A California man has invented a simple part he hopes to sell for $10 that thwarts draconian (and blatantly unconstitutional) new “assault weapons” law.
New gun laws in California have gun enthusiasts and companies looking for ways to make guns, like an AR-15, compliant with the law while still retaining a relatively quick and simple way to remove a magazine.
Under the new law there is a new definition of “assault weapon”, which means any semi-automatic center fire rifle, such as an AR-15, is considered an assault rifle if it does not have a fixed magazine but has features like a flash suppresser and pistol grip.
John Bastiani, with Bastiani Arms said there are products in the market right now that can modify an AR so it is compliant, while still allowing it to be disassembled quickly to take out the magazine. However, he feels those products are expensive.
“Things that are on the market now cost upwards of $50, per gun to convert and make them legal,” he explained. “There needs to be a cheap solution. There might be people out there with 10 guns that they need to convert and at $50 per gun that’s cost prohibitive.”
Bastiani and his friend Mike Schroeder decided they would find an easy and inexpensive solution.
“This is something that is legally necessary if you don’t desire to register your weapon as an assault weapon,” Bastiani said.
For months the two researched and designed parts that they could patent. They realized other people had the same idea, so they hit the drawing board once again. Then in less than two hours they came up with a new idea. They decided to replace the bolt catch on the left side of the gun.
“I cut some stainless steel… traced around, laid it out, cut it out with a dremel and a file, put it in the gun and said, ‘Oh my god, it actually does what I thought it would!’,” he said in disbelief. “We kind of lucked out because no one was thinking of the side of the gun we developed our lock for.”
He explained their small steel part does the exact same thing as the other products out there, but only requires one piece of steel.
“It requires no skill at all to install,” he said.
He added the part should only cost around $10 and would fit on any AR.
Bastiani has named the single-piece solution brilliantly, calling it the MOD1, with “MOD” standing for “Mandatory Orwellian Device” as a slap at California’s absurdly anti-gun progressive state government.
I wish Bastiani all the best in getting his product to market and in widespread distribution as a low-cost solution to a government-caused problem, and hope that California’s absurd gun laws can be thwarted in court.
