Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- A small shop was being used to make illegal pistols in Sussex, England. The police are said to have discovered the shop because of testing the illegal guns inside the shop. It is possible. It is far more common for such shops to be found by use of informants or sting operations. From telegraph.co.uk:
A large-scale illegal gun factory has been discovered on a Sussex industrial estate, the National Crime Agency has announced.
Investigators responded to what was believed to be gunshots coming from inside what the NCA called a warehouse unit describing itself as a gearbox repair business on an industrial estate in Hailsham, East Sussex.
Officers raided the building on Saturday night and found what they believe to be a “sophisticated” operation producing guns, of which the NCA has subsequently seized around 30.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) is dedicated to fighting organized crime in the UK. From the NCA:
Our role is to protect the public from the most serious threats by disrupting and bringing to justice those serious and organised criminals who present the highest risk to the UK.
The NCA describes the small shop as a “large scale illegal gun factory”. The equipment it has is common in millions of hobbyist basements and garages in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have far better and more extensive machine tools in the United States.
In the UK, a former shop teacher explained that such machinery is very common, and is being sold surplus, inexpensively, as the industrial school shops are being shut down.
The language used may seem a little strange to anyone familiar with engineering and metalworking. Perhaps the speaker was trying to make it understandable to a journalist. From telegraph.co.uk:
“Every engineering workshop around the country that use shaping metal in their trade will have a lathe like this one. It’s used to to manipulate metal, make it rounded.
“It would also be used to create the slots for bullets in the cylinder of an older, traditional handgun and would be used to form the barrel of a gun.
“The milling machine – the machine on the right – would be used to very accurately create grooves on the outside of the gun.”
The machines are old tech, of course. They form parts by removing material, as opposed to 3D printing, which forms parts by adding material. The Bridgeport milling machine would have been made in Connecticut. If it was part of lend-lease during WWII, it appears to have been upgraded to Computer Numerical Control (CNC). Bridgeport started making mills in 1938.
With proper maintenance, such tools have a very long productive life. The making of pistols in a small shop is light usage. The machines would not wear out for many decades.
Machines such as these have been used in making firearms for 150 years. Production from other small shops sources in Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Nigeria, indicate this shop could produce 20-30 pistols a month, if manned by 2-4 people.
Production would be facilitated if small parts were obtained elsewhere. Springs and pins could be sub-contracted without much risk, or smuggled in with little risk of detection.
High-quality finish and heat treatment is unnecessary for criminal use, but might result in a higher price in the underground economy.
©2018 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
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Personally, I hope there are 1000 more like that one that are still undiscovered by the “authorities”, and pushing out hundreds of units a day. Their country is being invaded, just like the rest of Europe and the USA.
When the War to End ALL War ended in 1918 the Brits dumped most of their arms, from handgun and rifle to machine guns and field pieces into the Channel. Then they passed laws against civil possession of everything except fancy double barrel shotguns. Then Hitler decided it was time for another war. Luckily American had lots of guns which were collected and shipped to Merry Old England. Even a .22 LR Savage was welcomed by the Home Guard. They knew that pitchforks were only good in a Frankenstein movie. Any of the dozens of automotive machine shops in every… Read more »
“Luckily American had lots of guns which were collected and shipped to Merry Old England. Even a .22 LR Savage was welcomed by the Home Guard.” Sorry to burst any bubble but whilst US civilian loaned firearms were indeed sent to the UK by the “American Committee for the Defence of British Homes” beyond the moderate propaganda benefit in the UK press these guns were not welcome and largely not used. Even sparing people to sort out the mess of junk that had been sent to find anything useful was not deemed worthwhile and the guns were stuffed into warehouses… Read more »
Remember that before the Revolutionary War the Brits wanted to disarm the citizens in the now US of A. That is part of what led to the war. Now, the Brits at home, have disarmed their “servants” in the name of safety. I do not for second believe that our armed citizens would quietly give up their arms to any government, to include our own. The left is paving the way for that future confrontation.
I would only hope this might have been a small attempt for a Brit to help out those who realize England will soon be under siege by the radical Muslim hordes that the fools in Parliament have unleashed upon their citizens. But it wpuld take many, many of these small initiatives to make any difference at all. Do you realize this could actually be our future if the mania over gun ownership is allowed to grow? No, I’m not Chicken Little, just a guy who keeps his ear to the rail, eye on the smoke signals, and 71 years of… Read more »
I know the British monarchy hasn’t had anything to do with making the laws in many many years. Why because they are a bunch of inbred idiots from years of marrying their cousins, sisters, etc. It was the same for the other kingdoms that have gone by the wayside. The Queen is paid an outlandish sum of money every year that could be better used to revamp their failing health care system. The citizens of Britain are finally taking a stand to get arms because their political system has been allowed to let tens of thousands of so-called refugees into… Read more »
So are you telling us if a man has a lathe and a mill its considered an illegal gun factory.
