My sons and I were discussing current events today and the subject of Printable Guns came up. Along with other topics such as how most new tech is driven by the porn industry….
So, were talking about the 3D printers will one day combine printing circuits which will allow you to print a drone, and the controller for it. And print your own robot…. And once the porn industry gets a hold of it, you can take creeper pics of some hot chick you saw, then go home and print her as a Lovebot to molest… Or download a celebrity.
Back to the gun issue. ITAR shutting down the plan for a 3D printable gun is the government building sandcastles in front of the coming tide. It’s futile. The cat is out of the bag. And since schematics and detailed plans are already out there for most any type gun… The only issue is one of material science. And instead of printing a gun, print molds to make guns out of better materials.
Colt started out with a wood carved revolver… Now look at it all. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.
I wonder, and it seems to have not been asked, would the CIA who dropped the original Liberator pistol over France, be charged under the same law as the folks who distributed this new plastic Liberator?
Would the folks in government who sell F-16s and M-16s to other countries?
Have we had enough of this, one morality for me and another for you ideology.
Are we ready to stand up to this?
Are we ready to take our deeply held beliefs seriously enough to actually act as if they are true?
We are getting ready… That’s for sure.
While I realize that the young guys who came up with these designs are probably very bright, they didn’t do anything anyone else as intelligent and motivated couldn’t do. In fact, someone with a background in gun design/repair could probably come up with something better. So the government confiscates their design; it’s not going to prevent anyone else from doing the same thing. I too am looking forward with what can be done with this technology.
I just find it amusing how the Gov is losing its shit about this.
Any gun made from printing such as it is, is about as effective as a paper airplane drone. But because these are firearms… It must be squelched. Never mind that a firearm is about as simple a machine as there is…. And yet printers are used for much more complicated things all the time.
I was always told that once something is on the WWW; it is out there forever. There is no turning back time to pull this out of the net. Someone, somewhere has the file and it will come back.
The plans are already all over PiratesBay and other sites. There is no putting the turd back in the cat at this point. Though it really is pointless(the design of the pistol) as I could easily knock something similar together out of some delrin using a drill press and hand files. What is driving the hysteria is the fact that knowledge is getting too hard for them to control.
1) The State Department using an international law to over ride both Federal and State laws shows a remarkable degree of stupidity about the majority of public opinion in the US and how ignorant they are on current legal thinking.
2) Getting their panties in a was over a plastic gun that could be made impossible to detect by metal detectors shows how historically ignorant they are. It is rumored that back in the cold war days of the 1970’s the spooks had synthetic bodied and barreled smooth bored pistols that fired large diameter glass balls over a charge of black powder that ignited by static electricity generated when the trigger was squeezed. It was supposedly for NOC agents who had to get by foreign airport metal detectors.
I’ve heard similar stories. Ceramic based frames. Single shot usage.
It would be interesting to learn more about the history of these devices, and make that info more well known. It may show the “so-what” of printed plastic guns if similar devices were already created/used in the past.
Anybody know of a good book/website with more info?
Yes, but those devices were under the control of the powers that be.
Soon, the average person will be able to print one in the privacy of their own home.
No control, there.
No need for a 3D printer to make a “zip gun”.
Yeah… but I have one.