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| Updates and Downloads HERE |
This is an update to Defense Distributed's ongoing progress with 3D printed weapons.
The eyes of the world are on the innovation of 3D printing. Naturally, whenever a new technology is created that offers open source DIY opportunities to the average individual, it is going to make governments and their protected corporate interests very nervous.
Such is the case with 3D weapons manufacturing. Defense Distributed has been offering sets of computer files for free through their DEFCAD online library, including their now 50+ files in the MEGA PACK. Their progress has been documented on their own site by a series of video updates the company has posted.
Now, after 8 months of discussing the possibility of a fully printable 3D handgun with all parts made of a composite plastic, except for the firing pin, Defense Distributed has released the The Liberator (direct download HERE) to the Web following a successful test fire on Saturday which can be seen in previous reports and videos below, as well as their latest video seen here. As Defense Distributed states: 3D printing's first killer app has arrived...
Defense Distributed founder, Cody Wilson, recently granted Forbes a behind-the-scenes look at how his new creation -- The Liberator -- will function:
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition. (Source)Politicians such as Steve Israel are responding to Cody Wilson's self-described "crypto-anarchist" political motivations by introducing legislation to criminalize this technology. But this is precisely the tension that Wilson would like to introduce:
This is an exercise in political theater, to demonstrate that technology is empowering individuals by stripping governments of the ability to enforce restrictions. Yes, you can make guns in a host of ways, including the similarly advanced technology of CNC machines. But 3D printing is a hot and increasingly accessible technology that has been specifically called out by the president. To use it to so easily defeat restrictions (or outright prohibitions) is to demonstrate the limits of the coercive power of the state. (Source)Wilson has once again drawn Israel's attention according to the latest update from Forbes:
Congressman Steve Israel issued a press release Friday responding to this story: “Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” his statement reads. “When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now to extend the ban [on] plastic firearms.”
However, Israel's comments don't address the fact that despite Wilson's anarchist leanings, he has complied every step of the way, including the issue of metal detectors by adhering to current requirements. Again, from Forbes.The group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.So far, "the system" doesn't have much of an answer for Defense Distributed's inventions and the increasing demand for their latest blueprints.
Wilson's full battery of tests before officially releasing The Liberator seems to be going according to plan. BBC reporter Rebecca Morelle was on site in Austin, Texas this past Saturday. Her report can be found in the video below.
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Previous updates:
A new documentary features Defense Distributed and its founder, Cody Wilson. It is an interesting look at the technology itself, as well as the philosophy behind making 3D-printed weapons available to as many people as possible even in the wake of the gun demonization, executive orders, and political turmoil which followed the mass shootings of 2012. Our chronicle of the controversy surrounding Defense Distributed, as well as their victories, follow the documentary. From the video creators:
This is a story about the rapid evolution of a technology that has forced the American legal system to play catch up. Cody Wilson, a 24-year-old University of Texas Law student, is an advocate for the open source production of firearms using 3D printing technology. This makes him a highly controversial figure on both sides of the gun control issue. MOTHERBOARD sat down with Cody in Austin, Texas to talk about the Constitution, the legal system, and to watch him make and test-fire a 3D-printed gun.
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Previous updates:
Following on the heels of their homage to gun control advocates such as Andrew Cuomo and Dianne Feinstein, the ATF has granted Defense Distributed the Type 7 Federal Firearms License that the company had been seeking over the last 6 months. However, there is one more step before they will be able to go full throttle:
Wilson will not actually be able to manufacture and sell guns until he receives a Class 2 Special Occupational Taxpayer add-on to his FFL. (Source)As you will read below, the corporate media has begun to focus on Defense Distributed's founder Cody Wilson and his political views and statements in what could be the start of a serious campaign of demonization.
