Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [j g d] at [dixie.com] (John De Armond)
Subject: Re: Gun control v drug control
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 93 06:27:36 GMT

[f--r--a] at [agcs.com] (Andrew Ford) writes:

>> Let's take guns manufactured domestically first.  How hard is it to
>> make a gun?  Can one set up a gun manufacturing facility in one's
>> basement, like one can set up a drug lab?  What kind of output could
>> a small gun manufacturing operation produce, assuming they have to
>> stay small enough to avoid detection?  Could illicit domestic production
>> meet the needs of criminals?

>Less than half the tools in any automotive machine shop could produce
>quality firearms.  Probably several a day if you were serious.

Yup.  I've built pen guns using nothing more sophisticated than an
electric drill and a welder.  I've made cannon that will propel a 
juice can full of concrete through fairly large tree trunks.  Guns,
particularly guns for the purpose of going armed, are trivial to build.

Contemplate another angle.  The gun banners seem to think that a gun
ban will stop the production/ownership of guns but that the world
will not change in any other way.  This is the classic one dimentional
static view of the world that is woefully wrong.  In reality, banning
guns would simply be a perturbation of a highly complex dynamic system.
The ultimate system response is always different from that predicted
by static models.

Consider this.  I am a nominally law abiding person (we really need another
term for us good guys as the government makes us all criminals) and yet
regardless of any law to the contrary, I will always be armed sufficiently
to defend myself.  If I, a law abiding citizen, am that determined,
one can only imagine how determined the criminal will be.  Today I carry
pretty ordinary guns.  So do most criminals.  But suppose these 
are no longer available. Now I have to make my own gun.  What are the 
considerations? First thing is it won't look like a gun even on Xray.
I'll build it into a pen or a pager and I'll retain the functionality
of the instrument.  I'll make the barrel(s) and bullet(s) square or
some other odd shape not easily recognizable. I'll fire it electrically
both for safety and so no primers will show up on an X-ray.  I don't
really care about accuracy because this is a protection weapon that
likely will be fired while pressed against the perp.

My criminal counterpart will be doing the same thing.  Only he'll see
the opportunity and will make them for sale on the black market.  
And because there is the need to stay one step ahead of the cops,
these guns will take all forms.  Pagers, pens, shoes, umbrellas, pocket
organizers, etc.  So whereas now a cop only has to check for easily
recognizable weapons, in this brave new world he'll have to check the 
perp's shoes, belt, pager and every other personal posession.  And
because guns will no longer be easily recognizable as such, it will be
safer to carry so more thugs will.

In other words, the predictable effect of a gun ban will be the opposite
of what is intended.  Many law abiding people will be unarmed while 
even more perps become armed.    Not a very nice prospect, eh?

John
-- 
John De Armond, WD4OQC               |    (Pardon the inconvenience while we 
Performance Engineering Magazine(TM) |    remodel this .signature)
Marietta, Ga                         |
[j g d] at [dixie.com]                        |