March 9, 2022 • 23 mins
We follow Zaw, a Gen Z militant fighting with improvised weapons in Myanmar.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey everyone, I'm Robert Evans, and welcome to episode three
of Printing the Revolution. Here's my partner, James Stout.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the spring and summer of twenty twenty, millions of
Americans had versions of the same experience. State forces killed
the helpless man, Protesters took to the streets in anger,
and armed agents of the state responded with mass violence.
A lot of people's lives changed forever in fairly short order.
What happened in Me and Mara after the military coup
(00:34):
was that story turned up to eleven within days. The
military had used live fire and demonstrators zor our saws
for today's episode. We're twenty two years old. At the time.
He spend his days working as a delivery driver, hang
out with his girlfriend playing video games. On the day
the coup started, he was playing pubg after a long shift.
(00:57):
Soon he and his girlfriend took to the streets with
thousands of other gen z Burmese kids. The state responded
with massacres, often firing automatic weapons into the crowds. So
had n't been particularly politically active before this moment. In fact,
he felt pretty poorly towards revolutionary supposing the government in
the jungle, seeing them as rebellious trouble makers.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
In the past, we thought that the military is a
group that loves all the people and all the different
groups in the in the country. And then there's just
a few people who really hate the military. But especially
after the one who we face it with our own foreheads,
(01:42):
with the guns. We can face the evil the military
and all the human rights and things that people who
hated the military before we're talking about. We understand it
now because we had to face it ourselves. And then
they're going to tell us terrorists, and how very much
they call us. We know that we're finding for human
(02:03):
rights and we know that each person deserves these basic things,
you know. So so even when we capture a soldier,
we don't kill them immediately as they're unarmed. You know,
when they capture a PDF, they torture and kill them
very very horrifically or horrendously, and they kill and do
(02:27):
and hurt all the citizens and ordinary bystanders. So for us,
what they're calling as rebels before, we're not rebels. They're
the ones that are rebels, so we have to call
them rebels. They're the terrorists.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But as violence against protests escalated, so all began to
see through the lies he'd been told by the military
or his life.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
What we were calling as rebels are what we kind
of become. But we know why we are now rebels.
That's because of their terrorism, their oppressive reviews, and their
violation of human rights. That's why we have to revolt
against them.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
For a time, protects responded creatively with giant potato guns
meant to fire leslietho protectiles long distances. These homemade guns
to be fired in volleys well. Other protested protected them
with shields. Some of these tactics were effective at point,
but it quickly became clear that the government was willing
to massacre everyone's standing up to them, So his girlfriend
(03:32):
and their friends quickly decided that non violent resistance wasn't
going to work, but they didn't give up.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
As we get into June, there's two paths, right. We
can be normal, we can on the streets. We can
ask for the people's power back, and since that's not working,
we know that what we have to do is we
need to hold these bunds, get these guns. And on
the military side, all they know is that they will
(04:00):
solve this by folding guns so the only thing, the
only path that's left for us is to take those
guns for ourselves. So around the end of May, we
started entering training school. So the downtour is the word
we use, and something like this corner part so one,
(04:23):
corner part one to two. So talking what that means
is that in the huntings huntings that we were doing,
hunting rifles that we were using for that. So we
kind of start started and we fought first and demoso,
if we can ask the military nicely, then there's no
(04:43):
reason for us to be using guns. But since they
don't listen to our demands or our requests at all,
then and since that all we can do, all they
are saying, all they're doing is using the guns and
being terrorists trying to shoot us. So the only things
that we can do to get what we need and
what we want is to take the concept for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And so, like hundreds of people his age, Zow headed
into the jungle in May of twenty twenty one. The
decision wasn't an over night one or an easy one,
but after protesting non violently, then meeting state violence with
community defense, then seeing his peers gunned down in the street,
he didn't have many other choices. He'd picked up a megaphone,
(05:28):
then a shield, and now he was heading in the
jungle to pick up a rifle. The only problem was
that there weren't any rifles.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
He left with his girlfriend and quote with the blessing
of his parents. Keep that in mind for later. When
he first went to the jungle, Zol went to a
two week training camp where the Carinni People's Defense Force
taught him the basics of guerrilla warfare. But they didn't
have enough weapons to arm him and his friends. So
these Jinz militants began their fighting careers with twenty two
(06:06):
caliber rifles. If you aren't a gun person, the twenty
two was one of the smallest widely available bullets. Like
any bullet, it can kill, but as a caliber it's
better suited for shooting rabbits than soldiers. These twenty two
rifles were handmade locally and only fired one shot at
a time. But it was those rifles that Zaw, his girlfriend,
and their friends carried into their first gunfight with the Tatmadaw.
