[SmithL]

Another great read from Bowers. Give his site a hit.

[MarkL]

Excellent article, however MY response to the spokes-twerp would have been, "A conversion kit? If they're so easy to get and use, approximately how many illegally converted 'assault weapons' have been used in crimes in the last 10 years?" It seems to me that if they have been used, we'd be hearing about them in the press, over and over and over again.

Mark

[F-117A]

Hit and Bumped too!!

[lonedawg]

In the infamous bank robbery in LA you had two real life bank robbers with fully automatic rifles going bonkers , but in the end the only people killed were the robbers. Granted they caused a lot of injury and caused quite a stir but there was the mass slaying the lefties would lead one to believe is inevitable.

[BudgieRamone]

AS a machinist and gun shop employee, I got asked about this frequently.

Depends on the gun. Depends on the skill level of the machinist/gunsmith. Depends on the determination of the individual doing the "conversion".

Personally I wouldn't want to risk it. Heck there are enough laws on the books that I don't know about that I could be breaking; why would I want to break the ones I do know about and jeopardize my being able to work in my chosen trade or being able to participate in a hobby I enjoy?

JM2B

[JasonC]

The SKS is not, of course, a Chinese AK-47. It is a Russian designed carbine in the same 7.62x39 caliber at the AK-47, which they designed immediately after WW II. It's closest US cousin would be an M-1 carbine (not to be confused with an M-1 Garand). It is a Korean era semi-auto carbine and even in military use was never a fully automatic weapon. Unlike the later AK.

[CodeToad]

Converting an AR is a PITA. It requires machine work on the receiver and new parts. It isn't a simple or reliable job.

[CodeToad]

For the Chicago mayor he has machines guns...he simply tells the police who to shoot. They've got machine guns, so why can't the citizens of Chicago?

[pawdoggie]

So I thought I would look into the validity of its major argument. That is, this notion that it's easy to convert a semi-automatic rifle (legal) into a fully automatic rifle (illegal), also known as a machine gun (illegal).

I wasn't aware that this was the major (MSM/public) argument against semiautomatic "Assault Rifles". I thought the major argument was/is "you don't need one to hunt with". Everything else, the "violent" bayonet stud, the "high-capacity" magazine and the possibility of "conversion" to full auto were secondary issues.

If you're going to have to get precision "machining" equipment, you might as well get a copy of the British SOE plans for the Sten gun, and have at it.

[CGTRWK]

Could you explain, I asked. How do you do this job anyway? Do you need a screwdriver? A power drill? How long does it take?

I would be very, very careful about asking this sort of thing. Read: I would not ask at all, ever. This is exactly the type of crime the BATFE exists to burn your family alive or shoot your wife in the head for prevent.

[Blood of Tyrants]

... the SKS, which I understand to be the Chinese version of the AK-47.

Incorrect. The SKS is a completely different design from the AK-47. The only thing interchangeable between the two is the cartridge. The SKS is a semi-auto ONLY rifle and was built by many different countries including China.

There are no guns "readily convertable" to fire full auto on the market. There are no mysterious "conversion kits". But, to be truthful, the ATF is so psychotic they once declared that your shoelace could be declared a "machine gun" if someone used it to make a gun fore more than one round per trigger pull.

The trouble is that most ATF agents have no idea what it takes to make a true machine gun. Heck, half them don't know an M1 Garand from an AK-47.

[RipSawyer]

I have no doubt that conversion is more involved thant the liberal gun haters would have us believe but this guy seems to have about as much mechanical aptitude as an eggplant and seems to be proud of the fact. Not everyone is so mechanically helpless.

[tcostell]

It's a lot of fun for us all to compare notes on how to convert a semi-rifle to select-fire, but the truth is that's not really the point.

There are laws against select fire weapons already, and since select-fire weapons (machine guns for you liberals ...masheen guns for those of you in the media) are almost never used to commit crimes, the laws in place seem to be adequately protecting the public without the need for more laws which infringe on the rights of gun owners.

Whether it's easy or not is beside the point, since criminals don't typically do it.


Don't let the politicians hide the ball on this.