Airsoft AR-15 - anti-gunner says it can be converted to a real gun?

[dave3006]

Take a look at this $400 airsoft AR-15 style gun

http://www.precisionairsoft.com/item626.htm

An anti-gun person at the office was spouting how this gun could easily be converted to a real AR-15 by simply replacing the "top part" (he means the upper - duh). He claims the evil gun companies are trying to skirt the gun control laws by giving criminals access to the parts they need to build a gun. Besides the fact that he is an idiot and this would be illegal, is he right? It sure looks like the lower is the real deal.

Now the anti's are going after toys.

 

[Tharg]

UHm.... thats an AIRGUN

while it still uses gas to push a projectile down the pipe....

its a LONGSHOT from "converting" to a "firearm"

heh

J/Tharg!

 

[boofus]

Not without some major reworking. The airsoft guns don't have a firing pin or hammer mechanism of any kind. And in the event that you do make it touch off a round have the paramedics handy to pick the shards of plastic and metal out of your skull.

Ever seen a Glock or USP or any other polymer gun kaboom? Imagine that in a toy gun that is made almost 100% of plastic that doesn't have a heavy milled steel slide to contain the explosion.

Your friend is a tool of the Democrats.

The lower houses an electric motor hooked to a piston that blows air out of a nozzle. It looks and functions nothing like a real firearm. There is no recoil spring of any kind in the buttstock either, most airsoft M16s have a completely hollow stock to fit the battery in.


There's a pic of what is inside the lower with the air piston removed.

 

[dave3006]

I think his point is that the lower receiver looks like it could be easily modified to accept a standard AR-15 upper. BTW, he is NOT my friend!

 

[Chris Rhines]

Without seeing the airsoft-in-question, it's tough to say whether you could pop an AR-15 upper onto that lower. But I kind of doubt it. The slide of my CZ-75 fits on the frame of my KSC CZ-75 airsoft, but there's no way you could get it to fire a cartridge - the mechanism is totally different.

Your officemate is the kind of idiot that urban legends spring up around...

- Chris

 

[Justin]

That's a riot. Ask him if he's got some other funny jokes to tell, too.

You might find an airsoft built to tolerances close enough to mount an upper onto, but then what?

There's no hammer, none of the same springs, and I seriously doubt that the buttstock, which is attached to the lower, would have an honest-to-God recoil buffer and spring.

 

[RooK]

It doesn't matter if it accepts an upper from an AR or not. The lower on the airsoft has non of the fire control parts and no areas for a buffer tube. If you tried to modify it have these parts (and somehow succeeded), chances are it would fall apart on the first shot.

You can attach an AR-15 upper to a peice of wood. That doesn't mean it's useful or makes any sense.

 

[larryw]

Typical of "science and facts" spouted by the antis.

 

[odysseus]

Answer = NO.

Tell him to get educated on the subject, even contact airsoft, before he spouts off on the subject to the uninformed. Misinformationist!

 

[SoCalGeek]

It would seem this antigunner... acquaintance of yours is either dreadfully misinformed or full of ????. I suppose in theory an airsoft AR receiver could be a close enough replica to install the necessary upper and trigger bits, but I doubt it. And even if such a gun did exist and wasn't more expensive than making your own receiver, it would probably blow the user to hell as soon as he fired a round through it.

 

[Standing Wolf]

Now the anti's are going after toys.

Not to mention pieces of chicken small boys point at other children in grade school cafeterias.

 

[WhiteKnight]

Although it may very well could be converted into a real firearm, so could a Ruger 10/22 be converted into a .50 BMG bolt action. You'd just have to replace the barrel, reciever, trigger group, stock.........

 

[hso]

Ask him HOW?! Do it in front of others. Ask him if he's ever looked at the internals of one of these things. Ask him if he knows that the lower is the "gun" part regulated by ATF and that you can't manufacuture a gun and call it a toy and not have ATF wreck your day. Go to Airsoft Atlanta and ask them and then dump the reply on him when he tries to wiggle out. Ask him why it matters since criminals use these things in real life about as often as they drive the pimped up Escalades seen on MTV.

 

[El Tejon]

For all the work involved making firearms from toys, could not one more easily make firearms out of sheet metal and cold rolled steel?

 

[Black Snowman]

It's much much much easier to build a shotgun from scratch than it is to convert an airsoft into any kind of funcioning weapon.

 

[gunsmith]

tell the guy

He owes you a few hundred from the bet you made last week,if he believes airsoft can be converted then he might be easily be fooled on other things....

However,in England there are folks who are making .22 caliber pistols
out of well made strong air pistols,my friend has been following the story.

 

[capt_happypants]

If he has $300 bucks, I'll sell him my post-ban upper and he can try and make it work with an Airsoft lower.

Send video, but notify his next of kin.

God, please tell me he hasn't spread his genes in the pool.

 

[Muzzleflash]

BAH

HAH

HAH

HAH

I wanna see this happen. Exploding gun, YAY!

As for a .22 pistol, that's believeable. Some of the higher powered airsofts could handle that... maybe.

 

[Treylis]

Yeah, I'd be trying to make a bet for a few hundred bucks with him too.

 

[Muzzleflash]

I'd see if I could scrape together four or five hundred for the bet.

Just to make sure he tries it.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Give me the time and $ and I'll make it shoot bullets. Not necessarily 5.56 mm Nato, but it'll shoot. For that matter, give me a walker and I'll give you a four barrel gun. How far does the bozo want to stretch it?

 

[MrMurphy]

Ask him where he got the crack he's smoking..... ain't gonna happen.

 

[Tharg]

heh - as the first responder to THIS post...

ITS AN AIRGUN...

rofl

let him know that sometimes your gas powered grill "explodes" too... (ya know when ya let the gas run too long and THEN ya light it..)

rofl

sorry

J/Tharg!

 

[GigaBuist]

Have him sketch the internals of an AR-15 lower if he thinks he knows what he's talking about.

 

[4v50 Gary]

BTW, I should qualify my answer in that it would be a gun concealed within an airgun. That is, nothing but the shell would remain. Everything else inside would be new. We're talking a lot of time and effort and for all the time & effort, it's better to build a gun from scratch.