Selling zip guns to cops for $300 apiece

boingboing ^ | 6:00 am Thursday, Jun 14 | Mark Frauenfelder

[mamelukesabre]

Hecho in Switzerland (1995) - was an actual working homemade gun. Sachs and his assistants would make similar guns and sell them back to the city as part of New York's gun buyback program (for up to $300 each).

[Trailerpark Badass]

Not sure what you're trying to say, but in another post on this thread, I acknowledged that one may make guns without a license. And unlike what some others have said, you may sell them.

You just cannot make firearms with the intent to sell them. That meets the Federal legal definition of "manufacturing," and that requires a license.

As background I held an FFL for 5 years, from 1997 to 2002. And while that alone doesn't make me any kind of expert, I do have a pretty good handle on a bulk of the regs.

[mamelukesabre]

Yes, but isn’t there an amnesty in effect when you sell to the police buy back program? I think you can sell them anything with missing serial numbers or illegal alterations and they won’t question you.

[Fido969]

I wasn’t real impressed with the duct tape mounting.

Radiator clamps. Cheap, and you can use them for about anything - fence posts, wheelbarrow handles, putting shovel heads back on.

Buy them in all sizes, and keep them in a coffee can in the workshop next to the clamps.

[Boogieman]

Reminds me of the scene from the movie “Real Men” where Jim Belushi uses a nail gun, a coat hanger, a metal band-aid box, and some other spare parts from a garage to fashion a “nail gun smg” to use in a shootout with KGB agents. Not realistic, but funny.

[Trailerpark Badass]

Maybe with the NYPD, but as far as the Feds are concerned, none of that, if it exists, matters. If he just turned it in, without taking any cash, that would be a different matter.

But like I said, I doubt ATF would interfere with it. They're too busy busting old men at gun shows.

[Still Thinking]

Ooh, I like that one!

[marktwain]

I think you can make all the muzzleloaders you like without a license. Under federal law, they are not defined as “firearms”, but likely do well enough for these buy ups. Use glow plugs to ignite the powder, and they do well enough for a dozen shots. Plenty good for a buy up. 3/8 inch galvanized water pipe is strong enough for a .480 barrel, and can use .45 caliber bullets with a crude cloth patch.

A 9 volt battery provides ignition, and a switch serves for the trigger. They only take about 4 hours to make one, and it is a small, pocket sized derringer.

Time for construction could be cut quite a bit if several were to be made. It was 4 hours for the prototype.