When it comes to gunmaking, all arms are not created (or treated) equally.
I was reminded of this when I ran across a recent news story from the ABC affiliate in Bowling Green, Kentucky on the Hershel House Woodbury School’s rifle-making class.
Hershel House was one of those uniquely American figures; a polymath who crafted Kentucky rifles and knives, painted sought-after artwork, and generally worked to keep traditional arts and craftsmanship alive. Though House passed away last year, his friends and family are carrying on his legacy; including a class where students can make their own rifle that’s underway this week at the school that bears his name.
At the Hershel House Woodbury School, the process for building the hand-made weapons utilizes House’s take on the rifle, which was featured in Foxfire V, a long-running magazine turned book series that catalogued the history and traditions of southern Appalachia.
“The gun starts out as a big block of wood and ends up as a finely crafted rifle. You hear the term lock, stock, and barrel; those were the most important pieces of a firearm. You had to have a good barrel, you had to have a good, reliable lock, and you had to have a really strong piece of wood to hold all that together. Everything else was just fluff,” he explained.
After passing away in 2024, House’s family, students, and friends have continued his legacy of preserving the past by teaching his methods of gunsmithing and weapon crafting… to those who wish to learn.
I think it’s fantastic that House’s legacy lives on, and I hope that the school will eventually host more than one class a year. This year’s class runs for seven days and cost $1,200 to attend (plus the cost of a lock, barrel, and the piece of wood). That sounds pretty reasonable to me, and I might even use a week’s worth of vacation to attend if there’s space next year.. though I did find a similar class much closer to home (that’s unfortunately for me also already full up with attendees).
There’s definitely a place for traditional gunmaking, but the fact remains that technology has advanced to the point that we don’t need to spend a week to craft a firearm. With the help of a 3D printer and a CNC machine, it’s possible to make a gun in just a few hours.
So why is one process celebrated, while the other is demonized? No mainstream media outlet is going to run a report praising groups like Defense Distributed or the burgeoning DIY gunmaking crowd, though what they’re doing is really just an update on the traditional arts that House spent a lifetime perfecting.
I suppose you could argue that there’s an artistry in traditional gunsmithing that’s lacking in printing off gun parts or using computer-aided design to help build a handgun or rilfe. I don’t dispute that, but fundamentally guns are more function than fashion; no matter how pretty they look or how much time and attention went in to crafting it, its purpose is still to expel a bullet from a barrel.
That’s true of everything from black powder rifles to AR-15s. They may function differently, but the purpose is the same. Today’s semi-automatic rifles are just the descendants of the muzzleloading rifles that you can build at the Hershel House Woodbury School or other workshops.
I have a lot of respect for traditionalists, and a healthy skepticism about a lot of modern technology. But ultimately (and unlike my Amish neighbors), I choose to drive a car rather than travel by horse and buggy. I have a Starlink dish on the roof my home to provide me with high speed internet instead of communicating by letter or telegram. I’m grateful for air conditioning in the muggy Virginia summers and for refrigeration to keep my food from spoiling without having to salt it.
So yes, I could limit myself to a black powder rifle and a cap and ball pistol, but there’s no need to do so. We can keep those traditions alive without turning our back on the technological advances that have been made over the previous centuries. Gunmaking doesn’t require nearly as much skill and expertise as it did in the past, and ultimately that’s a good thing. The right to keep and bear arms belongs to the people, and it’s easier than ever for the average person to exercise that right with a gun of their own making… at least in those states that haven’t banned the use of these technological advancements.
Editor’s Note: The radical gun control movement won’t be satisfied until even muzzeloaders are banned.
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