<![CDATA[homemade guns]]>

Chipman: No one enjoys making firearms

April 21, 2022 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Now that the Biden administration has picked another probable trainwreck to head the ATF, it’s time for David Chipman to stay something that reminds us just how terrible a pick he was to helm that agency.

Of course, for Chipman, that’s as natural as breathing.

His latest example comes from a conversation he had over at Slate regarding so-called ghost guns. You see, he knows what you enjoy and don’t enjoy better than anyone.

David Chipman: There are hobbyists who would go into a gun store and they would buy a frame or receiver. The frame or receiver is sort of like the motherboard of a computer, or perhaps the chassis of a car, and it’s the key part that you need to buy a gun. So when you go into a gun store, that part has a serial number on it. It’s marked by who made it. And you have to pass a background check to buy it, even though that part you can’t shoot or anything—it’s just the basis of a gun.
A ghost gun is a gun that’s manufactured absent that marked part. And really, the only reason to manufacture a gun that way is if you’re someone who wants to avoid a background check, such as a criminal or an extremist. There is no reason to do this. It’s not fun to make a frame or receiver.

[Emphasis added]

Wow. That’s a bold statement filled with male bovine excrement if ever I’ve seen one, and considering I work in politics, I’ve seen plenty.

It’s not fun to make a frame or receiver?

Just because David Chipman doesn’t find it enjoyable doesn’t mean no one else would. The world is a strange place where people enjoy all kinds of things that I don’t, such as entertainment involving Amy Schumer, reality television, and piercing very tender body parts.

It doesn’t have to make sense to me. It’s their lives and they’re free to enjoy what they want to enjoy.

But Chipman isn’t granting anyone that same courtesy. He doesn’t see the allure of making a receiver, so it simply cannot be fun for anyone else to do so.

Look, I’ve made guns from a kit before. I’ve built a firearm from an incomplete receiver and I can tell you that I thought it was about as much fun as a lot of other things I’ve made through the years. There was also great pride the first time I took that rifle to the range and fired it knowing I built it.

I’m not asking Chipman to understand it. Frankly, since he’s not the head of any law enforcement agency, I don’t particularly care how he feels about it.

However, I will point this out and note that this is why the Second Amendment community so vehemently opposed his nomination to run the ATF. He’s vehemently and unapologetically anti-gun and seems to believe that he knows all, only for it to turn out he’s saying some colossally stupid crap.

This isn’t the first time he’s done so and it won’t be the last, either. I’m just glad he’s saying it as an activist and not as the director of the agency tasked with enforcing and interpreting gun laws.

Alabama arrest shows how homemade guns are here to stay

April 21, 2022 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Since well before this country was actually a country, homemade guns were a thing. It wasn’t just accepted, it was considered a basic right. After all, if I’m required to buy a gun from a licensed gun maker, then just how is my right to keep and bear arms not being infringed upon?

These days, there are plenty of people who think the idea you can build your own gun–and that an industry has sprung up to make it easier–is vile and evil.

They want the practice to be banned.

However, an Alabama arrest provides just one reason why homemade guns aren’t going anywhere.

Three people were arrested Tuesday on several drug charges and deputies continue to search for two more who ran away.
Franklin County officials said their drug task force was investigating drug complaints at a home on Old Winstead Road in the Spruce Pine community. When deputies arrived at the home two men ran from a camper on the property into the woods.
…
Officials said they also found methamphetamine, marijuana, needles, guns and homemade guns, capable of firing shotgun ammo, inside the trailer.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen a “ghost gun” kit that’s designed to shot shotgun ammo.

Couple this with the “Smith & Meth-son” Cam talked about earlier this week, and you can see precisely why banning homemade firearm kits will have no real impact on criminals making their own firearms.

I mean, these are being built without the kits, it seems.

Criminals are criminals. They’re going to do what they want with whatever they have available. While a new law may put up a roadblock for them, it’s just a matter of time before they find a way around it. Remember when you could get Sudafed over the counter? They put it behind the counter and restricted its purchase to thwart meth makers.

Meth is still being made. The bad guys just started using other stuff instead of Sudafed. As I said, they found a way around the roadblock.

Why would guns be any different?