(06:31):
After battling like that for about three weeks, the shooting stopped,
he said in an interview, we conducted over signal. After
the shooting stopped, we grouped together money to buy arms
by asking for donations. They were massively outgunned, but determined
to fight on with the weapons they could make and
buy on the black market until they could find something better,
even if that meant taking guns from dead soldiers. The
(06:53):
military's guns are extremely good, of course, compared to point
two twos, he said. We fight with the mindset that
we must win. Our minds are always prepared to take
their guns when a soldier falls. It's a mindset to
want the enemy's arms to beat your own arms. You
need to want to resist injustice because we are fighting
for what is right. We do not get sad even
if we die. We are happy even when wounded. We
(07:15):
no longer care if our arms are matched unevenly not.
Despite their enthusiasm, PDF units all over the country were
finding themselves in the same desperate situation when thousands of
young people in Myanmar decided to take up arms against
the government. They're just warn enough guns to go around.
Ak pattern rifles sell for three thousand dollars on the
black market, and ar's sell for up to seven thousand dollars.
(07:39):
The GDP per capita in twenty twenty was just twelve
hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty five cents per person,
and unlike militias in Syria and Iraq, the pro democracy
EAOs and Myanmar don't have the benefit questionable benefit of
the US flooding the region with its fire hose of
guns and money. Undeterred, Zaw and his squad took to YouTube,
(07:59):
where they they found videos explaining how to make two
two three caliber bolt action rifles. Again, if you're not
a gun person, two two three may not sound very
different than twenty two, but whereas twenty two is commonly
used to shoot squirrels, two to three is the standard
rifle round more or less for the US military. These
new bolt action two two threes All and his friends
(08:19):
were making could not match the rate of fire of
a modern rifle, but they could at least match those
rifles in stopping power. Once these gin z insurgeons had
the technique down, they created a detailed album on Facebook
showing how everything from the stalk to the barrel could
be made with pipes, lumber, and hours and hours of
detailed hard work. Unlike their guerrilla warfare instructors, These kids
(08:41):
had grown up on the Internet rather than the jungle,
so they knew that if it exists, there's a subreddit
for it. It was the Internet that came to their rescue.
Three D printed guns have been around for a decade,
but the early models didn't work well and suffered from
a pretty bad reputation due in part to Cody Wilson,
the pedophileitarian activists we discussed last episode. Jake Hanrahan of
(09:03):
Popular Front has covered the printed gun movement extensively.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Cody Wilson made his whole thing like, I'm the guy
with the three D printed guns, and he was on
this moral crusade. The three D printed gun lads, particularly
the Terrence Dispense, were like, yeah, don't give a shit
about that. We're just putting our stuff out into the world.
Obviously they got their ideas, but they weren't really wedded
to this idea of it being one person.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Deterrence Dispensed was a group of anonymous activists who were
more concerned with making printed guns that worked than making
a name for themselves. Hammerhan was connected to one activist
who used the pseudonym j. Stark through the group, and
after three years of conversing online. Hamrahan met Stark in
Germany to produce a documentary. Jay Stark died of a
heart attack following a police raid last year, so we
(09:47):
spoke to Hanrahan about Stark's worldview.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
His whole worldview comes from this idea that you know,
it's everybody should have the right to be able to
fight tyranny. And if you can't fight any like, you're fucked.
And the way to fight tyranny in the modern era
is firearms. We know that, you know, there's there's no
you can't argue, it's there's no peaceful march gets rid
(10:10):
of a fascist dictatorship or whatever. But he he was,
he he was you know, there's some people would say
he was far right. Some people say he was an anarchist.
Some people say he was a US patriot type. I mean, first,
he wasn't even from America, and he had a lot
of he liked the laws in America, but he wasn't
like some of the American kind of fan boy or
anything on that sense. He liked the gun laws, he
(10:33):
liked the freedom of speech lords, which I do as well.
You know, like personally I in this country, you know,
if you tweet the wrong thing, even in jest, like
police will literally come to your house in Britain like
it's happened, it's fucking mental. So yeah, he liked that
kind of thing, and I think, I think for him
it was he was very tonal vision. You know, he
was very tonal vision. It was just freedom, freedom of freedom,
(10:56):
and if you said, well what about this, what about that,
he was like, I don't care about that until the
freedom there, there's no point looking at anything else. And
so his brain was always on people that are living
on the tyranny, you know, and it genuinely would. I know,
there's a lot of people, even leftists, particularly leftists, had
tried to completely smear him as a white supremacist. They
were saying, oh, everything he said in that doc that
I made was really it was secret anti Jewish white supremacy.
(11:21):
And then it came out that he wasn't even white.
You know. It was like very good, very good, you
fucking idiots. So there was a lot of that going around.
But I honestly believe that deep down he was just
tunnel vision, focused on this idea of every Until everybody
is not living under tyranny, I must go on this
mission and Okay, if someone shoots up at school with
what I've invented, so be it. You know, which I'm
(11:42):
not saying that's good, but that was just his idea.