Wilson explains to ArsTechnica what the newly obtained Type 7 License enables him to do:
"The big thing it allows me to do is that it makes me [a manufacturer] under the law—everything that manufacturers are allowed to do," he told Ars. "I can sell some of the pieces that we've been making. I can do firearms transactions and transport."The license is pictured below:
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| Visit the Defense Distributed Facebook Page Here |
Currently, Wilson said he will not actually begin manufacturing and selling guns until he receives an “add-on” to his FFL, known as a Class 2 Special Occupational Taxpayer (SOT), as licensed under federal law (PDF). This would allow him to manufacture and deal a broader range of firearms under the National Firearms Act. The Class 2 SOT would grant Wilson the ability to manufacture, for example, a fully-automatic rifle. Wilson applied for the SOT on Saturday and expects to receive approval within a few weeks.However, some of Cody Wilson's previous statements, which can be read below, were directed toward specific politicians, including his brash guarantee of success in thwarting any and all gun control measures by stating "good f---ing luck." In so doing, he seems to have drawn some ire from the mainstream media.
NBC chose to title this news, which they sourced from The Verge's dryly titled "Defense Distributed gets license to make and sell 3D printed guns," to something quite different altogether, "ATF grants 'crypto-anarchist' license for 3-D printing of guns" - highlighting part of the description from his Facebook page. The article goes on to characterize Defense Distributed as a "loosely organized group" where Wilson "IS" the group. 3D printing is couched in the following manner:some of its more notable efforts so far have been for medical, space and scientific projects, including helping repair broken bones and building spacecraft parts, as well as commercial efforts including athletic shoes.The implication appearing to be that 3D weapons manufacturing is not to be included in that list of beneficent uses. It remains to be seen if other mainstream outlets will follow suit and make 3D weapons out to be the next great threat to freedom, rather than one of the cornerstones of preserving it.
updated 3/19
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The latest from Defense Distributed is in honor of gun-control proponent, Dianne Feinstein. Founder of Defense Distributed, Cody Wilson, states his reasoning for offering their latest creation:
“We want to commemorate a personal failure of Feinstein’s to take away semi-automatic weapons,” Wilson, who is also a law student in Austin, Texas, told The Huffington Post. (Source)The ongoing homage to the futility of full gun-control follows an earlier AR-15 magazine called the "Cuomo."
Defense Distributed has consistently lashed out at attempts to offer legislation to ban 3D weapons printing, such as that of New York Congressman, Steve Israel. Congressman Israel has sought to criminalize 3D weapons, to which Cody Wilson responded succinctly, "good f***ing luck". Their latest video offers evidence that efforts are moving forward...
The early media attention resulted in Wikiweapon company Stratasys, Inc. seizing Defense Distributed's equipment and taking issue with their decentralized methods. But the genie is already out of the bottle -- downloads have topped 500,000. After some initial stutter-stepping with structural failures, their latest incarnations heralds the arrival of 3D printed semi-automatic and automatic weapons.
Ars Technica explains the short history of Cody Wilson's non-profit gun manufacturing program:
Last year, his group famously demonstrated that it could use a 3D-printed “lower” for an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle—but the gun failed after six rounds. Now, after some re-tooling, Defense Distributed has shown that it has fixed the design flaws and a gun using its lower can seemingly fire for quite a while. (The AR-15 is the civilian version of the military M16 rifle.) [Source]The results can be seen in part 3 of their ongoing video series chronicling their development and improvement. Over 600 rounds of .223 ammunition are fired without fail using a 3D-printed "lower" for an AR-15, with Wilson stating that it likely could have gone to 1,000.
The ability for anyone to print a weapon could be one of the cornerstones for widespread freedom and resistance to top-down tyranny. Lawmakers such as Steve Israel have stated that any restrictions on 3D printing of weapons will be very difficult if not impossible to enforce, and the Justice Department has so far backed up their legality. As Tony Cartalucci has stated, it renders gun control moot; one would have to basically ban any personal use of 3D printers.
Preventing people from manufacturing guns, or worse yet, from possessing or using tools that can be used to create guns, is both ludicrous and impossible. Like with cars or anything else, laws are there to ensure we don't harm others by abusing any given right or implement - not preventing us from having those rights or implements responsibly in the first place.
