Back in May, one of the Senate’s most dedicated anti-gun members, Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal introduced S.3743, the Untraceable Firearms Act of 2020. The target, of course, is those scary objects of gun-grabbers nightmares…ghost guns. Blumenthal’s bill would, among other things, ban the possession of programmable manufacturing devices like CNC mills and 3D additive printers…unless you’re a licensed manufacturer.
And they say Amazon doesn’t sell guns. pic.twitter.com/mA9CUdBa4J
— open_wire (@open_wire) July 7, 2020
Not to be outdone in the legislative stupidity department by the other house of Congress, Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin declared, Hold m’ beer! and filed his own version in the House, H.R.7468, the Stop Home Manufacture of Ghost Guns Act of 2020. Congress.gov does not yet have the text posted, but you can read it here, compliments of the Firearms Policy Coalition.
Raskin’s bill wanders a little bit farther down Insanity Lane than does Blumenthal’s.
‘‘(aa)(1) It shall be unlawful for any person, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to transfer or offer to transfer to any person other than a licensed manufacturer a firearm manufacturing machine.
‘‘(2)(A) Except as provided in subparagraph (B), it shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed manufacturer, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, to possess or purchase a firearm manufacturing machine.
The bill doesn’t merely ban 3D printers and CNC machines, mainstays of modern manufacturing. It bans any “firearm manufacturing machine,” which Raskin defines as . . .
‘‘(A) a device designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended to be used primarily to make, or convert a product into, a frame or receiver for a firearm; and
‘‘(B) any combination of parts designed or intended for use in making a device described in subparagraph (A) and from which such a device may be readily assembled.’’.
Several years ago, I knew a gentleman who was finishing an 80% AR lower using nothing but common household tools. An electric drill — handheld, not a drill press — a vise, a few files, and some sandpaper. Why? He just wanted to prove he could. Why the heck not? Lots of people have done it and still do.
These are the kinds of tools our latter-day Luddite legislator would ban given the ignorant, sloppy way his bill is worded; tools that are in common use across the world, and have been for thousands of years.
You might want to rethink that stock you own in Home Depot and Lowe’s.