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138 LAW AND CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS [Vol. 80: 129
However, even after that date, some individuals fixed and made guns in home
workshops.
64
The total number of extant homemade guns is unknown.
65
Gunsmithing includes making a firearm from scratch, making a firearm from
both self-manufactured and store-bought parts, and assembling a firearm from
commercially available parts. Manufacturing from scratch requires more tools
and greater expertise. Until the advent of computer numerical code machining, a
gunsmith needed to cut, drill, and mill a metal blank to produce a receiver
suitable for accommodating a barrel, grip, trigger mechanism, hammer or sear,
and other parts.
66
Highly skilled gunsmiths did and still do produce very high-
quality guns. However, there is also a history of criminals making crude guns, like
the so-called “zip guns” popular throughout New York City in the 1950s
67
and
guns made by prisoners.
68
Today, crude firearms are commonly made in small
workshops in some countries that restrict mass-produced firearms for the civilian
market.
69
Do-it-yourself gunsmithing today is supported and facilitated by books,
manuals, websites, associations, and videos that explain and illustrate step-by-
step how to manufacture various types of firearms.
70
Some gun enthusiasts also
Firearms Questions and Answers, ATF.GOV, https://www.atf.gov/file/61721/download [https://perma.cc/
V4LW-266H] (last visited Aug. 26, 2016).
64. See generally Andy Greenberg, After Orlando, The Homemade AR-15 Industry Surges, W
IRED
(June 22, 2016, 7:00 AM), https://www.wired.com/2016/06/orlando-homemade-ar-15-industry-surges/
[https://perma.cc/S2RG-5C46], for a modern day example.
65. Sari Horwitz, Homemade guns exploit gun law loophole, P
ORTLAND PRESS HERALD (May 15,
2014), http://www.pressherald.com/2014/05/15/homemade_guns_exploit_gun_law_loophole_/ [https://
perma.cc/5DPJ-JQMV]. It has been estimated that in California alone there are tens of thousands of
homemade AR-15 assault weapons, but any estimate of the number of homemade assault weapons has
to be taken with a grain of salt because there is no definitive definition of “assault weapon,” See James
B. Jacobs, Why Ban “Assault Weapons?”, 37
CARDOZO L. REV. 681, 687 (2015).
66. The 80% unfinished receiver or blank has not yet reached a stage of manufacture that would
qualify it as a firearm frame or receiver under the 1968 Gun Control Act (GCA). What is an “80%” or
“unfinished” receiver?, ATF.
GOV, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/what-”80”-or-”unfinished-receiver
[https://perma.cc/TU4S-CZEN] (last visited Sept. 23, 2016).
67. See Bruce B. Koffler, Zip Guns and Crude Conversions—Identifying Characteristics and
Problems, 61 J.
CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 115, 116 (1970); see also HARLAN ELLISON, MEMOS FROM
PURGATOR, 116 (1961).
68. See 10 Most Terrifying Prison Weapons, Y
OUTUBE (Jan. 5, 2015), https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=HqsgjZD1toE [https://perma.cc/43US-8RT9] (displaying photos of prisoner-made crude guns).
69. See Impro Guns, H
OME MADE GUNS, https://homemadeguns.wordpress.com [https://perma.cc/
RG9R-HJ48] (last visited Aug. 26, 2016), for examples of crude, homemade guns; see also Underworld
Inc: Illegal Hand Made Colt 1911 Pistols Ghost Gun, Y
OUTUBE (Apr. 8, 2016), https://m.youtube.com/
watch?v=pq1TXEE_QK4 [https://perma.cc/85LB-WBZU], for a documentary on the underground gun
market in the Philippines.
70. See How to Build an AR-15 Video, B
ROWNELLS, http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=
11004/learn/ [https://perma.cc/6VW3-2VHE] (last visited Aug. 26, 2016); Assembling an AR-15 Parts
Checklist, B
ROWNELLS, http://www.brownells.com/UserDocs/Miscellaneous/ARCLform.pdf [https://
perma.cc/CQ5W-9S2L] (last visited Aug. 26, 2016); see also B. Gil Harmon, Building a Custom AR-15 At
Home, NRA:
AM. RIFLEMAN (Oct. 31, 2014), http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/
2014/10/31/building-a-custom-ar-15-at-home/ [https://perma.cc/T5JX-NF63].