As the cost of production goes down, and states continue to assert their inherent rights to govern without federal interference, there will likely be a wave of non-profit and for-profit manufacturers alike, as Wilson states:The law student said that anyone with the same type of 3D printer (“SLA resin and P400 ABS on a used Dimension”) could replicate his efforts with “9 to 12 hours” of print time and “$150 to $200” in parts. "We’ve proven that you can build one for $50,” he said, presuming the builder is using lower quality materials. (Dimensions typically sell in the $30,000 range—but Wilson says his results could be duplicated using the less-expensive Ultimaker ($1,500) or Reprap.”With the ability for anyone, anywhere to be able to defend oneself and mobilize quickly against a growing threat, governments would have to think twice before heading down the road to tyranny. Certainly the government itself has signed on to 3D manufacturing. As reported by The Singularity Hub, the Army is deploying $2.8 million fabrication labs to the frontlines as part of an overall 3-year contract with Exponent, Inc. worth $9.7 million. The intention is to make this global.
While this video focuses on other aspects of 3D printing, and injects the well-worn marketing line that all of this will save lives in humanitarian efforts, to think this will not be used to produce guns and even drones would be naive, since Stratasys -- the manufacturer that gave Defense Distributed such a hard time -- is fully signed on to assist the military-industrial complex.
However, it appears that the everyday consumer (taxpayer) will not have to wait for military tech to trickle down to offer its scraps; the benefits of 3D printing are taking on a life of their own with or without government approval.
For more information about HackerSpaces, OpenCourseWare and 3D printing solutions to our political problems, visit LocalOrg.
Additional source:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/ny-congressman-introducing-ban-on-3d-printed-high
Updated 5/7/13
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33 comments:
Extraordinary. Amazing. I'm not so sure people realize yet what this technology actually means? In the larger context it means a complete and total rebuilding of our "civilization" and how it approaches almost everything. I fear the government will put a stop to it, jail those who retain 3-D printing technology and any object made by such technology and that the oppression of the people will continue. This technology is nothing short than revolutionary and will put to bed ALL the systems and structures now in place. It means a better world for all.
Hmnmm
What is extraordinary is that the "technology" DOES NOT EXIST. People the primary components of a rifle the bolt and firing pin the barrel etc. must be made of STEEL. The chamber pressures even from a small caliber rifle are far to great for anything other than steel to withstand. Perhaps a 22 could be made to fire a round or 2 but thats about it.
This article and the many others on the net are a con nothing more. You cannot "print" a complete weapon period. There are a variety of parts that can be "printed" however all of them can be legally purchased without an FFL.The key components must be machined out of steel and cannot be "printed" Good Grief
And people you are literally playing Russian roulette attempting to fire a rifle bullet out of an all plastic gun. A 308 caliber rifle has chamber pressures in excess of 50,000 PSI.
guy above is close but wrong
In the USA all guns have a single part that is serial numbered and must be registered ( unless you make it yourself ). Every other part of a firearm can be purchased from the net and delivered to your door with no checks of any kind.
These guys are making AR15 lower receivers which are the serial numbered part in an AR15, they are normally made of aluminum but some companies actually offer carbon fiber and polymer ones as well. The AR15 lower receiver does not contain the pressure of firing the gun, that occurs in the upper receiver which is why this plastic AR15 idea is pretty safe to do/use.
The main problem with this great idea is that the printer used is a $1500 - #2000 purchase. The second problem is that you need many more metal parts to make an AR15 and several of these are complicated parts made from good steel.
So ya if you have a $2000 printer and an AR15 upper receiver , bolt, bolt carrier, firing pin, trigger, sear, hammer, mag release,stock set, barrel, barrel nut, front sight/gas block, gas tube, hand guard set, flash hider, spring kit and a 30 round magazine ( ohh wait you can print that - but you still need a mag spring ) -- If you have all those parts lying around you can build yourself a plastic receiver AR15
Exactly, 7:01, and I may add that the lower is just the stock and trigger group - the upper is where all the action is, and where the regulation is.
It is possible to take a piece of steel, and make a rifled barrel out of it, and you can even rifle a barrel by hand, as they used to - but it's an art, and better done with machinery that costs a few thousand. Gunsmithing like that is a skill you don't learn all at once.
One can make an easy 1-shot zip shotgun out of gas pipes. Shotguns don't need rifled barrels but they are also shorter range weapons. It's legal to make one (make it long enough) but you can never transfer it.