You know. He was like, so be it. Fuck it
if I can. You know, he was very genuine when
he was on about the wigas, or he was on
about the mistreatment of Kurds from Turkey, and you know,
he was like, look, if we can build something that
can help them, well, sorry that the West might get
fucked up because of it, but I'm focused on this now. Obviously,
in practice that would be chaos probably, but you know,
(12:07):
he just saw it the way he saw it, and
that was that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
The cavalier attitude Stark seems to have had to how
his invention might be used is of course worthy of criticism.
But the revolutionaries on the ground in Myanmar were not
concerned with ideological debates over the ethics of homemade firearms.
They needed guns, and they needed them now. J. Stark's
FGC nine, which stands for Fuck Gun Control nine millimeter,
(12:30):
was simple to make, easy to use, and relied entirely
on parts you could print or buy in any hardware
store in September of twenty twenty one, a post popped
up on the foss cads subreddit, which is dedicated to
the manufacturing of three D printed guns. Stark is a
hero there. The post said, wanted to say thanks to
this community, the creators of FGC nine and the various
(12:51):
mods when we could you guys are literally empowering the
armed revolution against dictators in one of the most underdeveloped countries.
We are now equipped with FGC nine and starting the
armed revolution to the coup leader dictator. As one poster comments,
the account quote went from posting about mobile games to
how did three D print SMGs? To desperately asking people
(13:12):
to pay attention what was happening in me and mar
Then after the FGC nine post, it was deleted entirely.
Jay Stark never lived to see this.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
He would have loved it. What everything that he was doing,
that was the main focus in my opinion, that like,
it couldn't be a more perfect, like practical actual realization
of his project. You couldn't pick a more perfect version
of it to happen like that, you know. And there's
(13:42):
a lot of talk of oh, where there's a load
of drug dealers in Amsterdam I have FGC nine's. There
was a Nazi recently arrested with one. You know, these
people are awful, of course, but the most prevalent use
of the FGC nine, at least from what I've observed,
has been from the Red was in my mum making them.
I think I've seen like thirty of them so far.
(14:03):
You know, that's a lot of them, And there was
one was found stashed in a bush. My theory is
there left the round for ambush attacks and areas that
are not as fully controlled by the rebels.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Foss Cad, a community of mostly US based Guan printers,
lost its collective mind, and it didn't take long for
people to make the connection between the post and a
desperate plight of me and Mars Spring revolution. Soon after
the post, the tat Mador started posting pictures of FGC nines,
often without sites captured from fighters in Yangon. On the
(14:46):
twenty first of September, the Tatmador's Ministry of Information released
a statement. I Miat Thwei and Ye mint Ang were
found with an FGC nine Mark two pistol five round
pounds of nine millimeters ammunition. They were arrested along with
their drone. The military alleged they were an urban unit
(15:08):
from the same generation z E Freedom Army that Zoor
was a part of. That same month, the military posted
pictures of three more captured FGC nines, suggesting that at
least five have been captured by late September. Then two
months later a new post popped up and the fosscat subreddit, Hey,
(15:30):
I'm back and the guy who posted a thank you
note back in September here. Now that the FGC nines
are ready known by the dictator, I can proudly announce
that we're from me and mar. Yes, we are mass
producing FGC nines to fight back against the Dictator. More
info about our production will be published later this time.
The user u slash daddy umcd hung around to answer questions.
(15:56):
Those bastards didn't know we had the tech back then.
Now that everything in public, we can proudly say we're
from me and Mah. We are mostly responsible for production
on R and D, even though we also involved in
other ground missions. We distribute the FDC nine to a
lot of different urban guerrillas in urban and rural areas.
Some of the units got arrested a few weeks ago,
(16:17):
which you might have already seen on the subreddit. Apart
from the FDC nine, there are other equipments and weapons
that are being produced with three D printers, he wrote.
He said his team were residing in ethnic armed organization areas,
mainly the Koran National Union and the Kachin Independence Army
controlled zones. He posted that they tried other three D
(16:39):
printer designs, such as the PLASTICOV, which is a printed
AK forty seven receiver, but getting the other parts made
it impractical. By contrast, the FDC nine can be made
entirely using a three D printer and some hardware store parts.
According to another source, ME and Mars small motorcycle repair
shops made quick work the metal barrels and bolts. Electrochemical
(17:02):
machining was used to make more barrels. They also had
the chance to buy a few clock barrels from Thailand,
Daddy UMCD said, but those cost a lot more than
the FGC nine barrels. While his account continued to post,
the military continued to share photos of captured FGC nines.