How much for the Bridgeport and the lathe???????
Daddy wants, needs, gots to haves…….
Nah, got dibs….:-)
Photo appears to be a normal small-scale machine shop utilizing outdated-but still perfectly functional lathe and milling machines. Don’t see anything “large-scale” here. Large scale, to me, would mean smelting, forging, computer automated machining stations, quality control, multiple assembly stations, spring winding equipment, and so on. It appears the report is bent on creating a fear based outcome to a lengthy trial- perhaps as an example to others?
A ‘small shop’, ‘large scale operation’. Somehow those two phrases do not match. I think the Telegraph is pitching B.S. for their overlords.
Perhaps to the pea sized brains of the local bobs, twenty or thirty guns a month is “large scale”. But that’s quite the stretch. If they were producing a thousand or so, then perhaps…..
Follow on reports will be interesting.
Hah! 20-30 a month? I can do that in a week, of course I can order most of the parts, and just mill the receiver; it just depends on whether I have the cash or not!
Lets remember, the brits gave up their arms in ’97, IT’S A LICK ON THEM!
The gummit hooh hahs the other side the Puddle forget England’s long and bright history of the home workshop. As motorcars began to proliferate, thousands of cobbers turned to in their own small workshops and built their own motorcars. Many of the well known marques of the last century had their beginnings just like this. MG (Morris Garage), Morris, Austin, Cosworth, Morgan, Vincent, Lotus, Jaguar, Rover and LandRover, Triumph, Rolls Royce and Bentley, Aston Martin, Elva, then the “tuners” who perfected the basic cars produced in volume once things got rolling, making them race champions.. Donald Healey, Jensen, Harry Westlake,… Read more »
A big a-men. Well said [written].
Thank you for mentioning the Vincent, a lovely motorcycle, half machine and half chimera. Those of you who aren’t familiar with it should Google it. It’s a wonderful example of what can be built in a small garage.
The ability to build guns in small shops is hardly new technology. Methinks the mainstream media doth protest too much.
I think that the British have forgotten their Magna Carta and the reason for it. Beware American patriots! Our time is coming. Do not forget our Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the reason for them. The future of your children is at stake.
People will get what people want. Simple as that. Sounds like gun control is failing still in merry old England.
Whenever any item is outlawed, it instantly creates a black market for that item. The best example of this was when the U.S. outlawed alcohol. It established the mafia in the U.S. because of it. But when it was legalized again, it did not create the massive amount of alcoholics as the anti-alcohol people had predicted.
Prohibition did do one thing. It slowed our alcohol consumption. Some Americans would start the day with a beer. I guess some still do. But per capita, we used to consume five times as much alcohol as we do now. I can’t even imagine drinking 5x what I do now.
That’s just a machine shop… Now they’ll be snooping through all the machinist’s stuff and are bound to find other “illegal” items such as sharp objects like calipers, finger nail clippers, scribes…
Shocking, absolutely shocking, or is it?
Goes to show…..gun laws don’t work. Even in ‘Draconian’ UK. Where there’s a will,there’s a way
“Killing is a matter of will, not weapons.
You cannot control the act itself
by passing laws about the means employed.”
The late Col Jeff Cooper, 1958
Handgun expert and founder of Gunsite Academy
Have you a source for that quote from Cooper? If so, I would like to use it in future.
https://www.buckeyefirearms.org/quotations-jeff-cooper
I don’t see that specific quote, but several a very similar!
Well, some Brits do have huevos. With all the trouble they have with the Muslims, having a gun, legal or not, would be a comfort.
You mean to say that guns can be made with machinery?
Out of parts available in any plumbing section of a hardware store ?
Everyone knows you need a 3 d printer to make a gun.
Ammo land you are committing a thoughtcrime here!
To use a quote from Jurassic Park ‘Guns will find a way’. Legislate all you want, weapons have been around since the dawn of time and will continue to be around. Better to address the reasons for violence than the tool used to commit it.
Our Founding FAthers would already have been finished shooting…..a second time!!!
This reminds me of an old song by a UK New Wave group, “No thugs in Our House”. The Brits believe no one has illegal arms because that is what they are told, even when there is evidence to the contrary – it can’t be because it’s not allowed. On our side of the pond, the anti-rights people, politicians, groups and media tell us if the law-abiding are disarmed, the criminals won’t have illegal arms. Both views are insane and stupid, and perpetuated by similarly ill-informed, ignorant and deceitful, hypocritical (they have arms and/or armed guards), anti-rights people that want… Read more »
And that “New Wave Group” was… XTC
“No thugs in our house.
Are there dear?
They made that clear.
They made sure little Graham promised us he’d be a good boy!”