Guns have been made by individuals as long as there have been guns. In the United States, it has always been legal to own the means of production to make your own guns. It has always been legal to make your own. Hobbyists have been making firearms as long as the United States has existed.
The national war on the Second Amendment started in the 1930's. Passed in 1934, the National Firearms Act required a license to make some guns for commercial sale. To own short barreled rifles and shotguns, and guns that can fire more than one shot with each pull of the trigger, a federal tax stamp was required.
New Jersey is one of only six states that does not have a state constitutional amendment protecting the right to keep and bear arms.
The state Attorney General, Gurbir Grewal demanded that unnamed companies stop selling "Ghost Guns" without serial numbers. It is already illegal, under federal law, for a company to make and sell guns without a serial number.
No company is legally selling "Ghost Guns" in New Jersey.
What is the AG talking about?
The governor's senior adviser for firearms, William Castner, said the ghost gun business would be "closed for business" in New Jersey.When the federal government passed the federal gun control act of 1968, they had to define what a gun was.
Ghost guns are unregistered weapons that don't have serial numbers. Grewal said the firms sell the nearly complete weapons, often along with the parts needed to finish them, as well as training so the firearms can be completed.
A piece of metal is not a gun. A piece of wood is not a gun. A metal tube is not a gun. A spring is not a gun. Take enough pieces of metal and wood, work them into the proper shapes and sizes, put them together, and they can become a gun.
The federal law defines a gun as the part that other pieces are attached to, in order to make a functioning gun. That piece is called the receiver. When a commercial manufacturer makes a receiver, they are required to put a serial number on it.
It would be insane to require a gun owner to have to undergo licensing every time they replaced a worn or broken part. A broken spring can be replaced. A worn out barrel can be replaced. But if a receiver has to be replaced, the new receiver has a new serial number.
Under federal law, a receiver less than 80% complete is not a gun.
AG Grewal is making public disarmament theater by threatening unnamed manufacturers, who do not make guns, with a lawsuit.
It is illegal for people to remove a serial number from a gun. Criminals can easily make a "Ghost Gun" by stealing an existing gun and grinding off, filing off, or drilling out, the serial number. It is much, much more difficult to buy an unfinished piece of metal, do the required machining to make it into a receiver, and then buy the parts to add to the receiver to make a completed gun.
Criminals in other countries find it easy to make their own uncomplicated receivers and gun parts from scratch. One of the easiest repeaters to make, it the submachine gun. Homemade submachine guns are commonly made in Israel, the Philippines, Brazil, in crude workshops or at home. In first world countries with tight gun control, like Australia and Canada, the black market submachine guns are better finished and of higher quality.
The more people know about guns and gun laws, the less they are susceptible to the propaganda exhibited by AG Grewal. Gurbir Grewal is a Sikh, not a Muslim or Hindu. He was born in New Jersey of Indian immigrant parents. It is likely Grewal is ignorant about guns, himself, as he grew up in an extremely restrictive firearms environment. He has been an outspoken critic of President Trump, and has been pushing a number of "Progressive" policies in New Jersey.
Progressivism detests the concept of the Second Amendment in its bones.
Grewals lawsuit won't make anyone safer. It is an attack on Constitutional rights.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
Gun Watch
Read the tenth amendment until you understand what it actually says. State constitutions must comply with the federal constitution above their own. If the state does not address a specific issue, such as the second amendment then the second amendment is in effect in that state. all federally guaranteed rights exist in every square inch of this country no matter what state you are in. get it federally guaranteed rights? The U.S. constitution is the supreme law of this land. The U.S. Supreme court has ruled all guaranteed rights travel with you even across state lines. too many morons interpreting the laws that have no understanding of American law. factually there are no valid state firearms laws. because the second amendment is the supreme law. the individual states have no authority to over rule the Federal constitution, tenth amendment separation of powers. Read the constitution find any authority to interpret law by any one. second amendment supporter should smarten up. do some research.
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