Three workshops that had been using lathes to make the
(17:25):
barrels were raided. A photos of three more captured guns
popped up in November alongside bolt action rifles. It still
had stickers on their stocks from what looked like US
gun shops. Production and decentralized locations continued despite the raids,
while other groups fought on with homemade revolving rifles, crewded
(17:45):
homemade wooden stocks, and other improvised weapons. A telegram channel
with instructions in Burmese on how to make the guns
made sure that even when one shop or gunsmith was
taken out of the fight, the knowledge wasn't lost. Although
filament for their three D printers were becoming harder to get,
they'd stockpiled a lot in advance. Daddy UMCD tried to
(18:10):
manufacture automatic FGC nines and another printable model called Professor
Parabellum square tubes up machine gun, but nothing else seemed
as easier as reliable as the FGC nine. Of course,
read it being read it, people questioned the veracity and
utility of his posts. He responded, FDC nines are just
(18:30):
part of the game because they could be produced with
what we have at the lowest cost. Available rifles of
four thousand to seven thousand US dollars at our border.
Fgcs are under one hundred dollars. Rifle parts are ten
times more expensive than lock parts. To all those who
are saying that these photos as sus we don't want
to blame your suspicion if an if you remember the
(18:53):
thread I posted in September, you'll remember that we are
mass producing FGC knights. The ones in the photos you've
seen were supplied by us. There are many groups like
this now we do the main production, just like I
explained in September. Then, Daddy UMCD went on to thank
the other members of the subreddit, claiming their active help
was the only reason he and other revolutionaries have been
(19:15):
able to overcome certain technical issues. We wouldn't be here
without you guys, especially with someone who shared with me.
The buffer spring and fire control groups bring measurements, he said.
By late November, photos of FGC nines in the hands
of fighters emerged, and they showed sites. This time they
had longer barrels and homemade suppressors too. The FGC nines
(19:38):
were apparently used by urban units for close up fighting
and for the training of new fighters, since they have
essentially the same controls as an AR fifteen or sixteen rifle,
both of which are common in ME and r's rebel units.
We have successfully streamlined a variety of techniques to produce
FGC nine one thousand plus efficiently. Our primary forces arequipped
(20:01):
with proper rifles. FGC nine's are for guerrilla warfare. We
started using those in Hit and Run and Special Task
Force missions too. We don't share much about the missions
to the public yet. It will definitely come, and when
it does, are updated here if I'm still alive, ha ha,
wrote Daddy umcd on the foscat subreddit. Even with production
(20:23):
and full swing, ammunition remained a problem. Although some regions
can produce twenty two and nine millimeter home According to
Daddy umcd, five five six can be purchased in large
quantities at the border with Thailand, but it isn't cheap. Instead,
the PDF relied on raiding police and military outposts in
(20:43):
the same way the EEOS had for years. Nine millimeter
is the most common center fire pistol around in the world.
That's why Deterrent's Dispense picked it for the FGC nine.
C's weapons often only have a handful of rounds, but
that's enough to kill a soul and take his weapon.
Jay Stock might not have been around to see his
(21:04):
invention used to fight Trney, But Hammerhan thinks he would
have been happy with the results.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
He would have been made up. I think that's everything
he wanted to achieve, You know what I'm saying, That
really is everything you wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Even the National Unity Government MI and Ma's government in
exile has come around to any some of Jay Stark's
ways of thinking. According to Daddy umcd our, Minister of
Defense Minister already promised about the right to bear arms
at the first day of the revolution.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Promises made by revolutionary governments are not exactly solid commitments,
but it's not hard to see why a generation of
kids like Zaw, forged by an asymmetrical conflict with a
government that possessed a near absolute advantage in armaments, might
be committed to staying armed even if they win. At
the moment, the future of their struggle is very much
end doubt. Scrolling through Facebook photos of Zaw and his
(21:54):
comrades as a surreal experience. They look not just young
soldiers mostly look young, but they look like students kids
from some weirdly militarized university. Photos on Facebook show them
sprawled out together in the grass and Camo fatigues bearing rifles,
but each glued to their phones as they cuddle in together.
Zaw and his girlfriend, who he described to us as
(22:16):
the girl I love, fought alongside each other until January
seventh of this year.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
The battle that we started, she was coming within and
you know as halficens. A weapon landed near her and
it hit her like so their bone broke, so she
had to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Three D printed and homemade guns have helped, but Zaw
and his friends are still fighting against a modern military
with planes, night vision goggles, and tanks. Despite this, more
than a year after the coup, they're still fighting and
more soldiers deffect to join them weekly. It's hard to
see what victory looks like. The cities will be another
battle altogether, but in the jungle camp where Zaw video
(22:59):
calls us, it's impossible to see what giving up might
look like. Either he's still fighting, his girlfriend is healing,
and they're both committed to staying out in the jungle
until they are in their freedom back or die trne It.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can
find sources for It could happen here, Updated monthly at
coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
Hey everyone, I'm Robert Evans, and welcome to episode three
of Printing the Revolution. Here's my partner, James Stout.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
In the spring and summer of twenty twenty, millions of
Americans had versions of the same experience. State forces killed
the helpless man, Protesters took to the streets in anger,
and armed agents of the state responded with mass violence.
