Anons discuss what happens when gummit "regulates" guns

This ambiguity has gotten DOJ into some hot water- where judges have ruled that their internal policies or definitions don’t trump what the law says. America’s favorite and most hated “scary black gun” the “AR-15 pattern” riffle- the bolt carrier and chamber are housed in one piece, the trigger group and hammer in another. The law defines a gun as the “receiver” and the receiver is defined as the part with ALL those pieces. The AR-15 pattern riffle doesn’t have a receiver at all by that definition.

That’s a big part of why you haven’t heard much talk about the gun law makers love to hate lately. A case got kicked up the courts and the DOJ dropped it because if they went to trial- the judge was going to take their ability to regulate the AR-15 by ruling that the DOJ couldn’t call the “lower receiver” the gun- which they currently do as a policy matter even though the law does not define the AR pattern lower as a fire arm, and it is incapable of firing a bullet. It’s as close to being a gun as a pipe for your water heater or a watch is in concept of the law.

There are a lot of stupid gun laws- and California has ALOT of stupid gun laws. They aren’t stupid because they restrict guns- they are stupid because they don’t protect people and only penalize law abiding people. You can buy a flash hider in California. You just can’t put it on a gun, and having a gun it could fit AND owning the hider COULD be prosecuted as intent to manufacture. But.... if someone is planning to shoot up a mall- do you think they will be disused from buying a $10 “flash hider” online and screwing it on their riffle the day before? The law doesn’t define criteria to certify a thing as illegal or not- it requires an agent to inspect the weapon and determine it is illegal- then it goes to court and a judge decides. If your gun is locked in a case- who’s going to see it to inspect it? If you’re already at the mall/concert/school and have the gun out- it’s likely too late for it to matter isn’t it?

California banned online sale of ammo, and all ammo must be registered when it is bought... but you can but bunkers and casings and reload supply and make your own. That’s if you don’t use one of the numerous tools to illegally buy ammo that won’t be tracked. You don’t have to register ammo you already own or owned before (how would that even work...?) and military surplus ammo is often 60+ years old- so unlike something date stamped in 2019- how would they say you didn’t already have it before the registration date went into effect?

What you end up with are these ambiguous laws that do little to really help but put this huge burden on legal owners and breed but jobs who think that checking to make sure a person isn’t a domestic terrorist or psychotic patient are the end of the world. That DOJ case they dropped...?

A felon was caught possessing a bunch of lower receivers- the only part of an AR pattern riffle that is trackable and requires background checks. He was allegedly building riffles- un traceable riffles that you can sell on the black market to people who want the government to not know the gun exists or that they have it- like felons. Recap: the DOJ let a felon manufacturing “ghost guns” off on all charges because to use the law to protect people from an actual criminal would have jeopardized their ability to... protect you from gun crime?

Let me explain for non gun people. We will use an AR rifle here. It is made of parts. The “barrel” is the tube the bullet comes out. It’s a pipe with grooves inside. Just a pipe. It isn’t restricted. Anyone can buy one online. Or make one. If you criminalize the barrel- anyone with a pipe- like for fixing their toilet or running a sprinkler- becomes a potential gun felon. The “stock” is the thing that goes up against your shoulder. Can’t really criminalize that too much (they have criminalized certain kinds.) the buffer tube is... a pipe again. There are a bunch of little springs and pins- making those criminal or restricted effects toy cars and watches and pas locks and... almost everything. Can’t do it.

The upper and lower receiver are the only two parts of the riffle that REALLY are purpose built and pretty specific. BUT- They start out as blocks of metal. You machine them using tools, and then the other parts all “plug in” and you can do this with tools most people have- or use things laying around. I’ve literally assembled a rifle with a rock, a belt, and a pocket knife. It can be done by anyone. Tools make it easier and tend to give better results.

You can’t criminalize blocks of metal. How much in our society is a block of metal? With some tools and know how most people have enough laying around their house to make a decent weapon. Almost everyone has everything they need except billets to make a “one use” but working gun.

What point does a “block of metal” become a gun? The law defines this as the point that it is assembled with the pieces listed above- the trigger group, bolt carrier group- the pieces it needs to fire a bullet OR the point that metal has specifically been carved out so that if you wanted, you could put all those things in.

So there are things called “80% lowers” which are machined blocks of metal that are ALMOST ready to be used as a gun, but lack a few holes of varying sizes and a cavity. This is a piece of metal still. You can buy it online and have it shipped to your home. Having some shop equipment or a CNC helps- but all you need to finish it is a drill. A hand drill you can get anywhere and folks have. That and patience and a steady hand.

You an order every part you need to build a riffle and have it shipped to your home without paper work or any checks etc. you can order all the things to make bullets and skip that too. If you go somewhere and pay cash for everything- like a gun shop or gun show or even some swap meets- you’re close to invisible.

And that CBC machine I mentioned? They aren’t THAT expensive for one that can do the job and more and more people have them, or have access through things like machine shops and makers groups. You don’t need to know anything about what you’re doing more or less. You need to know the bits to use and make a computer file with the right dimensions- then press a button and make as many guns as you want.

The problem here isn’t that people can make their own guns. That’s a good thing and a fun hobby- and at least it’s not something we can get rid of without making every day items illegal or restricted to a point that it would impact folks who have nothing to do with guns. The problem is that we have stupid laws made by people who don’t know anything about the weapons themselves and just are reactionary.

We have yet to see where it will go. But just this year, and several tiles in recent years- California has seen some of its more restrictive gun laws overturned as in enforceable, too vague, or completely illegal. That’s good but also bad. Because that precedent blocks sensible legislation that could have helped keep people safe and not been such a pain in the ass to gun owners that they fought it so hard.

And those “for” and “against” guns often don’t make it better. As with politics in general extremists on either side tend to push people into becoming extremists on the opposite side and then we can’t all sit down and talk about things reasonably. You get ass hats thinking any sensible law is a grab for guns- and you get ass hats thinking that the only answer is to take away anything that scares them. You can’t wish away guns. You can’t make gun crime illegal and have it vanish.