Illegal gun owners don't get them from a different factory.
You are assuming that all firearms can only come from "legal and reputable" companies".
In actual fact, it is not too difficult to make a firearm:
- all you need is a model-engineer's sized centre lathe (such as a Myford "Super 7", for example), some basic engineering materials, plus some rather basic metal working skills (such as I myself possessed by the time I was 12 months into my apprenticeship).
I have seen this done first hand. Eleven years ago, while working at a site in Papua New Guinea, we had to sack several employees in our mechanical workshop, after we caught them doing just that (at the same time confiscating and destroying their handiworks). And .... I can bloody well assure you that they were doing was illegal! Had those weapons ever made it into criminal hands, they at no time ever would have been "legal" firearms.
Furthermore, there are certain parts of the world where this is done quite openly. A notable example (but not a sole one) is the city of Peshawar, in Pakistan. In the bazaars of that city, gunsmiths will make you a perfectly functioning replica of just about any firearm you choose - from a Boer War style British issue long barrelled Lee-Enfield 0.303, to an AK47 Assault Rifle, and everything else in between. (More than a few such illegally made replica 0.303s have turned up in this country - with Peshawar being the most likely origin). The only time these weapons are ever going to become "legal" is if a licensed firearm owner takes an advantage of a "Firearms Amnesty" and gets the weapon legally registered. But they definitely never ever started out life as "legal" weapons.
So, leave the likes of Glock, Winchester, Remington, Stirling etc. out of it (At the same time, stop castigating all firearm owners, such as myself, too!).
These reputable manufacturers are by no means the only source of firearms.
Sorry, Simon, but your claim does not stand, after all!
Bill.
