Some recent alarming news has come about from one of the country’s largest distributors of firearms, accessories, and ammunition. In a now-missing Facebook post, Brownells stated on July 1st that the United Parcel Service (UPS), had allegedly terminated their [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…]
Underground Arms Watch returns with another look at recently seized oddball weapons. Featured as the title picture is an improvised .22 firearm seized by police in Brazil from someone who “reported that he was shooting to scare off robbers who wanted to rob his [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…]
Nevada-based firearm company Polymer80 was raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE or ATF) yesterday in an apparent move against so-called “Ghost Guns”. Polymer 80 builds kits, with tools and a bit of skill, can be turned into a [Read More…]
Police in Sydney, Australia have seized a partially 3D printed Glock 19 pistol after a raid on a Newtown home, the gun believed to have also been assembled with illegally imported parts. As only the slide, barrel and trigger components need to be smuggled in through the [Read More…]
The niche market for legally registered disposable anti-tank weapons may soon experience a well overdue boom with the introduction of a historically accurate Panzerfaust 60 copy you can make at home. Jonathan Wild started the project last year which will eventually [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…]
Yesterday, Winnipeg Police released pictures of a number of firearms seized from a residence late last May. The lower receivers of two shown having been produced using a 3D printer, which was also seized. Winnipeg police made the city’s first ever seizure of a [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…]
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…]
An illegal firearm manufacturing and supply ring across the country was broken up by police in Turkey last month involving the arrest of 106 suspects across 10 provinces. Along with smuggling guns and adapting blank firing pistols, it appears in some instances (as has [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…]
Back in March 2017, I reported on a proof of concept attempt to create rifling grooves, essential to ensure stabilization of bullet, in a length of steel tubing using a process known as Electrochemical Machining (ECM). This was achieved using a simple jig designed using [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…]
Closely associated with ‘juvenile delinquency’ of the 1950s, ‘zip guns’ were often fabricated by youngsters who could not afford to purchase or were forbidden from owning the genuine article. A mechanically inclined youngster might upon obtaining ammunition, [Read More…]
Below are pictures of a homemade submachine gun seized last month by the Municipal Civil Guard of Limeira in Sao Paulo along with cocaine base paste and marijuana. This illicit craft produced SMG model has been seized as far back as at least 2014 and has appeared more [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…]
Here is a simple .22 revolver project built by a reader from absolute scratch using basic tools while following the plans here. For a gun built at home from scrap steel it isn’t far off from looking like a commercially produced handgun, far flung from typical [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…]
Innovation moves fast these days. As the popularity of Sig Sauer’s new P320 spikes on news of it being selected as the modular pistol contract winner for the U.S. Army (and most likely the other branches) spreads, civilian intrests have followed in sync. Of [Read More…]
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