#1
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Just how difficult is it to manufacture automatic weaponry from scratch?
Note: I am NOT talking about converting semiautomatic-only firearms to fully automatic ones. I am only concerned with building fully-automatic weaponry from scratch.
If the "AK-47 is the most illegally manufactured assault rifle in the world," then just how difficult is it to manufacture them? Where are these illicit manufacturing facilities located? Just how low-tech can you get before you can't actually make them? I remember reading how "crisis guns" like the British Sten or the Russian PPS-43 were manufactured with a minimum of high technology, but if they were so easy to make, I'm surprised that more people who want this kind of firepower (such as criminal gangs or insurgent groups) aren't making their own versions of weapons like these. Is it more difficult to make weapons like these than their reputations claim? Supposedly, resistance groups in Axis territory made their own versions of the Sten in WWII. There are plenty of people now who handload their own cartridges or even manufacture their own bullets, so it can't be too difficult. |
#2
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The question should have been, how expensive is it to manufacture your own automatic weapon. Or even creating a production line...
In certain regions of the world, it is possible to purchase automatic assault rifles for less than 400 US dollars per unit. Why bother manufacturing your own if they are already so inexpensive? Manufacturing "something" is not extremely difficult. If you have all the equipment/machinery which will most definitely cost millions of dollars. I'm talking about creating moldings and serious metalworking. Also, I don't believe the Kalashnikov AK-47 is the most "illegally" manufactured weapon in the world. But it sure is the best known. Slightly off topic perhaps but I'd like to share this trivia with you from the movie Lord of War. Instead of using prop AK's for a particular scene the production crew decided to rent real weapons from an armsdealer.. It just cost a lot less. |
#3
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Well if you have an automotive body shop you have everything you need to make a stamped reciver SMG. Might not look very good but it will funtion. I've handled the fire control group for a Uru Mekanika and the only thing that wasn't stamped or pressed steel was the plastic covering on the rear pistol grip.
I know in my own fiction one of the antagonists made a small run of a few dozen Ingram SMG's in .380ACP. It's an easy design to copy and in mexico the .380 round is legal as it's not a "military caliber". |
#4
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For weapons that are almost all metal and wood (the AK being the best example), its not too difficult to replicate them from scratch. Throughout the Northwest Frontier province and Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan, there are gunsmiths who manufacture AKs and sell them from their homes or shops. I've seen pics of some of them, and they're very close copies of Russian and Chinese AKs. But these gunsmiths take a while to manufacture them (in the article I read, I think one guy said that with his family's help, he could make about 10-12 AKs per month, and he'd sell each for about $100 USD), and they're usually of vastly inferior quality compared to the originals. And obviously, these guys aren't going to be able to duplicate weapons such as H&Ks or ARs that use plastic (well, maybe they could build an equivalent in wood or metal). Anyway, that's just in Pakistan, where any tools more complex than a lathe are going to be difficult to find (let alone power). In more developed countries, including the U.S., anyone can go to Home Depot and order a milling machine and dremel. I don't see why it would be all that difficult to set up a machine shop that could turn out illegally manufactured full-auto AKs and other weapons, provided it was done by a competent gunsmith. If you ever look at some of the "assault weapons" makers in the U.S. (the companies that are building new AR-15, AK, and H&K clones for the civilian market), most of them aren't gigantic corporations with huge robotic factories making their products. They're mostly just small mom-and-pop operations with 10-15 people who build guns that get shipped out to FFLs nationally. If somebody really wanted to to set up a similar-but-illegal operation that built full-autos instead of semis, it seems perfectly feasible.
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Cry "Havoc," and let slip the hogs of war. |
#5
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Right now chemicals that could be used in illicit drug manufacturing are carefully controlled (such as the ingredients for crystal methamphetamine), as are chemicals that could be used in clandestine manufacturing of explosives (especially fertilizer). But I'm not sure the machines you could make guns with are that tightly controlled. |
#6
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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:
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:
As for China, the PLA has been fighting against armed Uighur separatist groups in Xinjiang Province for decades now.
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Cry "Havoc," and let slip the hogs of war. Last edited by MT2008; 02-06-2011 at 05:53 PM. |
#7
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Blowback designs are easier to manufacture, just like the Holmes SMG.
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#8
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True, and there are already a zillion books that you can get at American gun shows or even off Amazon that provide instructions for building cheap, stamped sheet-metal SMGs with open-bolt actions.
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Cry "Havoc," and let slip the hogs of war. |
#9
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While I will admit that accurate semiautomatic fire is best used with rifles, SMGs have nearly always included fully-automatic fire capability for CQB purposes. Fully-automatic weaponry really excels if you're trying to pull a Baruch Goldstein or a Hotel Mumbai as well. Being under fully automatic fire you can't really escape or hide from is uniquely terrifying to people who haven't been trained to keep their cool in such a situation. |
#10
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__________________
Cry "Havoc," and let slip the hogs of war. |
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