I see breathless reports coming from California that the school shooter last week used a "ghost gun". These are generally defined as a gun without a serial number, assembled from parts. They put in in scare quotes, like its a bad thin.
Let me tell you a little secret: All guns are assembled from parts, and serial numbered frames were not required before 1968. These are still perfectly legal.
Large manufacturers like Colt, Smith and Wesson, Remington, Winchester et. al. used serial numbers to help with book-keeping, but many manufacturers did not. Adding a serial number was an additional manufacturing step and was not required by law until 1968.
Properly made firearms might last well beyond the fifty years since serial numbers have been required. It is not uncommon to stumble across and old gun that was found in granddad's closet that doesn't have a serial number. There is nothing malevolent about these guns. They were simply manufactured at a time before excessive government regulation.
And,, to recap: All guns are built from parts.
2 comments:
But the hysteria!!!! If the hysteria level in ONE snowflake goes to 11.....then you have aggrieved the hive!
Steve
I did see one report that used the word 'replica'. I'm pretty sure that replica or model guns have to be made so that they can't be converted into functional weapons, at least not without a lot of skilled work. And generally, replicas aren't made out of the stoutest materials, because they're not intended to stand up to the kinds of stresses that the real this is.
I was also under the impression that assembling a 1911 type pistol (the type listed in the report I read) from parts is considerably more challenging than assembling, say, an AR-15, and requires some level of hand fitting of the parts, and thus, some level of skill.
Of course, lack of full functionality might help explain why it reportedly took the shooter 15 seconds to fire 8 or 9 shots, including the last one into his own head.
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