Explainer: Carlo guns, what are they and why does it matter

An attack on Friday that killed an Israeli security guard illustrates how Israel’s forces are facing an enormous threat in the fight against West Bank security challenges - the manufacture of homemade guns.

Near the West Bank city of Ariel on Friday night, two Palestinian assailants allegedly shot and killed 23-year-old guard Vyacheslav Daniel Golev - reportedly with improvised, homemade weapons, according to an image released by Israel Police.

Such craft firearms, known locally in Israel and the Palestinian territories as “Carlo” guns, are affordable, deadly DIY weapons being built illegally in small workshops.

A Carlo, which is said to imitate the design of a Swedish Carl Gustaf submachine gun, can vary significantly in style and layout, but all can be easily produced using everyday household items.

The craft weapons “are particularly easy to manufacture in a garage or home workshop setting, with limited tools and minimal skill,” according to intelligence consultancy firm Armament Research Services.

The internal components of a Carlo can be constructed using various metal pieces from home appliances, and the barrel of the weapon may be built out of repurposed fridge pipes or metal hoses, Ynet reported.

Because these items are also used for civil purposes, it is incredibly difficult to identify Carlo producers, and Israel must rely mostly on information uncovered through its intelligence network when confronting the threat of DIY firearms.

This ease of access, affordability, and virtual invisibility makes the Carlo an attractive choice for violent actors and criminal organizations, and as a result, the weapon has proliferated in various illegal channels.

“Carlo pistols have been employed by so-called ‘lone wolf’ terrorists, criminals, and militant groups such as Hamas’s Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al-Quds Brigades,” a November 2018 report from the Geneva-based weapons researcher Small Arms Survey detailed.

Though the Carlo is untraceable and cheap, it is not without drawbacks.

The weapon’s simple design comes at the cost of low accuracy and range due to a lack of rifling on inexpensive models, according to The Times of Israel.

Rifling adds spiral grooves to the inside of a barrel, which causes a bullet to spin and enables greater firing accuracy.

Many straightforward Carlo weapons are crafted without the feature, though some producers are offering firearms with rifling at a higher price point.

“There’s a huge breadth of quality when it comes to improvised weapons: Some are very basic, not reliable and potentially dangerous to the user,” expert Nick de Larrinaga explained to The Media Line, adding other manufacturers are “essentially underground factories producing standardized weapons.”

An unrifled Carlo purchased in Israel and the surrounding areas can reportedly cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000, but the more precise rifled models are priced at a range of $2,500 to $3,800.

Ammunition for a Carlo is also not typically produced by the manufacturers themselves.

Security experts believe the weapon’s bullets are either obtained through the black market or stolen from various security services, including Israel’s military.