Some Additional Thoughts On "Gun Restrictions Have Always Bred Defiance, Black Markets"

 

"DIY Sten Gun"--The Firearm Blog.

       This could be considered a follow up post to my December 2012 article discussing a then newly published  December 22, 2012, article at Reason Magazine by J.D. Tuccille. Short version: After describing how much easier and cheaper it was to obtain a black market firearm over a legal firearm in New York City, the author goes on to observe that gun regulations and laws have never worked. Not only in New York, but in Europe, illegal firearms far outnumber legal firearms. Shutting down firearms manufacturers does not work, as many countries have learned, because small, black market manufacturers will spring up to meet demand.

       Just how do you shut down underground craftsman who don’t seem to require much more than their skills, some scrap metal, and access to Third-World tools that barely begin to compare to the equipment in the garages of many Western suburbanites? 

       That’s a rhetorical question. The evidence suggests that underground manufacturers will step up to meet any demand that arises.

Most of you have seen news stories about the recent victory concerning downloadable files allowing you to 3-D print firearms. The Obama Administration attempted to prohibit distribution of such files under the rubric of a law prohibiting the exportation of firearms. The Trump Administration agreed to settle the suit, and in doing so, not only agreed that publishing the files were not an "export" but also "expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber – including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms – are not inherently military."

       Of course, well before 3-D printed gun patterns were available, there were a plethora of instructions and plans on how to build your own firearm, such as the following:

• Sten gun plans.
• Mac-11 plans.

And for those of you that have followed this blog for a while, or follow the Impro Guns blog, you will note frequent stories of police seizures of "homemade" firearms. Many of those from Canada, Australia and Western Europe have actually proven to be very nicely made and finished submachine guns. And therein lies the wisdom of the Trump Administration dropping this matter. If firearms production goes underground, the firearms produced are not going to copies of the Remington 700 or the Colt Python, but copies of the Sten, Mac-11, Uzi, or other simple open-bolt submachine guns.