They are not printing a complete weapon, just a "lower". What makes this important is that this is the part of the weapon that normally has a serial number attached to it. Other parts (barrels, trigger mechs, etc) are all available commercially. A little research and you can avoid looking silly when you post.
Great coverage on this issue, Activist Post! 3-D printing is going to be a terrific tool in our battle to preserve the Second Amendment and, generally, to decentralize manufacturing.
Nevertheless, we still must remain hypervigilant and active in the fight stop and reverse the erosion of our Constitutional right to bear arms. Even with 3-D printing of weapons, the government can still use draconian methods of onerous fines and jail time for anyone caught violating one of their arbitrary rules. Much like the vaccine wars going on now, we see health care workers losing their jobs and reports of people getting government subsidized care being told that they will not get their prescriptions for commonplace ailments like hypertension unless they agree to get vaccinated.
We still must engage many more people in fighting the good fight. The gun control issue just may be waking up and galvanizing enough people to give us our tipping point.
OK, so they are not building an all polymer weapon, well so far as the public knows that is; It is the posssbilitys of the technology that will affect the world far outside of how effecient one can kill that is important.
This is not new technology as I witnessed it in its early stages some 20+ years ago.
In that use it was trying to find a way to use polymers that the human body would not reject in artificial heart and heart valve transplants.
Even then in fields far removed from medicine its expertise in applying computer tech to polymer modeling was in high demand.
Yet they did not themselves in house the machinery or figure out al the chemistry or biology and fully design the very computers they were using.
Today its ability seems of great import to may within thos dites reach only because of a soon to come weapons ban.
As an example to disprove the antis arguments that banning would not take away ability for almost anyone to build their own gun. It is a two edged sword as this will only scare The hell out of and raise the level of irrrational fears the antis already posess and make them redouble their efforts.
No tech breakthroughs especially today stand alone and are "but combinations of thoughts" and only improvements or solutions to old ideas.
As to thinking that one cannot build an upper alone and need steel at present even that is not fully true.
Thete are ways today of combining metal polymers carbon andpolymers in such a way that are far stronger than many steels used in bolts or especially the steels used in rifle barrels.
As for the tech level of 3D today the consumer is getting the cast offs, old tech, of industry.
Get in on it now if you can and finf your own way to profit from or just as a hobby toy of some practicle use in your garage.
Remember the "system can be used off of gun ranges and playing war games.
PATHETIC DISHONEST ARGUMENT FROM GUN SALESMEN:
New York Congressman, Steve Israel, has sought to criminalize 3D weapons...But the genie is already out of the bottle.
The ability for anyone to print a weapon could be one of the cornerstones for widespread freedom and resistance to top-down tyranny. Lawmakers such as Steve Israel have stated that any restrictions on 3D printing of weapons will be very difficult if not impossible to enforce, and the Justice Department has so far backed up their legality. As Tony Cartalucci has stated, it renders gun control moot; one would have to basically ban any personal use of 3D printers.
Right now, people can print money on high end printers. COUNTERFEITING, A CRIME!
Right now, people can print disgusting illegal pornography involving animals, kids and rape.
CHILD PORNOGRAPHY, A CRIME!
Those things are rightly illegal, and many laws exist to prevent them. So just because you can print a gun ($thousands$ of dollars required) on a new high tech printer, does not mean you automatically have a right to do so. Should some guy fresh out of prison be able to? How about street gangs and illegal aliens? Should they be able to stop in at Kinko's and print up a few AK's?
My god, the gun salesmen are idiots, supreme idiots.
Oh lets all get together and decide how we can make rules and regulaions we can hide behind; and be safe from the possabilitys of someones insane mind having a way to release their fantacys upon mankind.
With that kind of reasoning Bill Gates and others would of been controlled from releasing the PC's to just a few minds.
We should leave technology and its finds and usages to only those of proven mental stability, such as our pharma, military,industry and financials and who is it that is killing us?
Most people today can find multiple ways to anuse throuh their pc,s but don't
You let this tecnology get into the populaces hands and they will find usages we cannot envision at this time.
Will they all be altruistic and benign endeavors, most likely not.
Because some abuze cybersppace do we blame the PC or Bill gates and others,maybe a few wackos and religious nuts may.