A lot of people's lives changed forever in fairly short order.
What happened in Me and Mara after the military coup
(00:34):
was that story turned up to eleven within days. The
military had used live fire and demonstrators zor our saws
for today's episode. We're twenty two years old. At the time.
He spend his days working as a delivery driver, hang
out with his girlfriend playing video games. On the day
the coup started, he was playing pubg after a long shift.
(00:57):
Soon he and his girlfriend took to the streets with
thousands of other gen z Burmese kids. The state responded
with massacres, often firing automatic weapons into the crowds. So
had n't been particularly politically active before this moment. In fact,
he felt pretty poorly towards revolutionary supposing the government in
the jungle, seeing them as rebellious trouble makers.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
In the past, we thought that the military is a
group that loves all the people and all the different
groups in the in the country. And then there's just
a few people who really hate the military. But especially
after the one who we face it with our own foreheads,
(01:42):
with the guns. We can face the evil the military
and all the human rights and things that people who
hated the military before we're talking about. We understand it
now because we had to face it ourselves. And then
they're going to tell us terrorists, and how very much
they call us. We know that we're finding for human
(02:03):
rights and we know that each person deserves these basic things,
you know. So so even when we capture a soldier,
we don't kill them immediately as they're unarmed. You know,
when they capture a PDF, they torture and kill them
very very horrifically or horrendously, and they kill and do
(02:27):
and hurt all the citizens and ordinary bystanders. So for us,
what they're calling as rebels before, we're not rebels. They're
the ones that are rebels, so we have to call
them rebels. They're the terrorists.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But as violence against protests escalated, so all began to
see through the lies he'd been told by the military
or his life.
Speaker 3 (02:50):
What we were calling as rebels are what we kind
of become. But we know why we are now rebels.
That's because of their terrorism, their oppressive reviews, and their
violation of human rights. That's why we have to revolt
against them.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
For a time, protects responded creatively with giant potato guns
meant to fire leslietho protectiles long distances. These homemade guns
to be fired in volleys well. Other protested protected them
with shields. Some of these tactics were effective at point,
but it quickly became clear that the government was willing
to massacre everyone's standing up to them, So his girlfriend
(03:32):
and their friends quickly decided that non violent resistance wasn't
going to work, but they didn't give up.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
As we get into June, there's two paths, right. We
can be normal, we can on the streets. We can
ask for the people's power back, and since that's not working,
we know that what we have to do is we
need to hold these bunds, get these guns. And on
the military side, all they know is that they will
(04:00):
solve this by folding guns so the only thing, the
only path that's left for us is to take those
guns for ourselves. So around the end of May, we
started entering training school. So the downtour is the word
we use, and something like this corner part so one,
(04:23):
corner part one to two. So talking what that means
is that in the huntings huntings that we were doing,
hunting rifles that we were using for that. So we
kind of start started and we fought first and demoso,
if we can ask the military nicely, then there's no
(04:43):
reason for us to be using guns. But since they
don't listen to our demands or our requests at all,
then and since that all we can do, all they
are saying, all they're doing is using the guns and
being terrorists trying to shoot us. So the only things
that we can do to get what we need and
what we want is to take the concept for ourselves.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
And so, like hundreds of people his age, Zow headed
into the jungle in May of twenty twenty one. The
decision wasn't an over night one or an easy one,
but after protesting non violently, then meeting state violence with
community defense, then seeing his peers gunned down in the street,
he didn't have many other choices. He'd picked up a megaphone,
(05:28):
then a shield, and now he was heading in the
jungle to pick up a rifle. The only problem was
that there weren't any rifles.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
He left with his girlfriend and quote with the blessing
of his parents. Keep that in mind for later. When
he first went to the jungle, Zol went to a
two week training camp where the Carinni People's Defense Force
taught him the basics of guerrilla warfare. But they didn't
have enough weapons to arm him and his friends. So
these Jinz militants began their fighting careers with twenty two
(06:06):
caliber rifles. If you aren't a gun person, the twenty
two was one of the smallest widely available bullets. Like
any bullet, it can kill, but as a caliber it's
better suited for shooting rabbits than soldiers. These twenty two
rifles were handmade locally and only fired one shot at
a time. But it was those rifles that Zaw, his girlfriend,
and their friends carried into their first gunfight with the Tatmadaw.
