Reply #47: Umm...any qualified machinist can build his own rifle from scratch. [View All]

[Xithras]

I should know. My dad is a machinist and got busted for building a fully working Sten gun back in the 1970's. He was curious, and used a set of plans that he found in the back of a magazine. Unfortunately for him, he took it out to the gun range two years after building it, and the guy a few seats down happened to be an off-duty police officer. Busted! Luckily for him, they were much more lenient in prosecuting those sorts of things back then.

My point here is simple. If you're going to use the "any competent machinist" agrument as a baseline for what should and shouldn't be permissible, then you need to ban scrap steel entirely. ANY firearm, including a SINGLE ACTION REVOLVER, can be converted to fully automatic if the machinist has the patience and creativity to automate the firing process.

Heck, you can find plans on the internet to build a .30 caliber weld-free fully automatic pipe gun! All you need to build it is the appropriate pipes and springs, a Dremel, and a decent drill. I won't vouch for their accuracy, but they'd do wonders against a crowd.