If there are ways to save and make money along with being freed of the financial and industrial wage slave economy this is but one more item that may well pave the breakaway.
@anonymous March 3, 2013 at 9:24 AM
People DO print funny money on high end printers. It IS counterfeiting, and it IS a crime. The people are U.S. Treasury employees, printing Federal Reserve bank notes.
"The Congress shall have Power ...
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;"
Article 1, Section 8, clause 6 of the U.S. Constitution
As to rights, were you born a creature of God, supreme deity or of Nature, or of the State? Are basic human rights inalienable, a gift from God or Nature? Or do you believe all rights are "granted" by government?
@Hide Behind
Your editing is getting better. Maybe a spell checker would help. Anyway, your views are appreciated. However, I don't think Bill Gates is the analogy you'd want to use. Microsoft's history of property theft and monopolistic practices and Bill's proclivity for eugenics are not shining examples.
I wish these low life, right infinging bastards would just butt the hell out. I could go on however I would only be repeating!!!!!!!
3D printable body armor would be a much more useful item IMHO.
It's funny, the government talks so much about the dangers of firearms yet the argument never, EVER touches on the subject of negating the effects of firearms (e.g., body armor). Hell, the shit must be good for something since all the cops, mercs... *ahmm* I mean "soldiers", bodyguards, secret service, etc., wear the stuff. Not one of our "representatives" has spoken about the possible virtues of body armor for citizens in high gun crime areas (e.g., Chicago). I know it's a shame to have to consider such things, but hell this is the state the establishment has brought this country to, so we might as well cover all possible options. Obviously, citizens in body armor would be a threat to the status-quo as well, since it would mean their henchmen would have to waste more bullets on your asses, thus raising the monetary cost of killing you.
As an owner of a 3d Printing web site, I would like to invite everyone to check it out. No restrictions on the printables that you can upload or download. From toys to ar15 plans, its all allowed. Http://www.generationprint.com.
this is the most awesome thing i've seen in a long time. naming it after politicians is pure genius. big f-u.
Who needs a gun?? Just gazing upon Diane Feinstein's Medusa like hideousness is enough to cause men's hearts to freeze in sheer terror!
The wicked, loathsome creature!! God save us!
FEINSTEIN may be an ugly piece of humanity nut more than once sje has helped her husband make 10's of mllions with his old Indonesian Mining partners, with her save the Cali Tortoise. Ploy for land set asides.
It shut down fomestic mining of strategic minerals and her hubby and partner just coincidently joined in an export of those metals.
THen from her position on War Council her Hubby and some new partners. Get hundreds of millions of security and supply contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She may be ugly but she makes far more as an elected Harlot than mosy prossiesdo.
I bet hubby makes sure hr has enough viagra for when she wants.........Buisness is buisness.
Just like all other technology that has been kept from us. I'm with hide behind. Give us all the technology and quit poisoning us and we will take this world into a new dimension.
Think about where you're headed with this people... It's not about printing guns (really you can't) it's about taking the production techniques for everything away from the pyramid. (Remember, the first time didn't have the luxury of automatic fabrication machines, someone had to design and make those machines AFTER the first ones were hand built). Feed yourself! You can make whatever you want with a file, some steel, a drill, A PLAN, and skills (ie. a trade or two). You CAN'T do it sitting in an armchair watching youtube instructables... it takes a little more than a couple of minutes watching a movie to make someone competent in construction of anything, however knowing half the story just makes one competent in BS and not much else. The main reason that distilling your own spirits is frowned upon is not due to the effects of the output, it's mainly due to the effects of heating, pressurising and vaporising a highly explosive substance at home. Some idiot is going to do it wrong and flatten his house (big deal), kill his family and possibly the neighbors (THAT is the issue). Printing highly stressed parts from garbage is going to get someone hurt if it's not done correctly... and calibrated (I'll watch the test from a distance thankyou) and certified as good to go. Without those processes you can build a firearm outta wood if you want! Where do you want to start the process? Finding raw materials? (locations), Mining (extraction) Chemical makeup (recipes), Refining (more recipes), Casting and Forging (metalurgical processes), Machining, Fitting, Assembly (fabrication techniques), Testing and Calibration (R and D - while keeping urself in 1 piece), Operator Training (untrained = spectacular youtube material). Have I missed something??
