America is in the middle of the 2020 election cycle. Thats usually bad news for gun rights.
A crowded field of Democrats is fervently battling an incumbent Republican President and both sides of the aisle could never be split further down the middle. Gun control and big campaign promises are a staple of every election cycle. Same old story.
Only this time it really isnt the same newsreel. Mass shootings have captured Americans attention. Some Presidential candidates are calling for jailing Americans if they refuse to give up their guns. Considering this more Americans are turning to an old clause in the 1968 Gun Control Act to buy a little insurance for their Second Amendment rights.
A Long-Established Little-Known Gun Law
For many the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) was just another series of federal laws that regulated the interstate commerce of firearms. Signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson the GCA was immediately enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Except one important clause in the GCA has allowed a relatively new firearms market to emerge in America:
With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a non-licensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms. However a person is prohibited from assembling a non-sporting semi-automatic rifle or non-sporting shotgun from imported parts. In addition the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and approval by ATF. An application to make a machine gun will not be approved unless documentation is submitted showing that the firearm is being made for a Federal or State agency."
18 U.S.C. 922(o) and (r) 26 U.S.C. 5822 27 CFR 478.39 479.62 and 479.105
With this one section the GCA gave Americans the green light to make from scratch their own guns at home. They just couldnt manufacture" with the intent to sell and they couldnt make anything restricted under the National Firearms Act (NFA).
This legal green light is still lit today.
The Rise of The At-Home Gunsmith
Over the past few years gunsmiths firearm retailers and machinists have descended upon a new firearms niche and created the 80 lower receiver. Basically theres a new a market for gun-making kits that arent regulated by the ATF and Americans are catching on. These kits allow you to buy every part youd need to build an AR-15 Glock 1911 or even a Sig Sauer handgun at home. The most important part of these kits is the receiver blank.
Often called an 80 lower" or 80 frame" these blanks are incomplete receivers or frames that arent yet considered firearms by the ATF. The most popular type of receiver blank is used to build a black rifle off the books an unregistered tactical rifle the government doesnt know about. Starting to see the advantages as a prepper?
Why Americans are Building Guns Off the Grid"
This election has brought an unusual interest in passing new gun control. Simple logic says the more right-wing a sitting President is the more left-wing the opposing candidates campaign tactics become. And in 2020 were incredibly right- and left-wing with this election. The result is an anti-gun narrative coming from Democratic frontrunners that have some scary implications for American gun owners.
Delaware Gun Rights groups stormed the Legislative Hall outside Dover protesting a failed assault weapons ban. And at the federal level a sweeping national assault weapons ban (version 2.0) is the hot topic among most Democratic runners. And lets not forget Sen. Cory Bookers calls to jail Americans who refuse to comply.
Gun Bans Arent Effective Anyway
Reasonable Americans want to protect their Second Amendment rights and they have every justification to do so. After all gun bans have never really worked. We dont need to look very far back in history to analyze. In 1994 the Clinton administration banned 19 types of military-style assault weapons". This included the AK-47 the AR-15 the TEC-9 the Uzi sub-machinegun and others.
Studies conducted by both pro- and anti-gun groups as well as the Justice Department showed conflicting results on the effectiveness of the ban. Professor at University of Massachusetts at Boston Louis Klarevas (Ph.D) parsed the gun crime data collected during the ten years the 1994 ban was in effect. Klarevas found that the ban had no effect on reducing mass shootings nor did it help prevent gun violence in any measurable way. Therefore Congress allowed the ban to expire ten years later in 2004.
Gun owners surely want to discuss these political developments so we set out to find one. Dylan" a 33-year-old Pennsylvanian and Republican gun owner built an AR-15 at home using a receiver blank. We asked him his thoughts on gun ban proposals and the state of the Second Amendment:
Theyll be banned again just wait for it. Except Im not going to give my guns up. AR-15s were banned and then un-banned a few years ago and it made no difference none of it matters. Well it matters to me."
Dylan continued noting I really think that the government is going to start going after gun owners individually. When you buy a gun you have to do a background check and that background check records the serial number of the gun youre buying." Maybe hes right.
