FedEx refuses to deliver machine for weapons parts

The FedEx delivery service last week refused to service the delivery of Defense Distributed startup products. The refusal is motivated by the fact that the startup sells automatic milling machines Ghost Gunner, on which it is possible to manufacture parts for weapons. A FedEx spokesperson said the company will not ship until it understands whether such a device is not subject to any special licensing or control.

The startup is run by a well-known activist, a fighter for the open market and the availability of weapons, Cody Wilson . Defense Distributed is engaged in the promotion and dissemination of schemes and methods for making weapons at home It was Wilson who made the first gun printed on a 3D printer two years ago. Now the startup offers a more serious thing.

Ghost Gunner , The Ghost Gunsmith is an automatic table milling machine. In a cube with an edge of about 35 cm are the mechanisms that ensure the operation of the movable cutter. The device is able to work with metal, wood and plastic. The creators promise, after the start of Ghost Gunner's sales, to put all the schemes on the Internet and open the software code so that everyone can do anything they want with the machine. However, it is advertised primarily as a device for the manufacture of so-called. AR-15 automatic rifle "receiver".
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This rifle is legally sold in the United States as a civilian self-defense weapon. With the exception of the receiver, all other parts do not have serial numbers and can be purchased by anyone without any licenses. Enthusiasts have long been trying at home to make a box of various materials. The weapon made by an artisanal method is not registered anywhere and it cannot be traced why he was dubbed the “ghost gun”. But the plastic box is unreliable, and for the manufacture of aluminum used to be very expensive equipment.

The receiver can also be made from a whole piece of aluminum, but this is quite a long operation. Instead, you can buy its aluminum billet, ready for 80%. It is this barrier that the American ATF office has established to regulate the circulation of weapons. It is easy to buy such a blank, and from it to turn a finished part with the help of a “ghostly gunsmith”.



At the same time Ghost Gunner sell for only $ 1500. Such a low cost led to the fact that all preliminary applications for the machine were sold out within 36 hours. Now on the start-up site, people are invited to pay $ 250 to take their place in the queue for the following available items that promise by the second quarter of 2015.

According to the laws, for example, California, to make a receiver in the home is legal. Governor Jerry Brown put a veto on a draft law banning the production of spare parts for weapons without a serial number, noting that “he doesn’t see how adding a serial number to a part will increase the level of public safety.