Supposing the US Government decided to ban all private ownership of Guns ( it's gonna happen eventually ) what then? Yes you can hide your gun but what about the cartridges? Make your own you are still going to need gun cotton etc even with gunpowder they'll probable trace the saltpeter. I have been thinking along the lines of a totally new type of weapon. They ain't never gonna ban gasoline. Why not use this as the propellent. I'm thinking along the lines of an air rifle with fuel injection and piezo-electric ignition. To get the same order of power you are going to need a large quantity of air. Imagine a pipe welded onto a mutch larger closed tube inside of which runs a piston. When you ignite by trigger the Air/Gas mixture the piston does not initially move ( heavy mass -grease gun machine pistol or temporary lock ) a ball bearing matching the pipe ID is shot out at target ( no rifling ) when its clear the piston starts to move against a spring sucking in a fresh charge of air via a one way valve. The piston runs back to a sear and is locked. When released by the trigger the piston moves forward under the spring compressing the air, at the final end of movement it initiates both a spring controlled fuel injector and piezo spark. The exploded mixture as well as driving ball and piston will have to reset the two springs and rotate a sleeve on the end of the pipe so that a new ball can be spring fed then return to seal off the pipe, the ballwill have to be held by spring loaded wedges. Fuel would be supplied from an attached gas tank. As well as windages problems there are issues of complexity and hitting force ( as well as penetration ) but it would be suitable as a short range machine gun.

For fuel detonation need very many count of air. Very many. All construction parts will impossible big and difficult (read this as not reliable) for typical hand weapon.

Sorry for my english =)

PROBABLY TRUE BUT WORTH EXPERIMENTATION

I'd think simpler. First thing is that gasoline and other fossil fuels (and their synthetic counterparts) may be banned long before firearms. I doubt highly anyone'll ban hunting rifles any time soon, let alone black powder muzzle loaders. Eco friendly energy sources are getting bigger and bigger, so it probably won't be more than 10-20 years before current fuels go the way of leaded gas...highly restricted. Not a perfect analogy, as all you need for leaded gas is an additive from Walmart, but i think you get the point.

Anyway, in a world of gunless heathens, the crossbowman is king

Think Rambo...decent recurve bow, arrows tipped with a .410 shell reloaded with some flachettes...not long range, but better than a smooth bore, and more deadly. Plus, shot shells can be reloaded/repurposed with only a few hand tools. Didn't stock up on primers? You can remanufacture a primer using filings from the head of a certain type of match. Black powder's easy, smokeless is harder but still doable. Either way, primers and powder are relatively cheap and store well, plus they take up little space.

Chem-tracing based on saltpetre? Non-issue...any given household in America has decent quantities laying around, as it's used in several common products. Additionally, there are other chemical compounds you can use that will yield similar results with far less 'exotic' compounds. Please don't ask for any details on that, as I'm not going to be teaching people how to illegally manufacture class-4 destructive devices. I'm just trying to give some food for though, as well as a MUCH safer alternative to what you currently have in mind.

If it involves gasoline, it'll involve gas vapor. Vaporized gasoline has a much greater explosive yield than any solid propellant, and your weakest link (seals on your piston for instance) are the only thing standing between you and a Darwin Award. PLEASE don't mess around with what is essentially a combustion-engine based firearm...there are reasons the military has never come out with, say, plans for an improvised gasoline-powered mortar (which isn't too far fetched if you look at some of the other improvised weapons we designed for resistance fighters in WWII).

My head hurts.....

Firearms are by far very easy to make and acquire. If firearms are outlawed in the United States of America.... and that is one huge major "IF'. Then only outlaws will have them just as now in many place in the United State of America (New York City for example) and the rest of the world has them.

If push came to shove.... a simple smooth bore black powder shotgun can be made. Black Powder is easy to make and so is a shotgun. Hell, zipguns are nothing but two pipes, a nail, and a shotgun cartridge.

A black powder shotgun could be made to be as simple as a piece of pipe, a stock of some sort, a lit wick, a touch hole, black powder, wadding, and broken glass, nails, etc... for shot.

I'm going to bed....

Yeah petrol vapour ( after the seals have worn ) is the real weakness. However if you lived in the UK and are not a gang member you would find it very difficult to obtain firearms, they are very difficult to make from scratch the pressures involved are considerable higher than my gasgun and even the source of deliberately decommissioned firearms ( where you clear the barrel on a lathe ) are drying up - and obtaining cartridges is a limiting factor. What I was proposing was something in between a powerful air rifle and a .22 pistol. A boosted air rifle without its drawback for home defence of only one shot.

Originally Posted by 5.56X45mm

My head hurts.....

Firearms are by far very easy to make and acquire. If firearms are outlawed in the United States of America.... and that is one huge major "IF'. Then only outlaws will have them just as now in many place in the United State of America (New York City for example) and the rest of the world has them.

If push came to shove.... a simple smooth bore black powder shotgun can be made. Black Powder is easy to make and so is a shotgun. Hell, zipguns are nothing but two pipes, a nail, and a shotgun cartridge.

A black powder shotgun could be made to be as simple as a piece of pipe, a stock of some sort, a lit wick, a touch hole, black powder, wadding, and broken glass, nails, etc... for shot.

I'm going to bed....

Pakistani children make automatic weapons and military cartriges (although with questionable quality) every day. (Even right now).

Soviet citizens cobeled together parts necessary to make PPsH Sub Machine guns out of materials gathered through the ruins of burned out cities, and the result was one of the most effective weapons of it's type during the war.

As for cartitriges,

In a country where you can smuggle hard drugs into prison, when there is a "market" there will be a underground tax free business network for it,

Surely as the author of my qoute can state, why is there coke being dealt on street corners across the U.S.?

Because there are Coke Heads who want it...

Same would apply for ammunition to any homemade firearm you can aquire.

Even with amatuer home craftsmanship...Still most likely of higher quality than Hi-Point.

Originally Posted by Yossarian

Pakistani children make automatic weapons and military cartriges (although with questionable quality) every day. (Even right now).

Soviet citizens cobeled together parts necessary to make PPsH Sub Machine guns out of materials gathered through the ruins of burned out cities, and the result was one of the most effective weapons of it's type during the war.

As for cartitriges,

In a country where you can smuggle hard drugs into prison, when there is a "market" there will be a underground tax free business network for it,

Surely as the author of my qoute can state, why is there coke being dealt on street corners across the U.S.?

Because there are Coke Heads who want it...

Same would apply for ammunition to any homemade firearm you can aquire.

Even with amatuer home craftsmanship...Still most likely of higher quality than Hi-Point.

During WWII the Brits made Stens in backyard shops, the Soviets made Pps43 in Leningrad during the seige; during Israel's War of Independence they Israelis built Stens everywhere.