this bill will apply to anyone who buys an 80% and mills it out in his or her shop. Such persons would have to undergo a background check in order to obtain a serial number from the government that the government would mandate be engraved on the receiver. Thus, all homemade weapons would be registered.

      • Yes–the polymer 80% lowers AND the aluminum ones too. Of course there are other companies–but Honda would be more familiar with the one causing trouble in Oceanside and National City. Dimitri just happened to be drawing fire from the ATF over the EP Lowers. CA Legislature is trying to pass several bills into law: prohibiting the importation of non-compliant (for CA) weapons, 3D printing, and home-made weapons (completing 80% lowers). Which is why I mentioned the hobbyists and garage machinists. They want to stop people from making their own weapons with mills and drill presses–unless they pass a background check. That and require a serial number be added (and recorded by the state) to the receiver (for future reference when they decide to confiscate or ban them). But really, it will just be an attempt to prevent this home-style manufacture by law-abiding citizens. What starts in CA, is usually a test bed for other gun grabbers.

        • One more aspect of the California bill that I forgot about–home-built firearms, even serialized ones, CANNOT be sold, but must be turned in for destruction when the owner no longer wants it or dies.

          And it gets even worse. According to an analysis I read today on CalGuns, since the bill only exempts “antique” handguns (as defined by federal law) from the serialization and registration procedures, and since the federal law requiring serialization was not enacted until 1968, the bill as written would seem to require the re-serialization of all commercially manufactured handguns from 1898 to 1968, and would ban their resale.

      • Sorry: tried to edit, then delete, but no joy.
        Yes–the polymer 80% lowers AND the aluminum ones that Ares sell too. Of course, there are other companies–but Honda would be more familiar with this one causing trouble in Oceanside and National City. Dimitri just happened to be drawing fire from the ATF over the EP Lowers. I think that was an excuse to seize their customer data, but that’s just my opinion. CA Legislature is trying to pass several bills into law: prohibiting the importation of non-compliant (for CA) weapons, 3D printing, and home-made weapons (completing 80% lowers). Which is why I mentioned the hobbyists and garage machinists. They want to stop people from making their own weapons with mills and drill presses–unless they pass a background check. That and require a serial number be added (and recorded by the state) to the receiver (for future reference when they decide to confiscate or ban them). But really, it will just be an attempt to prevent this home-style manufacture by law-abiding citizens. What starts in CA, is usually a test bed for other gun grabbers to model legislation in other areas. Did you notice that over half of the co-sponsors are from CA? That’s convenient.

  19. “Our system of background checks and registrations are in place to ensure public safety provide useless security theater.”

    Fixed it for ya, Mike.

  20. Because gun control in California has been so overwhelmingly successful that the murder rate is now zero, nobody gets robbed or assaulted, and the golden hills are filled with unicorns that crap rainbows.

  21. And this will stop criminals exactly how? A criminal intent on killing someone will just build a gun and not register or get a background check. It’s like Cuomo’s law saying only seven rounds can be loaded into a ten round magazine. Also, manufacturing your own firearm is your own natural right.

  22. “Our system of background checks and registrations are in place to ensure public safety.”

    If public safety is ensured, then there is no need for further regulation. If public safety is not ensured, the regulations are not working and should be dismantled.

    But there I go again with logic …

  23. Because Prohibition worked so well that there’s no “moonshiners” anywhere today, right?

    Oh, wait…

  24. One more aspect of the California bill that I forgot about–home-built firearms, even serialized ones, CANNOT be sold, but must be turned in for destruction when the owner no longer wants it or dies Gee, too bad . What? Uncle Joe never registered his home made gun? Who would have ever known?

  25. How are the Feds going to know if someone built a home made gun unless the owner broadcasts it? Have one regular AR-15 and another Ghost Gun.

  26. Let’s get to the most important substantive point. The 2A calls out as its highest purpose the maintenance of a militia to retain ultimate control of a free state. Any extensive registration scheme is obviously incompatible with that purpose. Congress has, on multiple occasions, ruled-out a national database for just this reason.
    The rationale for a gun registration is weak. Yet, let’s assume a strong argument for registration existed – merely for sake of discussion. It is not a politically-acceptable option to effectively gut the 2A for the sake of pursuing the supposed objective of a registration program. Even if that argument were overwhelming, respect for a constitutional right would trump. Would we abolish the right to speech, press, religion, trial by jury, etc. based on a pretext of even an overwhelming argument not enshrined as a fundamental right? Just doesn’t make sense.
    Any extensive registration scheme is a non-starter; a red-line whose crossing is apt to trigger either widespread defiance (see Prohibition of alcohol) or even civil war. Pressing for registration is a waste of the nation’s time and shows contempt for the Constitution.

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