Guns in America

[TimeTravel]

In the news recently is 3-D printable guns, non-traceable. Downloadable blueprints to print out 3-D gun parts to assemble. The argument for the pros goes like this is free speech and the right to bear arms. The argument against is this is a gift to terrorists and other bad folks.

For the last half decade, 3-D printed pistols and metal-milled "ghost guns" have only rarely caught the attention of lawmakers, and have barely registered in the mainstream of America's gun control debate. But now, a controversial legal settlement may have unlocked a new era of digitally fabricated, DIY guns. It's also unleashed a political backlash unlike anything seen in the five years since the first 3-D printable firearm appeared online.

Earlier this month, WIRED broke the news that gun access group Defense Distributed had obtained a key settlement in its lawsuit against the State Department, winning the right to publish the blueprints and CAD models for practically any commercially available gun, files ready to be downloaded from the web and fed into a 3-D printer or computer-controlled milling machine to produce a lethal weapon in the unregulated privacy of anyone's garage.

https://www.wired.com/story/legal-fight ... stributed/

[prognastat]

In the news recently is 3-D printable guns, non-traceable. Downloadable blueprints to print out 3-D gun parts to assemble. The argument for the pros goes like this is free speech and the right to bear arms. The argument against is this is a gift to terrorists and other bad folks.

This isn't anything entirely new though. Anyone with access to a lathe, drill press and some other basic tools could build their own gun well before the advent of 3D printing though it definitely makes access easier and cheaper than ever. However a machined gun is going to be much more durable than a plastic one.

[Mister Imperceptible]

Looks like more evidence that gun control laws will not stop malevolent actors from illegally obtaining lethal weapons, and just put law-abiding citizens at their mercy.

[ThisDinosaur]

This isn't anything entirely new though. Anyone with access to a lathe, drill press and some other basic tools could build their own gun well before the advent of 3D printing

There was a Vice piece about the Philippines that showed a family manufacturing semiautomatic handguns in their back yard.

[Riggerjack]

There was a Vice piece about the Philippines that showed a family manufacturing semiautomatic handguns in their back yard.

Look up 80% receivers. That's happening here, too. Nobody is manufacturing from 80's as a business, to my knowledge, but I know plenty of gun nuts with custom made guns, often of their own making. There is also plenty of amateurs making functional semi-automatics from demilled military surplus. Perfectly legal. Just hobbyists doing what hobbyists do.

[TimeTravel]

This reminds me a lot of the filesharing sites. The argument is the sites don't control what is shared, but only host the sites.

The blowback of 3-D guns is the optics of printing an untraceable gun.

But on the side of the guy that wants the blueprints out, "How is this any different then buy electronics and parts from a hardware store and build stuff with bad intentions". The guy does have an interest of having the printable guns produced though as a story on this on a morning news program mentioned that he sells those machines to do the printing.

[ZAFCorrection]

A huge chunk of STEM majors at universities have background knowledge and access to the equipment and materials required to make deadly weapons worse than this 3D printed gun. Additionally, if someone with a mind to share has the file, then everyone who wants it has the file. It's a farcical situation.

On side note, 3D printers have been heavily evangelized since I have been affiliated with post-secondary institutions, and I have yet to see them be used for anything other than making tchotchkes and mockups to wow the tactile-minded business people. They seem useless, or at least much less useful than people make them out to be. Anyone have a different experience?

[ThisDinosaur]

On side note, 3D printers have been heavily evangelized since I have been affiliated with post-secondary institutions, and I have yet to see them be used for anything other than making tchotchkes and mockups to wow the tactile-minded business people. They seem useless, or at least much less useful than people make them out to be.

https://www.spacex.com/news/2014/07/31/ ... ber-crewed

[Campitor]

That people seem to think 3D printers are useless isn't surprising. To make effective use of them requires creativity. Most people typically don't engage their creative nature to discover different ways of utilizing new or even existing technology. Let's take pens, markers, or pencils for example. Some people draw smiley faces, others draw phallic symbols on their friends sleeping faces. I look at a pencil and see wood and graphite. I can use it to start a fire, lubricate a zipper or gear. I can use a pen as a makeshift straw, focused blower, or perform a tracheotomy. Imagination, imagination, imagination.

[Campitor]

I can't imagine up...

Just kidding - couldn't help myself.

[Jean]

When we had a cad course, my first impulse was to design a handgun. But they wanted us to make nut cracker.