zlacker

Just imagine what happens when lawmakers discover the possibilities of every one with access to a lathe or CNC machine.

Absolutely ridiculous.

>>hactua+(OP)
Or fire and a hammer

>>hactua+(OP)
Every time I see one of these stories I wonder how many tools I would have to remove from my garage to make it impossible to build a primitive gun in there. With enough ingenuity I'm really not sure there would be anything left.

>>debate+74
Do potato cannons count?

>>tbrown+q9
The could if lawmakers wanted them to. Here in Sweden potato guns are actually illegal if the potato achieves 10+ joule.

>>hactua+(OP)
Or a file. You can make a perfectly good gun with a damned file.

>>jeffbe+Ku
Or as we learned on Star Trek, some rope, bamboo, charcoal, rocks, sulfur and Gorn dung will make a one time weapon.

>>tbrown+q9
I had friends who would scour the produce isle to find potatoes they could cut down to fit their potato gun with a rifled barrel.

>>debate+74
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Luty#Firearms_design

> one particular design, outlined in his book Expedient Homemade Firearms, is the best known. This design makes extensive use of easily procured materials such as folded sheet metal, bar stock, washers, and hex screws. It is a simple blowback-operated sub-machine gun and entirely made from craft-produced components, including the magazine and pistol grip. The major drawback of such designs is the lack of rifling in the barrel, which results in poor accuracy and limited range

This book was openly sold on Amazon 10 years ago. I still have one on my shelf.

>>hactua+(OP)
This law in new york will also affect CNC machines and laser cutter AFAIK. Everything that is computer controlled that can "create" a 3d object.

>>debate+74
Wasn't the whole point of the Sten gun that it could be made out of readily-available materials (steel plumbing pipe mostly) with simple hand tools, and really only needed two of the 50 or so components to be machined?

So, unless your garage is down to a pair of rusty pliers and a dried-out Biro then you're probably still up there.

>>int_19+sH
See it in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YE9J7qcj0c

>>hactua+(OP)
They are trying to criminalize everyone who uses a normal lathe or a normal CNC without a permit

House Bill 2321 (HB-2321) proposes exemptions only for machines with licensed AI firmware that connects to blacklists, potentially requiring refits or licensing for machine shops.

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2025/A2228

>>greena+EW1
Really looking forward to NY funding upgrades to the computers connected to CNC machines which tend to be pre-2000 vintage running software that's even older.

The entire concept is absurd on about 10 different levels.

>>debate+74
There are some Youtube videos about homemade weapons in African countries and it seems you'd have to remove peoples hands in addition to their tools. Some of the functional guns out there are mostly hand whittled wood with a piece of pipe and some bailing wire.

>>stefan+zu
That's effectively a complete ban as a thrown potato would have considerably more energy than that. A quick web search suggests professional baseball pitchers achieve ~130J, and a potato is roughly comparable to a baseball in mass.

>>Zak+5E2
Yep.

I'm not saying that I'm for it, just that writing a law that bans them isn't all that hard.

>>meindn+kw1
"[The second amendment] basically says in order to keep us free we need to be able to keep and bear arms. A lot of countries though aren't necessarily that lucky and through things we won't talk about that's starting to show its ugly head".

Oh well.