The Nightstar Zoo

Check this out:


The story:
About 80-year old engineer from Hämeenlinna (southern Finland) constructed a working automatic weapon from a battery-powered drill. Troubles started when he went to the police to get a permit for his weapon.
"Automatic weapons are not permitted. We took the gun away, questioned him, and processed the case as a firearms offense." stated the local officer. "It was built from pipes and whatnot, with great precision. I have to respect that. No parts from other weapons were used. All the components are commonly available." Both the engineer and the police test-fired the weapon on shooting range, and found it quite functional.
Prosecutor originally had the engineer on charges, but district court decided to drop charges. Government took the gun, though, and is likely to place it in crime museum.

The weapon-enthusiastic engineer had been developing the gun for more than a dozen years. Rate of fire for the weapon is 420 shots per minute, and it uses a metal belt to feed .22 caliber ammunition. Range was not mentioned.

"I have to tip my hat to the man." -- comment from the case officer.

So, what are you gonna do when you are 80?

This points up one of the major stupidities of gun-control legislation. Guns aren't exactly hard to fabricate; anyone with a half-way decent basement machine shop can turn out working fascimilies of a MAC-11 or an AK-series really, really quickly.

In fact, a MAC-11 would be about the easiest kind of gun to build from scratch. They ain't exactly complex.

Hah! Takes a bit of Finnish Sisu to pull something like that off
Zwilnik: Any link to the original story so I can get a proper URL to spam to my friends?


PS. That thing has got to have an "Ei saa peittää" sticker on it somewhere...

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Living in a state free from the burdens of privacy and democracy since 2008-06-18.

Hell, the STEN would be easier than a MAC-11.

And yes, gun legislation is silly. It only keeps guns out of the hands of the law-abiding. Who are, by definition, exactly the people you don't need to worry about.

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Fandemonium 2010 -- No Boundaries.
http://www.fandemonium.org
Friday - Sunday, August 6th - 8th, 2010
Nampa Civic Center - Nampa, Idaho (Only 20 minutes from the airport!)
(Idaho: It ain't just potatoes anymore.)

Sadly, there seems to be nothing more than the newspaper article I spotted by chance. I tried to search for it in the web, but only found gazillion sites dedicated to the wonder of drilling (sans bullets). Electronic version of the paper does exist, but I don't feel like paying, and in any case they wouldn't feel llike sharing.

I could always scan the original article in full and post it (temporarily) for viewing & downloading. PM me or just post here if it's good enough, and I'll do it.

Ah. In that case I think I'll just spam around the picture with an explanation

Happy independence day BTW!

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Living in a state free from the burdens of privacy and democracy since 2008-06-18.

Thanks! 87 years down, hopefully a lot more to go.
Looking eastward always makes me appreciate this day.

Zilwink ...From E.E. (Doc) Smith's Lensman science fiction series
def a drugrunner