No Secret: You Can Make Your Own Glock Gun or AR-15 Assault Rifle

The Ruger 10/22 semiautomatic rifle is typically one of the first firearms a gun owner purchases. Although relatively cheap and inexpensive, the lure of do-it-yourself has created eighty percent lowers for the 10/22 as well. Unfinished 10/22 lowers are typically sold with the need for the barrel V block attaching point to be milled out, as well as a number of holes for pins and screws. Like the Glock 80 percent, 10/22 receivers often have more features and a more aggressive styling than their original manufacturer equipment equivalents.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, the agency that regulates gun ownership in the United States, recognizes that individuals have a historical right to make their own firearms. While this may have been common in the eighteenth century, it is only recently becoming popular again due to the high tolerances of modern machinery and the widespread availability of powered tools. As a result Americans have the ability to make a wide variety of firearms, from pistols to semiautomatic rifles, in their own homes.

Modern home firearms production is the result of so-called “80 Percent” firearms receivers. Every firearm has a receiver, a common part that brings together the grip, stock, trigger group, barrel and action. It’s similar in function to a car chassis. In the world of small-arms parts, the necessity of a receiver makes it the only single part regulated by the BATFE, and legally designated as a firearm.

related: The 80 Percent AR-15 Lower Receiver Raw

One exception to the receiver-as-firearm rule is that a receiver that is 80 percent complete or less is not subject to regulation; in other words, it is not legally a firearm. Unlike firearms, “eighty percent” receivers can be purchased in a brick and mortar store and brought home without filling out paperwork or conducting a background check, or may be purchased online and shipped straight to an individual’s home.

Once at home, an 80 percent receiver is typically secured to a workbench and set in a jig. Using common home tools, including a router, power drill and file, a handy person can complete the remaining 20 percent of the receiver in a matter of hours. A bustling trade in spare parts for firearms makes it easy to procure the rest of the parts necessary to build a fully functional firearm. Here are five such firearms you can build in your own home:

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