Now this would make for an interesting foreseeable misuse case. Federal authorities are reporting a toy pellet gun is being converted into a semi-automatic weapon for gang members.
The popular recreational pellet gun is propane-powered and used in some law enforcement activities. The ATF seized a shipment of 30 guns and insisted that they were intended for conversion.
One expert stated that for such conversion to function like an AR-15 requires only the drilling of one hole.
Notably, the cost of conversion can be over $1000 — more than an AR-15 but avoiding background checks.
For the story, click here.
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Drawing the line at home manufacture Byron!
Go and hang your head in shame Sir.;)
A mate of mine has a photo of a Pakistani Gunsmith hand rifling barrels on what looks like a home built rowing machine.
An old workmate of my Dads was forever turning up smooth bore Colt replicas on his lathe during dinner breaks. He’d then make up his own black powder and loose off a few rounds over the dam behind the factory before pouring lead down the barrels and using them as home ornaments.
It is said that many of the illegal pistols in the hands of Manchester drug gangs are de-activated weapons, sleeved down a calibre or so by laid off West Yorkshire Engineers with a lathe in the garden shed.
Let’s get the Mythbusters on this one.
Wow next thing you know zip guns will be illegal.
People have made “guns” from just about anything. And you can get plans for even a Gatling gun. And trigger cranks can turn ANY semi auto into an automatic.
La makers have seen too many early 50’s motor cycle movies, so we have a ban on automatic knives. And they have watched too many spy movies, so we have bans on sound suppressors. Thank goodness some states REQUIRE sound suppressors, I just don’t know why more don’t.
Oh yeah, the government is paranoid.
Byron,
The homebuilt replica weapons on the john-tom site are FSO’s (firearm shaped objects)
They are not like a replica knife or spear – these replicas are only dangerous to others if used in the “blunt force” mode.
With no working parts they can not even chamber a round, let alone fire one.
.22 LR rounds used to fit in the old UK keyholes, fired with a hammer and blunt nail, lethal but you can not blame the door maker!
Maaarrghk!
check this website out, it might make you rethink what is possible. If you have access to a lathe and a press and some knowledge of metal working you might be able to replicate any number of weapons. I understand the Afghans can make reasonable copies of weapons that actually work in primitive conditions.
http://www.john-tom.com/AirsoftPaintball/AirGun/AirGunPlans.html
You can also buy parts for an M-16, barrel, stock etc but you cannot by a receiver.
I am all for the 2nd amendment but I think I draw the line at allowing citizens to build their own. Yes, Yes I know very hypocritical of me and I imagine my lifetime membership has been suspended :).
Understood.
I was not aware that this particular gun was an airsoft. If my memory serves me correctly, an airsoft works at around 1/2 to 1 foot pounds, whilst a UK legal air rifle works at 12 foot pounds (6 for air pistols). Any higher poundage in the UK requires a firearms license, but I have heard of up to 30 foot pounds on some rifles.
As you all say, there is no way an airsoft could be uprated to live ammo, however I have heard of some BSA barrels being machined to take a .22 rim fire round.
I read about this some time ago. Many airsoft guns are very realistic in appearance. Many modern guns are modular and come apart into major components for cleaning and servicing.
My guess is that the “lower receiver” which houses the trigger group and magazine well detaches like in the real weapon and this part is both marked in a manner the ATF would regulate on a real firearm and is more or less interchangeable with a lower receiver on a real gun.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=31719/Product/AR_15_LOWER_RECEIVER
So what. This is somewhat like saying a lens makes a camera.
The heavy duty and high pressure tolerant parts of the gun are above this part of the gun.
It sounds like the process of making the confiscated guns fire anything besides an airsoft pellet amounts to taking the stock and trigger group and putting all the parts from a real gun into it with some gunsmithing. So you have to have a real gun to make a fake gun work? Anybody can make a real gun from a real gun.
This story was covered on the Alex Jones show months ago with an interview with a store owner whose guns were confiscated. there is no way these guns can be converted. the explosive force of a bullet would rip the gun apart. this is BS
What Nal said.
Something is fishy about this story. I don’t think Airsoft barrels are even rifled. They fire plastic ammunition.
Airsoft: An Industry Without Standard.
Airsoft guns are not designed to handle the extreme pressures of real ammunition. I suspect idiots at ATF.
£1000 for drilling just 1 hole?
Hmmmmmmm…..
And I am assuming that as a semi-automatic, it would fire live rounds. Is this so or does it simply fire pellets in a semi-auto mode?
Sorry about all the technical questions, as Byron put it in another thread, we in the UK have been “de-gunned” and my only manufacturing experience is that of muzzle loaders for re-enactors.
You say this gun is propane powered. Any idea how that works? I understood that pellet guns were usually air powered, although there is an effect called “dieselling” that relies on an over application of gun lube to create combustion behind the pellet at some stage, giving it a bit more oomph.
I was once told that the barrels from 0.22 BSA air rifles were of a high enough grade material to fire live rounds, so there may be something in this.
What will pretty Boy Floyd think of next….