Do you think it would still be as easy to make ammo in a postapocalyptic world with probably extensive supply issues? You would probably even have to make your own gunpowder the charcoal could be relatively easy to get but the sulfur and especially the potassium nitrate could be a different story.
Gunpowder, especially black powder, is actually really easy, it's the primers that are the hard part. People in the middle ages actually got some of the sulfur from urine, if I remember correctly urine of monks and holy men was believed to make the best gunpowder. You're right that saltpetre is a little more complicated
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, manure isn't exactly hard to come by after all. Smokeless powder would be harder, but anyone with a highschool chemistry education and their old textbooks and the resources available to a modest gang could manufacture it in quantities that would cover their needs.
Primers are a bit harder, but things like survival matches would be a good source of the components needed to make them, and other than that there are primitive methods to make them, they're just labor intensive.
Brass would probably be melted down salvaged stuff, it's a very workable metal, a brass doorknob or fixture could provide you with enough brass for a surprising amount of ammunition.
Overall I think given the constraints of the setting ammo would be expensive by modern American pricing, but not prohibitively so.
And while pipe weapons could totally be a thing as you have already mentioned they are kind of shit. Would it really be with the trouble?
Yes, they aren't much trouble at all. A shotgun made of a pipe, an cap, and a nail doesn't need to be kept in one piece, until you need it you can keep it as separate parts around your home, slambangs aren't called "four winds" shotguns for nothing, they can be scattered to the four winds at a moment's notice. Given the lack of risk to owners, we should examine the risks to manufacturers and dealers, but for that we'd need to know more about the state of the world outside the city and we'd need more details on the situation in terms of exactly how the guards operate and what the resource situation is like. I think Sam_Tail doesn't want to have to account for guns whenever he writes a story, and that makes a lot of sense given what I think his intentions are for the story and setting, but I think he also wants the setting to be as realistic/plausible as possible. I'm trying to explain why guns would be available, but I'm also trying to help him give excuses as to why they'd basically never used, even as a threat. I think that he could also use the possibility of armed opposition as a narrative excuse for why certain "obvious" solutions aren't taken. I am not knocking the game, I really enjoy it and think it's really well made and well thought out, I just hope that my knowledge and perspective might help Sam_Tail make a better game and not rely on misunderstandings or lack of knowledge (for instance GPS would probably still work in the setting, I think a better excuse would be that the US military panicked during some crisis and made it so civilians can't access the GPS network anymore, since that is something they
probably have the ability to do.)
the ones in charge don't have to follow the same rules as current governments.
The modern UK policing apparatus relies heavily on the horrifying surveillance state the UK is these days. The current "government" as it is doesn't have the ability to do that sort of thing, so while they might make some draconian examples, that is unlikely to meaningfully impact firearms production. They don't even have computerized records anymore, much less a surveilance camera on every street corner. Keeping track of who is acquiring more fertilizer than they need for their farm or whatever is basically impossible in the setting of the game. Also every single investigation would need to be conducted in force, since if it isn't the people doing the investigation will just be killed and the gun runners would relocate and come up with new cover before reinforcements arrive.
Wait a minute this gives me an idea for Sammy's next big Fixer gig have her infiltrate and help take out some gun runners.
Done well I think that could be really thrilling and fascinating and possibly extremely erotic, I know there are a lot of people who make KK art with chicks with guns in skimpy outfits, Sammy the "zako" could be hot as hell. Imagine Sammy infiltrating the bodyguards of "the twins" and all the bodyguards are bikini clad babes with Kalashnikovs (for my erotic preferences they'd carry AK-74s or krinks, I just think they're sexier than other AK variants) . I hope the twins are hot babes too. It'd be pretty dissapointing for me at least if the twins aren't hot identical twin girls. At least I think it'd be dissapointing, Sam_Tail has surprised me in the past by making me find things hot I didn't really think were that hot.