The State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance forced Wilson to take down his blueprints to investigate whether the files violated export control laws for weapons, known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The at-home assembly of weapons became highly publicized this month when Cody Wilson uploaded blueprints to build a 3D-plastic gun on his website, Defense Distributed. 'That doesn't happen here,' says Bruce Borihanh, an LAPD spokesman, told him. Mr Schatz contacted the Los Angeles police about the legality of the gun building parties, he writes in his article. The California field office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not respond to a request for comment about his purchase and gun assembly. The average model is 35 inches long and weighs an estimated 8 lbs Weapon: The Soviet weapon was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov as a lightweight assault rifle in 1947, with the Russian name Avtomat Kalashnikova. 'Build parties are open to anyone who wants to participate, and that deserves some heavy consideration in my opinion.' He is clear to note that attending a gun party doesn't mean that the weapon will be used for nefarious activity, but the lack of proper screening did cause him alarm. 'I understand that for many gun enthusiasts, building an AK, an HK33, an AR-15, whatever, is simply an enjoyable project.It's a hobby.' He told the MailOnline that he is shocked at the ease in which he was able to acquire the parts and construct the gun but also understands the constitutional right to do so. 'Their reputation has been rightly earned: AKs are popular because they work - every time,' he writes.Īfter his experiment, at the prompting of the magazine, Schatz decided to dismember the gun, cutting the receiver in half. 'I park on a bluff, walk to a spot where I can aim at a mountain of scrub brush and sand, and load five rounds.
The next day he took his newly made assault rifle for a trial shoot in Jawbone Canyon in the Mojave Desert.
Though California has a strict assault weapons ban, because the gun builders are constructing the weapons for their own 'personal use,' they are not required to stamp in serial numbers, he writes. He writes how the host of the gun gathering informed him that the weapon he built was an Egyptian 'Maadi,' with parts that likely came to the U.S. Joined by a motley crew of gun enthusiasts, he spent an estimated 8 hours assembling the weapon, an exercise that was overseen by the gun experts hosting the event.
Conclusion: At the prompting of his employer, the journalist destroyed the gun he had assembled