Zip gun(en.wikipedia.org) |
Here’s a commercial one, which has a safety pin that must be removed before it will fire: http://www.billsbangsticks.com/12-Gauge-Powerhead_p_17.html
In an insurgency situation, devices like this are best used to obtain something better. Only being usable for a single shot isn’t necessarily a huge disadvantage, especially if there are multiple people using them at the same time. Pressed against heavy clothing, they also make surprising little noise. The “Liberator” .45 pistol was made by the US with the intention of airdropping the, to the French Resistance in WW2. In reality, almost all of them ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic. The Sten 9mm SMG didn’t cost much more to make and was much more effective.
If you’re making a semi-auto, it must be a closed bolt design, and the sear must be designed to not reset until the trigger travels forward. It’s much easier to make an open-bolt SMG than a semi-auto pistol.
Also out here in the Wild, Wild West (aka Arizona) one can make pretty much any firearm they wish as long as it isn't full-auto or has (IIRC) a barrel over a 1/2" thanks to the last governor.
Anyhoo, the point is it varies on the gun laws depending on where you live.
> Also out here in the Wild, Wild West (aka Arizona) one can make pretty much any firearm they wish as long as it isn't full-auto or has (IIRC) a barrel over a 1/2" thanks to the last governor.
Federal laws still apply, and the NFA in particular is what makes DIY firearms complicated. I'm in Arkansas, and it's about the same here as Arizona.
You can also have an open bolt semi there are quite a few conversions that didn’t went closed bolt.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/oh_no_its_the_plast...
(Yes, you can buy a bunch of parts off the internet and build your own untraceable gun today, or so I've read.)
See noun form of zip, first definition https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/zip#English
Previously I had only understood zip in the context of a zipper, the compression, fast, and the zip gun..
ZIP Code https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code
Zip file format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)
Convolution (zip) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_(computer_science)
For instance, “Nip” is generally considered to be a slur, but it seems to have come to English from the word “Nippon” or “Nihon”. “Nipponese” in English would be “Nihonjin” as best I can tell in Japanese. “Nipponese” was used as far back at the early 19th Century (1), but “Nip”, as a slur, seems to have arisen after WW2.
Given the changing nature of language, I guess it’s not surprising to see random unrelated words come to be viewed as slurs. In this case, there’s even misleading “evidence”, given that Nambu pistols in the later years of WW2 were absolutely terrible firearms, due to time and resource constraints as Imperial Japan lost access to imported resources.
1: https://books.google.com/books?id=WiEYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA584&dq=N...
That being said, I'd bet that most Zipguns are made by the desperate who lack proper materials and relevant experience.
Someday I plan to collect some of them and publish a book :)
Funny. I live in FL where a carry permit is relatively easy to obtain. (Interesting that many local MDs in SW FL have one) But the Mossberg Shockwave loophole is hilarious. Take for example New Jersey's supposedly highly restrictive gun laws. An assault weapon includes A semi-automatic shotgun with either a magazine capacity exceeding six rounds, a folding stock or a pistol grip in their NJ Administrative Code Title 13. Yet a Mossberg 590 Shockwave 12ga 14 inch 6-shot with a handle grip resembling an old flintlock pistol is legal.
The handgun portion didn't survive, but the minimal length requirements did.
Also, interestingly, it wasn't a ban but a tax. Congress at the time believed they didn't have the Constitutional authority to ban any class of firearms, so they instituted a prohibitive tax ($200) on short-barreled rifles and shotguns, "destructive devices", and automatics. There's a $5 tax on "any other weapons", which these days mostly applies to guns that don't look like guns.
Bear in mind that $200 in 1934 is about $3,700 today. At the time, you could mail order a .45 Thompson submachine gun for about $200, so the law effectively doubled the price. They were advertised as self-defense weapons for property owners: https://gastatic.com/digest/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/tumbl...
Automatics weren't banned until 1986, and even then, they weren't technically banned - they just require that $200 tax, and it's not possible to pay the tax for one made after May of 1986.