(06:31):
After battling like that for about three weeks, the shooting stopped,
he said in an interview, we conducted over signal. After
the shooting stopped, we grouped together money to buy arms
by asking for donations. They were massively outgunned, but determined
to fight on with the weapons they could make and
buy on the black market until they could find something better,
even if that meant taking guns from dead soldiers. The
(06:53):
military's guns are extremely good, of course, compared to point
two twos, he said. We fight with the mindset that
we must win. Our minds are always prepared to take
their guns when a soldier falls. It's a mindset to
want the enemy's arms to beat your own arms. You
need to want to resist injustice because we are fighting
for what is right. We do not get sad even
if we die. We are happy even when wounded. We
(07:15):
no longer care if our arms are matched unevenly not.
Despite their enthusiasm, PDF units all over the country were
finding themselves in the same desperate situation when thousands of
young people in Myanmar decided to take up arms against
the government. They're just warn enough guns to go around.
Ak pattern rifles sell for three thousand dollars on the
black market, and ar's sell for up to seven thousand dollars.
(07:39):
The GDP per capita in twenty twenty was just twelve
hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty five cents per person,
and unlike militias in Syria and Iraq, the pro democracy
EAOs and Myanmar don't have the benefit questionable benefit of
the US flooding the region with its fire hose of
guns and money. Undeterred, Zaw and his squad took to YouTube,
(07:59):
where they they found videos explaining how to make two
two three caliber bolt action rifles. Again, if you're not
a gun person, two two three may not sound very
different than twenty two, but whereas twenty two is commonly
used to shoot squirrels, two to three is the standard
rifle round more or less for the US military. These
new bolt action two two threes All and his friends
(08:19):
were making could not match the rate of fire of
a modern rifle, but they could at least match those
rifles in stopping power. Once these gin z insurgeons had
the technique down, they created a detailed album on Facebook
showing how everything from the stalk to the barrel could
be made with pipes, lumber, and hours and hours of
detailed hard work. Unlike their guerrilla warfare instructors, These kids
(08:41):
had grown up on the Internet rather than the jungle,
so they knew that if it exists, there's a subreddit
for it. It was the Internet that came to their rescue.
Three D printed guns have been around for a decade,
but the early models didn't work well and suffered from
a pretty bad reputation due in part to Cody Wilson,
the pedophileitarian activists we discussed last episode. Jake Hanrahan of
(09:03):
Popular Front has covered the printed gun movement extensively.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Cody Wilson made his whole thing like, I'm the guy
with the three D printed guns, and he was on
this moral crusade. The three D printed gun lads, particularly
the Terrence Dispense, were like, yeah, don't give a shit
about that. We're just putting our stuff out into the world.
Obviously they got their ideas, but they weren't really wedded
to this idea of it being one person.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Deterrence Dispensed was a group of anonymous activists who were
more concerned with making printed guns that worked than making
a name for themselves. Hammerhan was connected to one activist
who used the pseudonym j. Stark through the group, and
after three years of conversing online. Hamrahan met Stark in
Germany to produce a documentary. Jay Stark died of a
heart attack following a police raid last year, so we
(09:47):
spoke to Hanrahan about Stark's worldview.
Speaker 4 (09:50):
His whole worldview comes from this idea that you know,
it's everybody should have the right to be able to
fight tyranny. And if you can't fight any like, you're fucked.
And the way to fight tyranny in the modern era
is firearms. We know that, you know, there's there's no
you can't argue, it's there's no peaceful march gets rid
(10:10):
of a fascist dictatorship or whatever. But he he was,
he he was you know, there's some people would say
he was far right. Some people say he was an anarchist.
Some people say he was a US patriot type. I mean, first,
he wasn't even from America, and he had a lot
of he liked the laws in America, but he wasn't
like some of the American kind of fan boy or
anything on that sense. He liked the gun laws, he
(10:33):
liked the freedom of speech lords, which I do as well.
You know, like personally I in this country, you know,
if you tweet the wrong thing, even in jest, like
police will literally come to your house in Britain like
it's happened, it's fucking mental. So yeah, he liked that
kind of thing, and I think, I think for him
it was he was very tonal vision. You know, he
was very tonal vision. It was just freedom, freedom of freedom,
(10:56):
and if you said, well what about this, what about that,
he was like, I don't care about that until the
freedom there, there's no point looking at anything else. And
so his brain was always on people that are living
on the tyranny, you know, and it genuinely would. I know,
there's a lot of people, even leftists, particularly leftists, had
tried to completely smear him as a white supremacist. They
were saying, oh, everything he said in that doc that
I made was really it was secret anti Jewish white supremacy.
(11:21):
And then it came out that he wasn't even white.
You know. It was like very good, very good, you
fucking idiots. So there was a lot of that going around.
But I honestly believe that deep down he was just
tunnel vision, focused on this idea of every Until everybody
is not living under tyranny, I must go on this
mission and Okay, if someone shoots up at school with
what I've invented, so be it. You know, which I'm
(11:42):
not saying that's good, but that was just his idea.
