Underground Arms Watch returns from the dead with a look at some recently confiscated weapons and emerging trends. Most recently a number of FGC-9s have shown up in Trinidad & Tobago, becoming one of the latest places to join the list. Most of the time these are not [Read More…]
Dusting off the Underground Arms Watch series after a dormant start to the year, we return with a look at some recent examples of ‘ghost guns’. First up, here’s a curious Tokarev TT33 which appears to have a non-standard frame. It was seized along with [Read More…]
Welcome back to the Underground Arms Watch. The first week of June saw a number of seizures of the FGC-9, the widely reported on 3D printable 9mm carbine released by Deterrence Dispensed last year. The example below was one of two seized from a ‘factory’ [Read More…]
Underground Arms Watch returns with a brief glance at recently seized craft-produced arms by law enforcement around the globe. Spanish police have released details of a raid on an illegal manufacturing operation in Tenerife which was conducted last September. It appears [Read More…]
Welcome back to Underground Arms Watch. Catching up into the new year, we continue our look at some of the black market bootleg weapons seized worldwide within the last few months. First up is an interesting pistol seized in Liverpool, UK by Merseyside Police. It [Read More…]
Continuing our regular look into criminally made and modified firearms within our Underground Arms Watch series, we start with a seizure of a number of homemade firearms by Queensland Police on October 2: Officers from Logan District Drug and Firearm team have charged a [Read More…]
Since late 2017 a group of secessionists in Cameroon’s former British mandate located in the southwest have been fighting under the banner of a self-declared state named the Federal Republic of Ambazonia or Amber Land. Bordering Nigeria to the northwest and the [Read More…]
Skipping ahead a month we resume the Underground Arms Watch series of articles, our regular dive into the world of criminal manufacture and use of off-the-books firearms showing up around the world. Following the widely publicized Encrochat hack, a network of criminal [Read More…]
Welcome to another installment of Underground Arms Watch series where we take a look at criminally made and modified firearms seized throughout the world. On Thursday Toronto Police posted what appears to be a Glock pistol assembled with a 3D printed receiver. The two [Read More…]
The latest ARES report published March 30 examines emergent technologies currently enabling further ease in the production of DIY firearms, including (but not limited to) advances in 3D printing. The 54-page report covers a wide range of production methods and firearm [Read More…]
Continuing with this month’s edition of Underground Arms Watch, we again report on the global cottage industry for the illicit manufacture of firearms. In Qalyubia, Egypt a police operation busted three illegal gun makers last month. The 12 gauge single shot [Read More…]
Catching up with police seizures from mid-February onward, March’s look into improvised and modified firearms circulating the criminal underworld begins. Firstly it appears that automatic conversion switches have been showing up fitted to Glock pistols seized in [Read More…]
Welcome to another installment of Underground Arms Watch series where we take a look at criminally made and modified firearms seized throughout the world. Last week police in Queensland Australia seized two homemade firearms during multiple drug-related raids on Gold [Read More…]
Welcome to another installment of Underground Arms Watch series where we take a look at criminally made and modified firearms seized throughout the world. Modified suppressed rifle seized by Italian police Pictured is a modified ‘Contender’ type single-shot [Read More…]
A new year brings about the first of January’s Underground Arms Watch installment – a look into criminally made and modified firearms seized by police and security services worldwide. Below are three Locally made pistols seized by Bengaluru City Police in [Read More…]
Continuing from Part 1 of December’s Underground Arms Watch edition, below are some of the good and not so good criminally manufactured and modified weapons recently seized off the streets. ‘Numerous weapons found by OPP, border services during search’ [Read More…]
In this article, we’ll present to you the first part of Underground Arms Watch December edition’s look into notable seizures of criminally manufactured and modified weapons seized off the streets. Read last month’s post here. 200 Glock conversion [Read More…]
A look into criminally manufactured firearms seized in recent months continuing from Part 2 of last month’s round-up. First up is what appears to be a shortened homemade copy of the Madsen M50 submachine gun pictured alongside an M16 and AK which was surrendered [Read More…]
Continuing from Part 1 of Underground Arms Watch, below are several more notable examples of criminally produced firearms seized worldwide by police and security services in recent months. Mock M4 A 9mm SMG seized in Espírito Santo, Brazil. Cosmetically It has likely [Read More…]
Occasionally police operations across the world churn up weapons produced solely for the criminal market. Some of these are improvised while others are semi-professionally produced in illicit workshops. Documented here are a handful of interesting examples uncovered in [Read More…]
Several improvised / homemade weapons were employed in an attempted mass shooting attack on a synagogue in Halle, Germany on Wednesday during Yom Kippur. The whole event was live-streamed via a GoPro to the video game streaming website Twitch. Luckily the [Read More…]
A university student in the UK has been convicted of firearms offences after being found in possession of two 3D printed guns. Tendai Muswere, 26, a student at London South Bank University and Zimbabwean national admitted printing a Washbear PM522 revolver and a Hexen [Read More…]
The Small Arms Survey have published a new report looking at the use of improvised weapons around the world, examining the proliferation of various types and the driving forces behind their manufacture and use. Written by G Hays & N.R. Jenzen-Jones, both of [Read More…]
Pictured is an ultra minimal, highly compact submachine gun design which is a clear contender for the simplest ever conceived. Disassembled It consists of only nine parts including screws and springs. Almost every main component is fabricated using steel box section [Read More…]
A friend of TFB sent me this story and, even though it’s more than a year old, I thought it might lead to an interesting discussion or two. The Queensland Police in Australia were doing what good detectives do and uncovered an organized criminal drug enterprise that [Read More…]
Even in relatively isolated developing nations criminals find ways to arm themselves. Below are a number of crude improvised firearms made from regular household stapler guns recently seized by police in Papua New Guinea which are fast becoming a trend. The example [Read More…]
Mike over at Mike’s Custom Weaponry has sent in photos of his latest project in the final stages of completion which happens to be a semi-auto version of the Machine Pistol from P.A Luty’s book Expedient Homemade Firearms Vol 2. The original design is of [Read More…]
This unusually configured homemade 9mm submachine gun was seized by Israeli police last year while executing a search of a suspect’s home. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery though in some of these cases I’m not entirely sure that’s true. [Read More…]
Pictured are a number of makeshift revolving firearms seized by Nigerian security forces during multiple operations targeting gun runners. In one incident in August last year eleven soldiers were killed by a group of bandits who also “burnt down 4 operational [Read More…]
Recent photographs out of the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib show a thorough manufacture of improvised anti-material rifles, all in 14.5mm. Local gunsmiths in the rebel-held city appear to be using the discarded barrels of 14.5mm KPV heavy machine guns, of an [Read More…]
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