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Old 02-06-2011, 05:42 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazryonh View Post
The wikipedia article on the M-16 claims that one could make a version out of wood and steel that would function identically to the more conventional models using composites in its construction, just with more weight. I don't know how true that actually is, but I'd definitely like to see what the result would look like (and how well it would perform).
Yes, there are homemade AR clones that have wooden lower receivers, and wood furniture. However, I'd expect they're going to be way, WAY less reliable than the mil-spec versions (which aren't exactly all that reliable to begin with).

You can also cast AR lowers rather than forge them, which is much easier to do, but those lowers also tend to be poor quality (a few major AR makers in the U.S. used to build weapons with cast lowers, and they faced a huge backlash).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazryonh View Post
That's why I find it hard to believe that people with a sufficient grudge against authority don't turn to making their own guns if it is perfectly feasible and has been done before under duress (witness the Sten and the PPS-43).
The reason this isn't done more often is because it would be redundant. Full-auto is highly overrated and unnecessary in anything smaller than a belt-fed machine gun (which is why every professional Western military force teaches its infantrymen to fire their rifles on semi). And as long as semi-auto AR-15s and AKs are readily available at FFLs in the U.S., there's no reason for criminals and domestic terrorists to go to the trouble of making their own versions. Criminals are mostly apolitical and indifferent to the gun control debate; they're not going to try and manufacture automatic weapons just as a big "fuck you" to the gun controllers.

But my point is that IF the Obama Administration were to ban production and sale of all semi-auto assault weapons tomorrow (politically impossible) AND confiscate all of the existing weapons in private hands (physically impossible), I think it would be quite feasible for criminal entrepreneurs to set up underground gun shops and capitalize upon the unfulfilled demand for AKs and ARs. And they'd probably go ahead and make them full-auto, since the law wouldn't distinguish between either type of "assault weapon". If it can be done in countries like Pakistan, it could definitely be done (better) in North America.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mazryonh View Post
I could see that happening if, for example, the authorities ever manage to definitively shut down the flow of smuggled guns to the drug cartels in Mexico, or if the fires of rebellion take hold in a country where guns are tightly controlled (such as China).
First of all, nobody's going to shut down the flow of smuggled guns into Mexico. At the local and state level, the Mexican government, police, and military have been heavily corrupted and/or infiltrated by the cartels. Regardless of what the Obama Administration does to close down the flow of guns from Texas to Mexico, the cartels are powerful and wealthy enough that they'll always have sources of arms.

As for China, the PLA has been fighting against armed Uighur separatist groups in Xinjiang Province for decades now.
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Last edited by MT2008; 02-06-2011 at 05:53 PM.
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