Philip Luty

Philip Luty grew up on a farm in West Yorkshire, England. He campaigned for the free possession of firearms and published instructions on self-built fully automatic weapons that can be produced by simple metalworking. Luty understood his work as a protest against the British government's prohibition of full and semi-automatic weapons. Luty was charged with illegal arms construction in the late 1990s and sentenced to four years in prison.[1]In the United States, the organisation Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) campaigned for Luty's release.[2]

In 2009, another charge was made after an armed anti-terrorist unit searched Luty's home in May 2009. Luty was subsequently tried for violating the Terrorism Act 2000.[1] In particular, he was accused of "creating records that could be of use to a person who wants to commit or prepare a terrorist attack". Also, he had a collection of tubes "screwed together make an object from which a cartridge can be unloaded with a bullet."[1][3] On 8 April 2011, Luty died after a prolonged, serious illness of cancer.[3] The ongoing criminal case was ended because of his death.[3]

He had also been the prime suspect in a campaign of harassment against a local charity and property developer in Cookridge from 2006 to 2009.[4] He was arrested for criminal damage incidents but was released due to a lack of evidence.[4]

After Luty's death, the Libertarian Party published a funeral notice on their homepage ″Sad to announce the death of Philip A Luty. If you don't know who he was, he was repeatedly persecuted by the authorities and was arrested by armed British police and thrown into jail for nine weeks for writing a book." And the notice ends with the warning: "Don’t download anything from his website or they might come for you too..." .[5] Luty's weapons, which have been labelled as being illegally built, have been found in raids in the West Bank, US suburbs, and South America.[6]

Luty designed several firearms, including four sub-machine gun designs. Of these, one particular design, outlined in his book Expedient Homemade Firearms, is the best known. This design makes extensive use of easily procured materials such as folded sheet metal, bar stock, washers, and hex screws. It is a simple blowback-operated sub-machine gun and made from entirely craft-produced components, including the magazine and pistol grip.[7] The major drawback of such designs is the lack of rifling in the barrel, which results in poor accuracy and limited range. Despite this, such weapons are used by criminals and other users who cannot readily access conventional firearms. Luty sub-machine guns have been documented in Australia, Brazil, Germany, Indonesia, Romania, Sweden, Ecuador, and the United Kingdom.[8]

The gunman who perpetrated the 2019 Halle synagogue shooting had two Luty-type sub-machine guns in his arsenal. One was produced using conventional craft-production techniques, whilst a second example used a 3D-printed lower receiver and magazine. The former was used during the attack, during which it suffered from several malfunctions. Although the 3D-printed hybrid design was not used in this attack, it is possible Luty's designs will be adapted to use emergent production technologies in future.[9]

• P.A. Luty: Expedient Homemade Firearms – The 9 mm Submachine Gun. Paladin Press, 1998, ISBN 9780873649834
• P.A. Luty: A Threat to Freedom of Speech in England. The Libertarian Enterprice, no 313, 3 April 2005

• The Homegunsmith
• ARES: Weapons as Political Protest: P.A. Luty's Submachine Gun
• First on Seven: Police testing a Philip Luty SMG