(Newswire.net — October 3, 2014) — The bill would make it a crime under California law for a person to manufacture a firearm without first obtaining California Department of Justice approval to do so.
Additionally, if that gun is approved, the individual would also be required to engrave a serial number on that weapon, which would be provided by the California Department of Justice.
However, a bill in California that would have outlawed untraceable firearms that do not contain government-assigned serial numbers called “ghost guns” was vetoed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, who said he “can’t see how adding a serial number to a homemade gun would significantly advance public safety.”
Anyway, as a way to get around that law, manufacturers can make a semi-finished lower receiver that “isn’t technically a gun, but gets as close to the line as possible,” Ars Technica reported.
The metal piece is usually 80 percent finished, and can be purchased from a variety of companies.
Last year, Defense Distributed announced the blueprints for the Liberator – the world’s first 3D-printed plastic gun. Congress responded by approving a 10-year extension to the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 which prohibits gun manufacturers from making firearms invisible to metal detectors.
Liberator required customers to have a relatively expensive 3D printer, and then retrieve the digital blueprints from a website, but the process is much easier with the Ghost Gunner, which comes with a $1,300 pre-sale price tag and will ship in January.
“If you can assemble a firearm or operate a 3D printer, you can use Ghost Gunner,” the company said on its website.
But the question is why would you?