Clandestine Machine Pistol Factory in Canada Product Circulating

In 2014, the Canadian government closed down a clandestine machine pistol and silencer factory located in the LaSalle Borough of Montreal, Canada. Homemadeguns has obtained some wonderful photographs that appear to be evidence photos from the raid. They are a useful and well done website.

The machine pistols (almost certainly full auto) were made in a metal fabrication company. The workers were apparently told they were making parts for paintball guns. It is a good cover. The official story is that a faulty burglar alarm brought the attention of the authorities. I suspect an informant.

It is unknown how many of the simple, yet effective, design were manufactured and sold on the black market.

The raid on the clandestine factory occurred in 2014. The Tec-9 clone seen below was confiscated in 2015. You can tell it is from the clandestine Montreal factory because of the bolt holes in the grip and forward of the magazine well to hold the two halves of the receiver together. Here is the link to the 2015 story:

After inspecting the vehicle, police found a loaded 9mm Norinco pistol, a loaded .45-calibre pistol and a loaded ‘Tec9’ 9mm sub-machine gun.

Another machine pistol from the same factory pops up in this photograph of a Tec-9 clone with silencer confiscated in 2016. Here is the link to the example seized in 2016:

A Tec-9 machine pistol with silencer, at centre, was one of the firearms seized including 3 rifles, two shotguns and two handguns

The three bolt holes on the grip are distinctive.

Few pictures of gun confiscations make it into the media. Not all that do are monitored by interested parties. The fact that we see two examples in the two years after the Montreal factory was raided indicates the likelihood that many more exist.

Any metal fabrication shop could make similar firearms. There are typically dozens of such shops in any major city.  In addition, nearly all auto-body shops would be capable of similar constructions. Many private hobbyists have the capacity to fabricate this type of firearm. Around the world this type of machine pistol/submachine gun is a favorite of clandestine manufacture in small shops and by individuals.

In Montreal, the people making the parts thought they were making parts for paintball guns. It takes little imagination to consider the possibilities of farming out individual parts to widely separated metal fabricators, with a plausible explanation for each part. Then the parts could be assembled in a central location before distribution and sale.

This system was in wide use in Europe before WWI, where it was all legal.

My father was trained as a machinist and worked in a war plant in Milwaukee during WWII. I asked him how hard it would be to fabricate a small revolver.  He said that would not take much to do. He said speed of manufacture would increase greatly once jigs were made to allow for mass production. He noted the problem was a simple one that had been solved long before.

As properly manufactured and tested firearms become difficult and expensive to obtain, clandestinely manufactured guns become more attractive and more common.

©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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