You WILL have to contend with mandates, they come from whoever occupies the Whitehouse! Much can depend on the current politics. And, there's not a lot of 'glory' in being a gunsmith, and not a lot of money either. Takes a long time to build a reputation, and there seems to be thousands of self taught smiths about. There's lots of overhead in a 'barreling' operation (lathe, reamers, gauges, you'll need a vertical mill or there'll be some you can't do [win 70 crf & springfields]. If all a guy is gonna' do is "build rifles' he's behind the 8 ball, already. An example, I attended and graduated from the 2yr gunsmithing program at MCC at Troy N.C. (and there was a lot more than threading and chambering taught). Out of the 24 students in the class I graduated with, 3 are in the industry,,, and one of the 3 is a sales rep, not running a shop. Not to be discouraging, but it's a tough buss to survive in. I wish you luck, and hope you have a real good day job!