Not so long ago, factory, city, and country of manufacture of a gun could be quite definitve. Looking at gunmaking, one needs consider design, materials, and workmanship, and style. Design is protected for a time by patents. The designs that we on this BBS generally admire have long ago expired; anyone anywhere can copy them. Best gunmaking materials were for a long time only regionally available and very expensive. Now they are generally available to anyone anywhere at madest prices, including transprotation. Workmanship was taught in an arduous and carefully protected program from apprentice to journeyman to master; not all apprentices became masters, only those truly good enough. Now, wire cutters, CNC, and EDM machines surely take the edge off the grunt work. They are not quite up to finishing work, but it is foreseeable. Robots are getting better very fast. But, will "machine made" ever be able to capture style??

I think a very interesting question is allowable mix of hand work and machine work.

Robots seem to be taking the "Who" and "Where" out of the equation.