We’re not really sure if it’s a good idea or a terrible one, but someone just made it possible to build your own untraceable, unregistered semi-automatic rifles at home. Called the Ghost Gunner, it’s a desktop CNC Mill that’s dedicated to nothing else but producing the lower receiver of an AR-15 rifle.
To the unfamiliar, the lower receiver connects the stock, barrel, and other parts of the AR-15 together, making it the essential component in building the firearm. As such, it’s the one gun part of an AR-15 that’s legally considered a firearm under US law. While you can purchase all the other parts of the gun freely, you’ll need to sign documents and go under scrutiny when purchasing the lower receiver — not exactly the most convenient thing. Unless, of course, you can make it at home.
Created by Cody Wilson (the guy who made the 3D-printed gun from last year), the Ghost Gunner lets you automatically mill an AR-15 lower receiver using aluminum. It can finish one component in a couple of hours, so you can totally do a small-scale AR-15 production run right from the comfort of your workshop. Close to zero user interaction is required, so you don’t even need to know your way around a CNC mill to produce working firearms with this thing. Just plug it in, click a few buttons on the software, and off you go.
What if you’ve already used the mill to make enough guns to last you through a post-apocalypse lifetime? Don’t sell it yet. They’re releasing an open-source SDK along with the machine, so designers can create new models to input into the accompanying software, essentially turning it into a regular desktop CNC machine.
Available for preorder now, the Ghost Gunner is priced at $1,299.