You know. He was like, so be it. Fuck it
if I can. You know, he was very genuine when
he was on about the wigas, or he was on
about the mistreatment of Kurds from Turkey, and you know,
he was like, look, if we can build something that
can help them, well, sorry that the West might get
fucked up because of it, but I'm focused on this now. Obviously,
in practice that would be chaos probably, but you know,
(12:07):
he just saw it the way he saw it, and
that was that.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
The cavalier attitude Stark seems to have had to how
his invention might be used is of course worthy of criticism.
But the revolutionaries on the ground in Myanmar were not
concerned with ideological debates over the ethics of homemade firearms.
They needed guns, and they needed them now. J. Stark's
FGC nine, which stands for Fuck Gun Control nine millimeter,
(12:30):
was simple to make, easy to use, and relied entirely
on parts you could print or buy in any hardware
store in September of twenty twenty one, a post popped
up on the foss cads subreddit, which is dedicated to
the manufacturing of three D printed guns. Stark is a
hero there. The post said, wanted to say thanks to
this community, the creators of FGC nine and the various
(12:51):
mods when we could you guys are literally empowering the
armed revolution against dictators in one of the most underdeveloped countries.
We are now equipped with FGC nine and starting the
armed revolution to the coup leader dictator. As one poster comments,
the account quote went from posting about mobile games to
how did three D print SMGs? To desperately asking people
(13:12):
to pay attention what was happening in me and mar
Then after the FGC nine post, it was deleted entirely.
Jay Stark never lived to see this.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
He would have loved it. What everything that he was doing,
that was the main focus in my opinion, that like,
it couldn't be a more perfect, like practical actual realization
of his project. You couldn't pick a more perfect version
of it to happen like that, you know. And there's
(13:42):
a lot of talk of oh, where there's a load
of drug dealers in Amsterdam I have FGC nine's. There
was a Nazi recently arrested with one. You know, these
people are awful, of course, but the most prevalent use
of the FGC nine, at least from what I've observed,
has been from the Red was in my mum making them.
I think I've seen like thirty of them so far.
(14:03):
You know, that's a lot of them, And there was
one was found stashed in a bush. My theory is
there left the round for ambush attacks and areas that
are not as fully controlled by the rebels.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Foss Cad, a community of mostly US based Guan printers,
lost its collective mind, and it didn't take long for
people to make the connection between the post and a
desperate plight of me and Mars Spring revolution. Soon after
the post, the tat Mador started posting pictures of FGC nines,
often without sites captured from fighters in Yangon. On the
(14:46):
twenty first of September, the Tatmador's Ministry of Information released
a statement. I Miat Thwei and Ye mint Ang were
found with an FGC nine Mark two pistol five round
pounds of nine millimeters ammunition. They were arrested along with
their drone. The military alleged they were an urban unit
(15:08):
from the same generation z E Freedom Army that Zoor
was a part of. That same month, the military posted
pictures of three more captured FGC nines, suggesting that at
least five have been captured by late September. Then two
months later a new post popped up and the fosscat subreddit, Hey,
(15:30):
I'm back and the guy who posted a thank you
note back in September here. Now that the FGC nines
are ready known by the dictator, I can proudly announce
that we're from me and mar. Yes, we are mass
producing FGC nines to fight back against the Dictator. More
info about our production will be published later this time.
The user u slash daddy umcd hung around to answer questions.
(15:56):
Those bastards didn't know we had the tech back then.
Now that everything in public, we can proudly say we're
from me and Mah. We are mostly responsible for production
on R and D, even though we also involved in
other ground missions. We distribute the FDC nine to a
lot of different urban guerrillas in urban and rural areas.
Some of the units got arrested a few weeks ago,
(16:17):
which you might have already seen on the subreddit. Apart
from the FDC nine, there are other equipments and weapons
that are being produced with three D printers, he wrote.
He said his team were residing in ethnic armed organization areas,
mainly the Koran National Union and the Kachin Independence Army
controlled zones. He posted that they tried other three D
(16:39):
printer designs, such as the PLASTICOV, which is a printed
AK forty seven receiver, but getting the other parts made
it impractical. By contrast, the FDC nine can be made
entirely using a three D printer and some hardware store parts.
According to another source, ME and Mars small motorcycle repair
shops made quick work the metal barrels and bolts. Electrochemical
(17:02):
machining was used to make more barrels. They also had
the chance to buy a few clock barrels from Thailand,
Daddy UMCD said, but those cost a lot more than
the FGC nine barrels. While his account continued to post,
the military continued to share photos of captured FGC nines.
