For gunsmith, a full-bore interest and a high gauge of expertise - latimes.com

I found this article very interesting, "This isn't a job," he says. "This is who I am."

For Terry Tussey, a gun is the perfect marriage of form and function, a carefully crafted machine that can contain an explosion delivering 20,000 pounds of pressure per square inch and drive a bullet through a barrel at 1,000 feet per second.

Every spring, catch, plunger, plug, pin and cap must work for it to fire properly. Dirt, rust and abuse lead to jams, misfires and parts breaking.

This morning, he's holding a .45 semiautomatic, popularly known as a 1911. Built in the '70s with military surplus parts, it has a plastic opalescent grip and a slide engraved with what looks like the tendrils of a climbing rose.

The design's too garish for Tussey, but right now looks don't matter. He drops the magazine, pulls back the slide to make sure there isn't a cartridge in the chamber and soon has the gun in three pieces: barrel, slide and frame.

Like a puzzle cast in three dimensions, a 1911 has close to 50 parts, and each needs to fit together with a tolerance of less than a hair's breadth. Any play leads to the inaccuracy that Tussey found at the range this morning.

The best measure of a pistol's worth, he believes, comes at 20 yards when he tries to group five shots within the space of a nickel. This .45 didn't come close.

[,,,]
He is one of 61 gunsmiths registered with the American Pistolsmiths Guild. The trade organization promotes the work of elite customizers, whose pistols must pass standards for accuracy and artistry established by senior members of the guild.

Enrollment in the guild has held steady through the years, says its president, Marc Morganti, but most of the members are in their 60s. It takes time to learn the craft, he says, and it's hard to make a living on the wages of a pistolsmith.

"It's a sign of the times," Morganti says. "The old-school guys are getting left behind."

[,,,]
Tussey is sympathetic to efforts to restrict gun ownership, but he doesn't believe any legislation would stop gun violence.

He favors background checks and hunter safety courses, and he can't see a purpose for assault weapons or large-capacity magazines, but he is a passionate supporter of the 2nd Amendment. He keeps a loaded 9mm Glock on his workbench and a 9mm Rohrbaugh in his pocket.

If owning a gun wasn't important, he argues, it wouldn't have been listed second in the Bill of Rights.

For gunsmith, a full-bore interest and a high gauge of expertise - latimes.com