Footnote: Lead is soft, back in the 1700s manufacturing wasn't very repeatable so many different barrel sizes ended up in the same gun. Lead shot would squash to fit in the bores of virtually any firearm because 'tolerances' were pretty slack in them days. Who's printing your ordinance? Look at body armor types if you get the testing role... just sayin :P
I'm more interested in printing flowerpots and walking stones, and maybe, forks. Hope the price goes down soon...
Guess what?
THE technology and knowlege of process and materials all except for one or actually more than one crucial material to build an atomic warhead or bomb has been available for over 50 years.
ONE FAR MORE EVOLVED THAN MID 60s weaponry but how many are built by people in their home garage.
I have seen 30/30 leveraction cowboy type weaponry made into slam fire full autos of 45 cal.
REPLICAS of 1911 US 45 cal copys made in mild steel that would fire 45 thomson full autos and revolnerssuch as S&W 2 357 and other cals that are almost as well done as real deals.
FOR 50 years since enf of WWII any one for around 100 bucks could build a fully functional machine pistol it is not that hard on blow backs. Timing is only critical part but do not need to be genius..
The reason I bring this up is much along this 3D bs. Yes it can make the process of building a weapon simpler but not of a real assault rifle of 1930 thru1970's low tech yet no one is doing so.
Well at least that we know of.
The tech is thhrre that indeed could send us onto greatpathways of knowlege and beauty or send us to hell.
By the examples of those in power today and their pathetic followers I will take my chance with joe sixpack with an enginneering buddy or two and for all men women and children who still search for beauty and meaning of life to use this knowlege more intelligently than those psychos.
printer kit is about 700 bucks for the 8x8 needed ;)
I can't wait until the first idiot blows off his face with one of these contraptions that only a truly insane person would find liberating.
Look, anyone can make a gun. Look, it blew my face off. How liberating is that?
How about home made nukes?
Dale
I'm a "crypto-anarchist" (and a "crypto-coalitionist" according to some people, as well), and I have a question about those who attempt to print and use plastic firearms: how do you get metal ammunition through a metal detector? I believe that the minimum sentence for a crime committed with a firearm is life imprisonment without parole for the person possessing the firearm, and 30 years behind bars (no time off for good behavior, no parole eligiblity) for anyone who acted in concert with the gun user at the scene of the crime.
Does it really matter if you unable to purchase ammo? Every Walmart is sold out and the Goverment seems to be large quantities that disrupts the consumer for being able to purchase.
The government and press have known all along that every school shooter was on anti-depression drugs with violent side effects but never brought up that issue, to much corp. money involved.
Instead of dealing with the real problem the government uses corporal punishment to try to control guns, in other words punishing the average person for what a few messed up minds and fundamentalist political wacko's do. The Government has been wrong from the beginning punishing the good people while placing gun power in the hands of the nut cases. Their Stupid laws only breed creative ideas to go around the stupid laws, ah-kee toro, printable guns.
Happy Healthy Trails
Doc Blake
Great article. And I love the comments by the readers. Doesn't really explain "what" 3D printing is though. There are several approaches, but the general idea is, you pick the part to be reproduced, program the device to layer it, like so many thin slices off a block of cheese, then the printer builds them in a stable, un-moving environment, one layer at a time.
Yes, the technology has been around a long time. Over twenty years. The first systems used a vat of light-sensitive polymer liquid plastic. The polymer would harden when exposed to ultraviolet light. So the "layers" are drawn on the surface of the liquid with a computer-controlled ultraviolet laser. (Part of the high cost right there.)
Just below the surface is a pickup tray, and after each layer is drawn and hardens under exposure of the ultraviolet light, the tray lowers a fraction of an inch deeper into the vat, the next layer is drawn and so on, until the entire piece is created, one layer at a time.
Another method is using a mild cutting laser to slice the silhouette of each layer out of paper (or a similar material of uniform thickness) then glue the pieces together. It's rough and a little messy, but it works.