Three workshops that had been using lathes to make the
(17:25):
barrels were raided. A photos of three more captured guns
popped up in November alongside bolt action rifles. It still
had stickers on their stocks from what looked like US
gun shops. Production and decentralized locations continued despite the raids,
while other groups fought on with homemade revolving rifles, crewded
(17:45):
homemade wooden stocks, and other improvised weapons. A telegram channel
with instructions in Burmese on how to make the guns
made sure that even when one shop or gunsmith was
taken out of the fight, the knowledge wasn't lost. Although
filament for their three D printers were becoming harder to get,
they'd stockpiled a lot in advance. Daddy UMCD tried to
(18:10):
manufacture automatic FGC nines and another printable model called Professor
Parabellum square tubes up machine gun, but nothing else seemed
as easier as reliable as the FGC nine. Of course,
read it being read it, people questioned the veracity and
utility of his posts. He responded, FDC nines are just
(18:30):
part of the game because they could be produced with
what we have at the lowest cost. Available rifles of
four thousand to seven thousand US dollars at our border.
Fgcs are under one hundred dollars. Rifle parts are ten
times more expensive than lock parts. To all those who
are saying that these photos as sus we don't want
to blame your suspicion if an if you remember the
(18:53):
thread I posted in September, you'll remember that we are
mass producing FGC knights. The ones in the photos you've
seen were supplied by us. There are many groups like
this now we do the main production, just like I
explained in September. Then, Daddy UMCD went on to thank
the other members of the subreddit, claiming their active help
was the only reason he and other revolutionaries have been
(19:15):
able to overcome certain technical issues. We wouldn't be here
without you guys, especially with someone who shared with me.
The buffer spring and fire control groups bring measurements, he said.
By late November, photos of FGC nines in the hands
of fighters emerged, and they showed sites. This time they
had longer barrels and homemade suppressors too. The FGC nines
(19:38):
were apparently used by urban units for close up fighting
and for the training of new fighters, since they have
essentially the same controls as an AR fifteen or sixteen rifle,
both of which are common in ME and r's rebel units.
We have successfully streamlined a variety of techniques to produce
FGC nine one thousand plus efficiently. Our primary forces arequipped
(20:01):
with proper rifles. FGC nine's are for guerrilla warfare. We
started using those in Hit and Run and Special Task
Force missions too. We don't share much about the missions
to the public yet. It will definitely come, and when
it does, are updated here if I'm still alive, ha ha,
wrote Daddy umcd on the foscat subreddit. Even with production
(20:23):
and full swing, ammunition remained a problem. Although some regions
can produce twenty two and nine millimeter home According to
Daddy umcd, five five six can be purchased in large
quantities at the border with Thailand, but it isn't cheap. Instead,
the PDF relied on raiding police and military outposts in
(20:43):
the same way the EEOS had for years. Nine millimeter
is the most common center fire pistol around in the world.
That's why Deterrent's Dispense picked it for the FGC nine.
C's weapons often only have a handful of rounds, but
that's enough to kill a soul and take his weapon.
Jay Stock might not have been around to see his
(21:04):
invention used to fight Trney, But Hammerhan thinks he would
have been happy with the results.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
He would have been made up. I think that's everything
he wanted to achieve, You know what I'm saying, That
really is everything you wanted to do.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
Even the National Unity Government MI and Ma's government in
exile has come around to any some of Jay Stark's
ways of thinking. According to Daddy umcd our, Minister of
Defense Minister already promised about the right to bear arms
at the first day of the revolution.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Promises made by revolutionary governments are not exactly solid commitments,
but it's not hard to see why a generation of
kids like Zaw, forged by an asymmetrical conflict with a
government that possessed a near absolute advantage in armaments, might
be committed to staying armed even if they win. At
the moment, the future of their struggle is very much
end doubt. Scrolling through Facebook photos of Zaw and his
(21:54):
comrades as a surreal experience. They look not just young
soldiers mostly look young, but they look like students kids
from some weirdly militarized university. Photos on Facebook show them
sprawled out together in the grass and Camo fatigues bearing rifles,
but each glued to their phones as they cuddle in together.
Zaw and his girlfriend, who he described to us as
(22:16):
the girl I love, fought alongside each other until January
seventh of this year.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
The battle that we started, she was coming within and
you know as halficens. A weapon landed near her and
it hit her like so their bone broke, so she
had to go to the hospital.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Three D printed and homemade guns have helped, but Zaw
and his friends are still fighting against a modern military
with planes, night vision goggles, and tanks. Despite this, more
than a year after the coup, they're still fighting and
more soldiers deffect to join them weekly. It's hard to
see what victory looks like. The cities will be another
battle altogether, but in the jungle camp where Zaw video
(22:59):
calls us, it's impossible to see what giving up might
look like. Either he's still fighting, his girlfriend is healing,
and they're both committed to staying out in the jungle
until they are in their freedom back or die trne It.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Could happen here as a production of cool Zone Media.
For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website
coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts, you can
find sources for It could happen here, Updated monthly at
coolzonemedia dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.
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