Gun control becomes NSW election issue as firearm ownership reaches milestone - Polidicks

Okay, so that's not a strictly rational choice, apart from the limitations imposed by handmade manufacture.

The Hughes Amendment of 1986 that banned new registration of machine guns to the National Firearms Registry is the reason for the ban. Since they can't be made legally, they have to be made illegally if someone wants them. Someone would want one because it shoots lots of bullets very fast, so in the event of an all-out gang war they have a firepower advantage against a group of opposing gang members.

The Thompson SMG is the reason machine guns are banned. A few gangsters used them to stick up banks and caused a public panic, resulting in the NFA '34 requiring an outrageously expensive (at the time) tax stamp + registration. Statistically machine guns were extremely rarely used in crime and by the time they were outright banned in 1986 there had been no recorded cases of a machine gun used in a crime for decades.

IIRC since the introduction of the NFA in 1934 there have only been 2 cases of legally registered machine guns being used in a crime, and one of those was by a cop.

Was that public panic caused by an actually increased threat linked to the use of SMGs? Or is it more a matter of perceived threat like with gang fights?

An open bolt machine gun is the simplest gun you can possibly make, it's actually baffling that it took so long for them to be invented. If you sit down and try to invent a gun the odds are good you'll basically invent the Sten. All you need is a bolt with a fixed firing pin on the front, a spring to force it forward, and a trigger that holds it locked back (like a crossbow trigger holding a bowstring). When you pull the trigger, the bolt is free to move forward, detonate a cartridge, get blown back, bounce forward and detonate the next cartridge, and so on until you release the trigger, at which point the trigger catches the bolt on its next backstroke.

Do you have any statistics for this?

I'm not sure if it's the type of thing that's tracked in the US, but I can look into it.

That's a new one

No, it's a term that's been around for a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoplophobia

It's a good term, I need to use it more often. and it's a better term than "european" /s

That's the thing. These homemade guns are coming down in price. In the early 2000's, I may have agreed with you as the standard running price for a standard pipe gun, was about 500 AUS, and your machine pistol would be 2000 AUS. Now the machine pistols are about 600 AUS and pipeguns are p.much nothing. The prices are coming down as they flood the market. Bikie gangs have actually come under fire for this and many of it's ex-members are being discriminated against regarding metal working jobs, in fear they may be taking part in the illegal arms industry. As for manufacture of ammunition, it's about as kitchen recipe as making drugs. Bikies already make meth, do you really think making some gun powder is gonna be difficult?

Damn, you think they plan on going public anytime soon? It's only a matter of time before they start selling to the Saudis, and I want my slice of the pie. Seriously though, it sucks that they are increasing in efficiency but it's only logical that demand and practice would eventually lead to some amount of improvements on their end. But what's also logical is that, unless they have a greater market share and somehow better engineers than legitimate manufacturers, they're spending more resources for less reliable results than they would've if getting supplied with weapons through regular arms trafficking were a competitive option. Organised crime operates like businesses, so higher operating costs and less available "workforce" means less resources assigned to committing other kinds of crimes. Australian regulations may not put an absolute stop to criminal firearm use, but they're hampering crime to some degree, directly or not. Besides, as some Aussie posters have pointed out, there isn't much demand for more flexible gun ownership restrictions for civilians among the population, and it's not part of their constitution in the first place, like it is in the US. So they don't really violate a pre-existing right there. Regarding ammunition, correct me if I'm wrong but it's not only a matter of synthesizing gunpowder, right? Unless they're fond of old muskets, I assume they also need to build the mechanical part of individual bullets, including the part that gets propelled and the shell that contains the powder itself (while maintaining sufficient precision to let their makeshift gun eject them when firing). It's probably a lot less efficient and reliable to produce them in some workshop than on an optimized assembly line, especially in great quantities. Considering they're single-use items, contrary to the guns itself, I think it would drive costs up a lot compared to "normal" firearms and ammo, especially if you use them regularly. It also wouldn't surprise me if handmade ammo led to more frequent jams and generally decreased reliability.

Ammunition is easy to divert from the legal market. There's basically no system that can avoid that. That said, I think you could make ammo from scratch.

For the manufacture of ammo, it depends what you intend to do. Armstrong Powder can be used for low-velocity rounds, and has been used by many people across the world for poaching. For manufacturing smokeless, you'll need some chems, but it's nothing really when you consider the fact that a vast majority of them can be bought/sourced from just about everywhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ4G5rqKAJY From there, it's just a matter of getting a few other chems, which about anyone can get.

Yeah I figured they would be easier to smuggle around.

Well, the rest of the cartridge can be easily manufactured with things found at a plumbing store. Luty actually detailed this stuff in his book "Expedient Ammunition" which follows the premise of his book on manufacturing a machine pistol. If you wanna go read it, here's a PDF from his website.

Thanks, I'll take your word for it, would rather avoid ending up on a list at the moment. Any stats on use of makeshift ammo among Aus criminals, though? Download seems to say it's rather uncommon.

Delusional and outright fabrication here folks. Unless you can prove these prices with some decent evidence. The quoted price was a factor of 10 where I heard it from, for pretty much anything better than a PVC pipe and explosives.

None that I'm aware of regarding domestic manufacture. I know theirs stuff regarding weapons seized in Perth and Sydney, but that's about as far as my knowledge goes.

I wasn't able to find any hard statistics for confiscated homemade guns. I think that's because building guns isn't illegal, so building a machine gun just gets you a nonspecific possession of NFA weapon charge.

Good, not gonna judge anyone for collecting weapons out of interest, but I've got nothing against gun laws tightening. Shootings in Melbourne have become more frequent than I'm comfortable with, so even if this is a NSW pledge, I feel like it's good for the country overall.