In answer to comments above about a plastic gun not being able to withstand the explosive power of a bullet firing- that's true. HOWEVER, a polymer plastic part generated on a 3D printer, can be used as a buck around which you can pour casting stone (like they use to make crown and bridgework in dental prosthetics) and when properly cast under pressure, will yield a fairly accurate (and somewhat durable) metal part. In fact the whole gun could be made this way. Of course a cast barrel assembly is not as strong as a forging, but one can wrap it with carbon fiber filament and polyester resin for added containment.
In response to the comment on grain alcohol and the requirement of the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms (and now) Explosives was not only the public safety issue in my view. I think that the fact that grain alcohol can run in your car as fuel was also a reason to restrict its potential competition with Big Oil.
"Fresh out of prison"? I thought after you had served your time we started treating them like people again. I guess not all of us accept the fact that by creating a lifetime of punishment for a single crime you remove any incentive for ex cons to change.
What's the big deal about a 3D-printed plastic handgun? I am working on a 3D-printed plastic 5-kiloton atomic bomb, which can be launched from my 3D-plastic missile silo as the warhead of a 3D-printed ICBM. Now, THAT's technology in action!
Big Brother is only taking exception to the decentralisation part, the fact that you can do it at home and no-one knows.... where's our control then?
The printers are only as good as the method and stock used. They could be used to make food but you have to be able to use food as the stock.
That firearm is a bomb, not a gun! Sure, you may be able to fire a few rounds before it self destructs. However, I guess it only takes one bullet to kill.
Impossible to legislate against fools. If something is made that is 'idiot proof' along comes a better idiot....
Woo hoo! Can't wait till the NRA starts marketing it to the sheep at large. Stick around, this is going to be fun, kiddies.
I am willing to bet that the sex toy industry had more guns going off than weapons company's.
THE POSSABILITYS ARE HUGE IN THE WOMANS MARKET; and tiny or a lot smaller in the males.
that way the NRA guys can eat a gun or whatever HUMAN anatomical part they favor while fondling a real gun as the wait in duck and dear ahhh deer blinds. JUST AS LONG AS THEIR WIVES CLEAN UP THEIR SHOP AND TOOLING WHEN THEY GOT WHAT THEY WANT.
This is a good way to get more guns into the hands of criminals and terrorists and crazy people.
No gun possession should be allowed without a background check.
This has nothing to do with liberty (if you define liberty as gun possession, you are crazy as well as stupid); it has everything to do with finding ways to avoid rational gun regulations.
And how many will blow their faces off or take out the piece of metal so they can carry their guns onto airplanes, etc.
Do we really need more ways for criminals and crazies to obtain guns? Do we really need more guns? There will be no liberty until the massive gun carnage in this nation is addressed with the kind of rational gun laws which give all other advanced nations a 90-99% reduced gun murder rate than the US. There will be no liberty until the US no longer rates with backward 3d world nations with civil wars and paramlitary violence but joins the other 34 advanced nations in getting a handle on the gun violence. In 50 years, Japan has reduced its gun murder rate by 99%, and now has 99% fewer gun murders a year than the US. Australia has reduced its gun homicide rate by over 50% since new laws in 1985. The US gun murders peaked the year the Brady Act was passed, and within 5 years, it had dropped from 17K to 10K. The lesson of 34 similar nations, as well as the US experience is that guns laws become more effective the longer they exist.
When gun murders drop drastically, overall murder rates also drop, as do suicides. Guns make killing quick, simple, and efficient. That is not a good thing. Plastic printed guns are a good way to
circumvent rational gun laws, and who would want to do that? Those who otherwise would be prohibited from obtaining guns.
This is madness, but it appeals to a certain immature personality type which identifies freedom with more guns, when in fact, more guns is the blueprint for mayhem and fear and the loss of freedom.
This will all blow over after a few folks blow their faces off and politicians, after the fact, criminalize any weapons which are not subject to background checks and detectable by metal detectors.
Wow...plastic gun....I can get it thru the airport, thru the school metal detectors......wow....until kaboom and your face is sliced up with slivers of plastic.
Einstein saw the connection when he said: "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."
He might have added "and our intelligence."
Dale
More Einstein on the disconnect between technological brilliance and human wisdom: "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
The printed gun is exactly the kind of "progress" he had in mind.
Dale
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