Posted on 08/04/2015 6:57:28 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
WALNUT CREEK (KRON/BCN) — A 21-year-old Lafayette native built the firearms he used to kill a 19-year-old college woman before he turned the gun on himself at a home in Walnut Creek last month, police said Tuesday.
Investigators say Scott Bertics bought gun parts through the mail and then secretly built the two firearms he used in the murder-suicide that claimed the life of Clare Orton.
The shooting happened on July 21 at a home in the city’s north Homestead neighborhood. Officers arrived on scene to find the two dead dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the home where Orton was living with her family, according to police.
Orton was home during summer break after finishing her freshman year at San Diego State University, investigators said. She was a graduate of Las Lomas High School in Walnut Creek and captain of the school’s cross country team, according to the school’s newspaper, Las Lomas Page.
Bertics had enrolled at Stanford University in the fall of 2012, but he took a voluntary leave of absence in the fall of 2014, according to university spokesman Brad Hayward.
Hayward said Bertics had not yet declared a major, but he is listed on a 2013 demonstration called “Controlling Robot Dynamics with Spiking Neurons.” He’s also acknowledged in a paper titled, “Developing
Articulated Robots in Task-Space with Spiking Silicon Neurons.”
Guns that people build themselves are not required to be registered, Walnut Creek police Lt. Lanny Edwards said. “As long as you possess it yourself and don’t sell it, it’s not illegal to have,” said Edwards.
He added that while building a gun does not take a “rocket scientist” or a degree in mechanical engineering, it’s more complicated than merely snapping a few parts in place.
Detectives say they found nothing in their investigation to suggest anyone else was involved or had knowledge of Bertics’ plan.
So where did he get the receivers for the guns?Can’t buy those mail order.
You don’t have to be stupid to be crazy.
Did either one have a receiver per se or simply a chamber. Are there photos?
A semi smart person can easily build a gun from stock metal and a few machine tools...
You can buy partially milled receivers - often advertised as 80% finished - and then must finish milling and drilling.
Hadn’t considered those.I saw AR lowers 80% finished made of carbon fiber or polymer,wouldn’t bee too hard to finish with a dremel.
Impressively accurate for a state actor, especially from the PRC, but still a tiny bit off. It's perfectly legal to sell guns you make, so long as you don't sell so many it looks like you're in the business of manufacture for sale.
Also, where did the guy get his receiver? If he bought it like the other parts, it would be subjects to NICS like a complete firearm would. This article makes it sound as if you can buy all the parts online and build a gun, circumventing the background check. I guess technically you could, but only under the same circumstances under which you could legally buy a complete firearm, and not at all in Kali, so very misleading.
I can build a very lethal close range .22 cal gun from a car antenna and a cloths pin in about 30 minutes.
I hope this ass doesn't make it impossible to buy parts. That's how I build most of mine. I do the 4473 on the lowers.
I saw a you tube where a guy used a flat bladed shovel to make an AK receiver. The killer seemed to be pretty mechanically inclined too.
I’ve seen a fair number of the 80% advertisements for metal 1911’s. Several were actually pretty decent.
You don’t have to be crazy to be stupid.
I remember the AK-from-shovel thread!
I lost the mystery of firearms a little. AKs: They’re so . . . primitive.
Very true. Then again what if he made what we called a "Zip Gun" in years gone by?
That's not difficult to do at all.
The US gov’t is be happy to tell you exactly how to do this! Google “U.S. Army Improvised Munitions Handbook”. You can buy it on Amazon or download it for free.
You can buy the unfinished forging or use laminated sheet stock.
Guns are made by individuals all the time. They first came into use in the 15th century.
Buy you know that.
Lots of people build guns. Simple ones are easy.
We are dealing with people who can’t change a light bulb.
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