America is in the middle of the 2020 election cycle. Thats usually bad news for gun rights.
A crowded field of Democrats is fervently battling an incumbent Republican President and both sides of the aisle could never be split further down the middle. Gun control and big campaign promises are a staple of every election cycle. Same old story.
Only this time it really isnt the same newsreel. Mass shootings have captured Americans attention. Some Presidential candidates are calling for jailing Americans if they refuse to give up their guns. Considering this more Americans are turning to an old clause in the 1968 Gun Control Act to buy a little insurance for their Second Amendment rights.
A Long-Established Little-Known Gun Law
For many the Gun Control Act of 1968 (GCA) was just another series of federal laws that regulated the interstate commerce of firearms. Signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson the GCA was immediately enforced by the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (BATFE). Except one important clause in the GCA has allowed a relatively new firearms market to emerge in America:
With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a non-licensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms. However a person is prohibited from assembling a non-sporting semi-automatic rifle or non-sporting shotgun from imported parts. In addition the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and approval by ATF. An application to make a machine gun will not be approved unless documentation is submitted showing that the firearm is being made for a Federal or State agency."
18 U.S.C. 922(o) and (r) 26 U.S.C. 5822 27 CFR 478.39 479.62 and 479.105
With this one section the GCA gave Americans the green light to make from scratch their own guns at home. They just couldnt manufacture" with the intent to sell and they couldnt make anything restricted under the National Firearms Act (NFA).
This legal green light is still lit today.
The Rise of The At-Home Gunsmith
Over the past few years gunsmiths firearm retailers and machinists have descended upon a new firearms niche and created the 80 lower receiver. Basically theres a new a market for gun-making kits that arent regulated by the ATF and Americans are catching on. These kits allow you to buy every part youd need to build an AR-15 Glock 1911 or even a Sig Sauer handgun at home. The most important part of these kits is the receiver blank.
Often called an 80 lower" or 80 frame" these blanks are incomplete receivers or frames that arent yet considered firearms by the ATF. The most popular type of receiver blank is used to build a black rifle off the books an unregistered tactical rifle the government doesnt know about. Starting to see the advantages as a prepper?
Why Americans are Building Guns Off the Grid"
This election has brought an unusual interest in passing new gun control. Simple logic says the more right-wing a sitting President is the more left-wing the opposing candidates campaign tactics become. And in 2020 were incredibly right- and left-wing with this election. The result is an anti-gun narrative coming from Democratic frontrunners that have some scary implications for American gun owners.
Delaware Gun Rights groups stormed the Legislative Hall outside Dover protesting a failed assault weapons ban. And at the federal level a sweeping national assault weapons ban (version 2.0) is the hot topic among most Democratic runners. And lets not forget Sen. Cory Bookers calls to jail Americans who refuse to comply.
Gun Bans Arent Effective Anyway
Reasonable Americans want to protect their Second Amendment rights and they have every justification to do so. After all gun bans have never really worked. We dont need to look very far back in history to analyze. In 1994 the Clinton administration banned 19 types of military-style assault weapons". This included the AK-47 the AR-15 the TEC-9 the Uzi sub-machinegun and others.
Studies conducted by both pro- and anti-gun groups as well as the Justice Department showed conflicting results on the effectiveness of the ban. Professor at University of Massachusetts at Boston Louis Klarevas (Ph.D) parsed the gun crime data collected during the ten years the 1994 ban was in effect. Klarevas found that the ban had no effect on reducing mass shootings nor did it help prevent gun violence in any measurable way. Therefore Congress allowed the ban to expire ten years later in 2004.
Gun owners surely want to discuss these political developments so we set out to find one. Dylan" a 33-year-old Pennsylvanian and Republican gun owner built an AR-15 at home using a receiver blank. We asked him his thoughts on gun ban proposals and the state of the Second Amendment:
Theyll be banned again just wait for it. Except Im not going to give my guns up. AR-15s were banned and then un-banned a few years ago and it made no difference none of it matters. Well it matters to me."
Dylan continued noting I really think that the government is going to start going after gun owners individually. When you buy a gun you have to do a background check and that background check records the serial number of the gun youre buying." Maybe hes right.