Unlicensed Bushwick gunmaker serving 10 years for his 'hobby' blurs the gun rights debate

Brooklyn prosecutors say Dexter Taylor is a danger to society. The 53-year-old built more than a dozen illegal firearms in his Bushwick apartment and is now serving a 10-year sentence in a maximum-security prison.

But Taylor and his friends say he's not a threat, he’s a tinkerer — a software engineer, electronic music composer and amateur TikTok philosopher — who made guns as a hobby. They say he doesn’t belong behind bars.

Taylor was convicted earlier this year of various charges, including criminal possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of pistol ammunition and violating New York’s prohibitions on homemade firearms, known as ghost guns. His case blurs the lines of the traditional political debates about gun rights and gun violence.

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