Is it possible to make a homemade assault rifle?

11 Responses

1. corey h

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   In Darra, Pakistan they have a long gun making tradition going back to when the British first tried to control the area. Guns are made entirely by hand in small workshops with basic blacksmithing tools. The guns are copies of many foreign guns, often with all the markings and serial numbers duplicated as well. Barrels, receivers, trigger components and springs are all made by hand and the quality is sometimes suprisingly good. See this video of a visit to the "factories" and the gun markets in the tribal areas of Pakistan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9xf62PKC5M&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elabnol%2Eorg%2Finternet%2Ffavorites%2Fvideo%2Dtour%2Dof%2Dgun%2Dfactories%2Din%2Dtribal%2Dareas%2Dof%2Dpakistan%2F301%2F&feature=player_embedded

   If they can do it, anybody can.

2. Lovinglife

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   An assault rifle has a selective fire switch that allows the operator to choose between full auto and semi-auto.

   Zip guns are homemade firearms, but are almost always crappy. Manufacturing firearms without a license is also illegal. Unless you have a lathe, the tools to make rifling, etc. you’re going to end up with some poor quality zip guns.

3. Ben J

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   depends on your definition of "assault rifle." if you mean semi auto, gas or recoil operated, it is possible, but youd need a manufacturers licence, a metal lathe, press, and a lot of more expensive tools. somewhere in the neighborhood of 3000 bucks. the russian rebels put weapons together from parts, and make them to fit. they dont just pick up a piece of pipe, and thats a barrel, and find a block, and theres a reciever.

   Building a rifle is actually quite complex and generally not worth the time.

4. RobertG

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   A good machinist can build guns easily. This is one reason that gun control cannot work. But he would have to be willing to violate federal laws and risk substantial prison time to do so. Homeland Security will not like it.

5. BasinBictory

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   No.

   The reason being, that the manufacturing process for making a selective-fire, gas-operated firearm is quite complex and requires machine tools, lathes, hydraulic presses, etc. I suppose it’s possible to make all kinds of firearms without complex machinery, but these would likely be of a single-shot, break-open action, type if we’re talking about someone attempting to manufacture firearms from stuff you could buy at your local hardware store. The reality is that a barreled action that can withstand the enormous pressures generated by a typical firearm cartridge simply can’t be made out of some steel pipe you buy at Home Depot. The metallurgy of a gun’s barrel is probably the most difficult aspect of its manufacture, and not something that a backyard machinist can do.

6. Michael is tired but still Ninga

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   They answered it already…… the ones above me

7. Jeff

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   I dont know about "assault rifle"… but I have seen quite a few, very effective weapons scrounged together from parts… captured in Vietnam and in storage in a few local museums.

   even a AK type rifle needs a couple of forged parts, and a couple of close tolerance parts in the trigger group… but a great deal of it can be assembled in grass huts buy folks who cant tune in a TV set.

8. randy

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   sure, take ANY rifle and assault someone with it. Presto, you have an "assault rifle". But then again, you can also have an assault bat, two by four, rock, car……..
   I’m so sick of people calling something an "assault rifle" when they have no concept of what one really is. Please do us all a favor and stop calling things "assault weapons", you are just fanning the wind of the liberal left who want to ban firearms.
   shoot safe

9. tempestv

   February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

   Depending on what parts and/or tools are available to you, it can be very easy.
   Legality wise, in the United States, it is legal to build your own gun without a license, although it must be for personal use, and can never be sold. I believe you can give home built guns as gifts however.
   Building home built semi auto AKs from "receiver flats" and parts kits are probably the most common home built guns. However, you can buy partially machined AR lower receivers and 1911 frames, which are not legally a gun, but can be finished with relatively simple tools and then built into a home built gun. Of course, home built guns must not violate the NFA rules such as being full auto, short barrel, or a destructive device without proper registration.

   If the parts to build the guns are not available, then it can still be done, it just requires additional tooling. Simple guns such as blow back operated tube receiver sub machine guns are fairly easy to build from scratch.

   as for the original question, I don’t doubt that rebel groups are completely capable of building their own guns. First of all, legality isn’t an issue, because they don’t pay attention to laws anyways. Second of all, they likely have substantial financial backing to buy milling machines, lathes, presses, heat treating facilities, barrel making machines, ect. In addition, they likely have supplies of already built parts.

   Think about it this way- Numerous licensed firearms manufactures in the United States are relatively small outfits with fairly simple facilities, and yet they are able to build and sell enough guns to make a profit. A rebel group on the other side of the world could easily get the same tools that any firearms manufacturer in the US has, so why couldn’t they produce their own guns?

10. Rick J

    February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Yes, but my definition of an assault rifle is a rifle that that has assaulted someone. So to make a assault rifle ,you hold the barrel and start beating the Ba Jesus out of someone with the stock. Now you have a assault rifle. If this is not what you meant and you are talking about a semi automatic, for the sake of us gun owners DON’T CALL IT A ASSAULT RIFLE

11. ishootbirds2

    February 13th, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    yes, i but if told you how I’ll be banned from y!ans for breaking the rules and probably go to jail to telling people in detail how to manufacture illegal automatic weapons. and I really don’t want to have either of that happen.

    so its possible, but I can’t tell you how. I’d imagine they started with the simplicity of the AK/SKS design and depending on cartridge: rifle = gas operated, pistol = blowback (like the ruger 10/22), they invented/improvised something out. its not really all that hard. in the US its legal so long as it doesn’t actually work and doesn’t have a receiver, the one part the government considers to be a firearm.

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