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It is harder to make a bolt action rifle than an AR-15. The skill and time involved are substantial in both cases, but creating a heat treated bolt gun receiver

It is harder to make a bolt action rifle than an AR-15. The skill and time involved are substantial in both cases, but creating a heat treated bolt gun receiver that works is no joke. But what is much more interesting to me is the interplay between technology and the law. The lower receiver, the regulated part, will be printable (usefully so) within a decade in my view. That makes it possible for someone with basic skills to own a proper semiautomatic rifle without the government even knowing about it. Would that cause regulation of other parts like barrels? Maybe, but barrels are expendable parts...I'm pretty sure the NRA would blow a gasket over that for more than one reason. Triggers? How? What's a "trigger?" Guns, like information, want to be free. It all puts gun control advocates in a bit of a pickle. In fact, it puts prohibitionists of all kinds in a pickle. And that is a good thing.

talmand 14y ago
Well, I was speaking more in terms of functionality, not materials. I didn't mean to imply that making a bolt action rifle was easy, but I find it hard to believe it is harder to make a bolt action rifle versus a semi-automatic AR-15. I'm not a gunsmith, so I could be wrong but the difference in complexity between the two seems to suggest this. I would have to assume that making a single action revolver would be easier than a semi-automatic handgun. Discussions of quality of the resulting weapon is a different matter though. If we had printers capable of making a functional gun, then the government can try to regulate individual parts all they wanted. It would make no difference. It's only a matter of time before there's a simple way of making a high quality rifled barrel of your choice of caliber. They would have to look into controlling the materials required; metals, gunpowder, and so on. Even then that's a losing endeavor, simply because how can you tell the intentions of the person buying the materials? You can't. This goes beyond weapons, the ability to create nearly anything you want in your home with no one knowing opens up a huge can of worms that I feel that most people simply cannot comprehend.
- damoncali 14y ago
  The difference is in the complexity of the parts. A bolt gun receiver is much more complex to build than any part on an AR-15, which is the closest thing out there to a gun you can just bolt together. But yeah, this genie is not going back in the bottle.

talmand 14y ago

Well, I was speaking more in terms of functionality, not materials. I didn't mean to imply that making a bolt action rifle was easy, but I find it hard to believe it is harder to make a bolt action rifle versus a semi-automatic AR-15. I'm not a gunsmith, so I could be wrong but the difference in complexity between the two seems to suggest this. I would have to assume that making a single action revolver would be easier than a semi-automatic handgun. Discussions of quality of the resulting weapon is a different matter though. If we had printers capable of making a functional gun, then the government can try to regulate individual parts all they wanted. It would make no difference. It's only a matter of time before there's a simple way of making a high quality rifled barrel of your choice of caliber. They would have to look into controlling the materials required; metals, gunpowder, and so on. Even then that's a losing endeavor, simply because how can you tell the intentions of the person buying the materials? You can't. This goes beyond weapons, the ability to create nearly anything you want in your home with no one knowing opens up a huge can of worms that I feel that most people simply cannot comprehend.

damoncali 14y ago
The difference is in the complexity of the parts. A bolt gun receiver is much more complex to build than any part on an AR-15, which is the closest thing out there to a gun you can just bolt together. But yeah, this genie is not going back in the bottle.