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The myth of the easy machine gun


44Brent

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http://www.starnewspapers.com/star/spedit/bowers/x21-bow.htm

 

Sunday, May 21, 2006

 

A ban on assault rifles, pushed by the mayor of Chicago and our governor, is moldering in the state House Rules Committee. Lawmakers can take no action until they reconvene in October. And even then, there's little chance supporters can pick up the three additional votes they need to send the bill to the Senate.

 

But like the villain at the end of a movie, the assault rifle ban never dies. It's just wounded, waiting to come back when you're not looking. So I thought I would look into the validity of its major argument. That is, this notion that it's easy to convert a semi-automatic rifle (legal) into a fully automatic rifle (illegal), also known as a machine gun (illegal).

 

I've been following the debate. One point always seems to go unexplained. Once some concerned police chief declares that semi-automatic rifles are dangerously easy to convert, the discussion leaps elsewhere. No details of the conversion task are forthcoming.

 

So I called a spokesman for Gov. Blagojevich in Chicago. Could you explain, I asked. How do you do this job anyway? Do you need a screwdriver? A power drill? How long does it take? Could the governor's office be a little more explicit about the mechanics of the threat?

 

I gave the helpful spokesman a day to do a little research, then called back. He told me had learned the root of the problem is the "conversion kit," something that allows you to replace a certain part in the rifle and make it a machine gun.

 

I see. Do you know the name of this part? He didn't. In fact, as he readily acknowledged, he knew almost nothing about guns at all. Not that there's anything wrong with that. He did tell me: "It's very easy if you follow the instructions."

 

The spokesman added that the conversion kits are illegal in Illinois. Well, then, where do you get one? They are probably available at gun dealers in states with looser gun laws, he suggested.

 

I thanked the good fellow and went on a search for a "machine gun conversion kit." I looked all through Shotgun News, the bible for gun buyers and sellers. Didn't see a single conversion kit. If you can't find a gun item in Shotgun News, you can't find it anywhere.

 

But this fat magazine is packed with ads, many set in small type. It's possible the kit was there and I failed to recognize it. So I moved on to Google. Alas, still no conversion kit. But wait — there is a booklet called "The Ultimate SKS Full Auto Plans" by M&M Engineering. Aha! I thought, purely academically. Now I'm good to go.

 

But, not quite. The booklet costs $10. It's 32 small pages. The illustrations are fuzzy, the instructions are vague and the necessary tasks appear to require machine tools, which, in case you did not know, are not cheap. A nicely equipped 16x40-inch lathe from Grizzly Industrial in Springfield, Mo., costs $6,400.

 

For me to make sense of this booklet and produce a reliable machine gun would be about as likely as my persuading one of the Bush twins to spend next weekend with me.

 

Nevertheless, let me give you an idea of what is involved, so that you can be informed the next time that a gun-banner tries to frighten you.

 

First off, you have to buy a rifle. I chose the M&M Engineering booklet specific to the SKS, which I understand to be the Chinese version of the AK-47. The SKS is reliable, abundant and cheap, at $175 or less. So it sounds like just the thing for a city thug, doesn't it?

 

Now you are ready to transform your SKS into a street sweeper. Stay with me: So far you have done nothing illegal. Except for some parts of the country, such as the city of Chicago, the SKS is legal in its semi-automatic version. What's illegal is the fully automatic version of the gun: a machine gun.

 

Now, if you are prepared to break the law and produce an SKS machine gun, the first step is to learn how to take the rifle apart. This involves understanding components such as the bolt, the bolt carrier, the receiver, the spring, the cylinder and the gas piston.

 

Next you have to disassemble the trigger group. You need a hammer, a 3/32nd pin driver and a disassembly block. Got all that? I don't. But maybe you do. So press on. You've got just six more pages of instructions to wade through before you get to the "good stuff."

 

Now you're on the last lap! All you have to do is to carve a "key" in "any good machine shop" that will block something called the "sear disconnector." The key is a squat rod of steel, measuring 375/100ths of an inch wide and 812/100ths of an inch tall. It's encircled by a deep groove, and it bears an appendage that looks a little like a mushroom cloud.

 

Oh yes, you also have to build a "cam" and weld it into place on the sear disconnector. Otherwise your new machine gun would become disabled on the first shot. That would certainly be a downer.

 

Does any of this make sense to you? It doesn't to me. And so I suspect you are getting the point: The easy machine gun is a myth. In fact, if I weren't so polite, I would call it a blatant lie.

 

So here is a request for the mayor, the governor and the attorney general, the parents of this gun ban: Could you get real? There is zero threat that, as we speak, dozens of dim criminals throughout the state are smartly converting semi-automatic rifles into machine guns.

 

The very same people who accuse President Bush of playing the "fear card" on terrorism are themselves playing the "fear card" on machine guns. The true motive behind this ban is to take another sneaky step toward prohibition of all private firearms of every kind.

 

Send email to mbowers@starnewspapers.com.

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I would love to have heard the discussion between him and Rod's staffer about the conversion process--that must have been hilarious :finger: .

It bet it would have been painful trying to not just bust out laughing at the staffer trying to defend a position he obviously is clueless about...kind of like his boss :finger:

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Does anyone remember if it was 20/20, 60 Minutes, or another "news" show in the early 80's that had two so called "experts" that said they could easily convert a semi-auto to full auto.

 

I believe they were previously convicted criminals, so touching a gun was illegal for them in the first place. I'm sure the producers didn't care.

 

The show first ran film of the test gun in semi-auto. At the end of the show, they ran film of a firearm in full auto. Now I wasn't as knowledgeable on firearms as I am now, but someone with a keen eye could catch it and they did! Two different firearms were used!!!

 

The two "experts" were tracked down and admitted they couldn't perform the conversion. The producers were questioned and they admitted the conversion couldn't be perfromed and two different guns were used to get the point they wanted across. The producers didn't care they lied to everyone even after being caught!

 

A conversion is nearly impossible, let alone an easy one. But everyone here already knows that.

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True, but Ilphil is right--despite some problems with details, the main thrust of his column is right on--one of the common arguments in favor of a ban on "assault weapons" is sheer fantasy.

Right - and the author at least qualifies these remarks with "my understanding", as opposed to confidently asserting that he knows exatly what he's talking about (which we all know happens with disturbing regularity).

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True, but Ilphil is right--despite some problems with details, the main thrust of his column is right on--one of the common arguments in favor of a ban on "assault weapons" is sheer fantasy.

Right - and the author at least qualifies these remarks with "my understanding", as opposed to confidently asserting that he knows exatly what he's talking about (which we all know happens with disturbing regularity).

Yep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So how many CAGE unit personel do you think reads this board, and others to gather information??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*Adds another layer of tin foil to hat*

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True, but Ilphil is right--despite some problems with details, the main thrust of his column is right on--one of the common arguments in favor of a ban on "assault weapons" is sheer fantasy.

All in all it's a positive article that shows the antis have to resort to lies and

deception because the truth is not on their side.

 

I sent hims a "thank you" e-mail and I think others should too. We need to

encourage this type of journalism. IMHO anyway.

 

Here's his e-mail: MMjbowers@cs.com

 

 

He did answer my note too.

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