Homemade guns are going to be popular in this country, regardless of what the laws say. They were popular before Polymer80 sprung up and they’ll be popular well after the company becomes a footnote in history–regardless of whether it is government or time that makes it so.

You’re not going to change this immutable fact.

If you could, why would these people in Alabama have been running a drug operation? Why would there be any drug operations? I mean, drugs are responsible for more fatalities every year than guns, so why not stop that?

The answer, of course, is we can’t. There’s literally nothing that can be done to prevent criminal outfits from producing and distributing drugs.

Yet if that’s the case, how can we suddenly trust that not only can the government do this with guns, but do so in a way that doesn’t take away our right to keep and bear arms?

Again, we can’t. It’s simply not possible, and it’s time everyone acknowledges this basic fact.

Are restrictions on homemade guns based on bogus data?

April 14, 2022 by Tom Knighton Leave a Comment

Homemade guns are an American tradition. People have been building their own firearms since before this country was even a country. While I don’t have any numbers, I’m pretty sure a few of those homemade guns were used to fight the British during the American Revolution and they’ve been part of the American landscape ever since.

Now, though, President Joe Biden has decided to try and crackdown on these weapons. The question is, how much of his effort to go after homemade guns, so-called ghost guns, is based on bad information?

From our friends at The Truth About Guns:

The entire “ghost gun” drama was started by Carlos A. Canino, the former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the ATF’s Los Angeles Field Division. In 2020, anti-gun activists asked Canino about the prevalence of homemade firearms in California. An earlier study said 30% of the guns recovered by ATF in California were unserialized “ghost guns,” but Canino said the real numbers were actually much higher. “Forty-one percent, so almost half our cases we’re coming across are these ‘ghost guns,’” Canino said. That was all it took.
A story by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project published last week showed that the ATF cannot verify Canino’s comments.
“I contacted the Los Angeles Field Division earlier today after your initial email, and their Public Information Officer was unable to verify any figures provided in 2019 by former-SAC Canino without knowing the time-period(s) he used for his comments,” an ATF spokesman said in the email.

I remember this statement and I remember that sounding awfully high. Especially in light of what we were hearing out of many other regions.

However, that’s not the only question.

After the story was published, a staff member for a U.S. Congressman came forward. This whistleblower, who asked that their name be withheld from publication, revealed even more problems about the ATF’s “ghost gun” statistics.
The staff member asked the U.S. Justice Department for “ghost gun” data, since both the ATF and the Bureau of Justice Statistics fall under the DOJ’s purview.
“Because it is not currently a federal crime to own either a homemade firearm or a braced pistol, DOJ claims they do not have accurate/comprehensive databases to track their use in crimes. They compile information from state and local police units – but that information is only as good as what is reported,” the whistleblower said in an email.

On this, I have to back up the whistleblower’s statement.

Last year, I reached out to the ATF asking for statistics on homemade guns. Their response was basically that they didn’t have any. Here’s part of the reply I received from April Langwell with the Department of Justice:

ATF cannot provide a number of recovered crime guns that were privately made. For a number of reasons, ATF does not believe that the number of privately made firearms that has been reported to ATF would be indicative of, or representative of, the number of privately made firearms actually recovered by law enforcement.

Now, some people are skeptical regarding anonymous whistleblowers, but this is a named official with the USDOJ speaking with a journalist on the record.

It’s basically the same thing.

Yet, as TTAG notes, just days later, the President of the United States issued an executive order to combat this alleged scourge.

So it really does look like much of this started because of off-the-cuff statements by ATF officials that the ATF itself can verify. What’s problematic is that it doesn’t appear Canino was reprimanded for his unsupportable statement, either.

He’s not alone, though. ATF officials have been pronouncing doom and gloom about homemade guns well since Canino’s statement. They offer vague statements about how it’s a “growing” threat or whatever but provide little in the way of actual context.

Canino’s, despite the lack of context, gave us something of a glimpse, but since it can’t be supported, how much was total BS?

My guess is that most of it was since it reflects nothing we’ve seen or heard since that does have any kind of context.

So now, President Biden is basically poised to make homemade guns that much more difficult for law-abiding citizens to build but will actually do nothing to really impact criminals. After all, it looks like, despite the rhetoric, there’s no evidence to suggest criminals prefer these firearms over traditionally manufactured guns.

Shocking, isn’t it?