An improvised firearm is a firearm manufactured by someone who is not a regular maker of firearms (such as a firearms manufacturer or a gunsmith), and is typically constructed by adapting existing materials to the purpose. Called by many names, these improvised firearms range from crude weapons that are as much a danger to the user as the target, to high quality arms produced by cottage industries using salvaged and repurposed materials.
Improvised firearms are more commonly found where legal and commercially produced firearms are unaffordable or strictly controlled. If commercial ammunition is obtainable, then improvised arms will generally be built to fit that ammunition. If commercial ammunition is not available, then muzzle loading black powder designs can still be produced.
Most countries have controls in place that regulate production, sales, and possession of firearms and ammunition (see gun politics for regional information). This means improvised firearms are for the most part illegally produced, which makes their possession and use criminal as well. Improvised firearms are commonly used as tools by criminals and insurgents and therefore often associated with such groups.
Other uses for improvised firearms include self-defense in lawless areas, or in poor rural areas for poaching game for food or profit.
Read more about Improvised Firearm: Construction, Use
Famous quotes containing the word improvised:
“If melodrama is the quintessence of drama, farce is the quintessence of theatre. Melodrama is written. A moving image of the world is provided by a writer. Farce is acted. The writer’s contribution seems not only absorbed but translated.... One cannot imagine melodrama being improvised. The improvised drama was pre-eminently farce.”
—Eric Bentley (b. 1916)