Assault weapons are an odd American problem. Despite obvious answers, we pretend we don’t know what to do about it. This is, as Chockamo wrote, weirdly insane. How can we not know how to fix something that every other country has already solved? Unfortunately, most of our arguments are missing a critical bit of data. What if people could make their own assault rifles? You can buy a reasonably priced CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine these days. We might not have the control we assume.
First, giving unstable people weapons isn’t smart. I hope I’m not offending anyone by saying that. We’ve raised a generation of boys who can’t resolve arguments by anything other than buying a gun and shooting people. God knows that’s a bad thing, and we should work on it more than we are. Allowing violent children and unstable people to use semi-automatic pistols compounds that stupidity. Giving these same people easy access to reliable semi-auto long guns with low recoil, rapid-fire, and very-high-power rounds is so irresponsible it’s hard to believe we’re discussing it. We allow kids so young we wouldn’t sell them alcohol to buy lightly modified military-grade weapons and all the ammo they can afford. Republicans already wrote a law to explicitly let people who aren’t competent to manage their own affairs to nonetheless buy those same weapons.
I love the activism of the Parkland high school students. They’re showing us that they’re the adults in the room. I think they’re making a ton of sense on an issue that doesn’t see much of that. When they have demonstrations near me, I intend to go.
Assault rifles are lightly modified military-grade weapons. As awful as pistol wounds can be, assault rifles use high-power rounds that create uniquely horrific wounds that are much harder to survive. The NRA describes the American AR-15 as America’s most popular rifle, and there’s some evidence for that. The AR-15 is a semi-automatic clone of the military M-16: reliable, light, powerful, and fast-shooting. It’s also the weapon that mass murderers used in the 2015 San Bernardino attack, the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, and the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, along with countless smaller shootings.
America has a new mass murder roughly every week of the year.
The last time we banned assault rifles, gun deaths dropped significantly. It’s an easy correlation to show. When we let that ban expire, assault gun deaths increased significantly. Again, obvious so far, right? Same results around the world. So we should ban them again, right? Because people can’t buy things if stores don’t sell them.
Um… no? We’re behind the curve here in ways we’re not talking about it.
First, what part do we consider the AR-15 gun? We can’t be vague about this. AR-15s have an amazing aftermarket that includes barrels, clips, stocks, grips, and lots more. Does changing, say, the stock change it into a new weapon? Our government says ‘No,’ and I agree: that would be crazy. Same with changing the grip, the sights, and even the barrel.
The government says that the one unchangeable element is the big part in the middle called the “lower receiver.” It holds the trigger, and it’s the part with gun’s serial number. Everything else is an accessory. Buy a longer or shorter barrel and you’ve modified your AR-15; install a different lower receiver, though, and you have a new gun. We give each lower receiver a different serial number.
Unless you cut a new lower receiver yourself, I suppose. That’s been an academic issue because making your own has been a hard thing to do. Until now.
Has anyone heard of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mills? You know how 3D printers build new stuff by using computers to add material where a program tells it? A CNC mill is kind of like that, but it uses a computer-controlled milling head to cut out all the parts you don’t want. You can buy a decent CNC mill for around a grand. Put in a block of aluminum and the right program, turn it loose, and you can have it make anything you want from that piece of billet. Like, for example, an AR-15 lower receiver. The CNC mill doesn’t do the whole job, but it finishes maybe 80%; enough that you can do the rest with common shop tools.
I love the Maker communities and what they’ve achieved. I’m not condemning them for this. But this changes the debate, it’s not a side issue, and it’s not going away.
What do we do when people can just make what they want? They won’t need our permission, and I bet we can’t just ask them to stop.
