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Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

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Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#41

Post by ericmoritz »

ef4 wrote: post #26

Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is just the next step in making it even easier. If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally harder to make than methamphetamine. People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no…

Not only is prohibition pointless; the actual harm caused by guns is relatively low compared to other causes. More people are harmed by cars than handguns.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#42

Post by timdiggerm »

grecy wrote: post #38
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. See my post about making guns by hand. As a 12 year old boy I was making gunpowder from drugstore items and launching rockets made from rolled-up newspaper. This stuff ain't hard to do!!

Of course. Let's pretend Billy Bob is a heated rage because he just found out so-and-so slept with so-and-so (or whatever). What's more likely? a) He walks around to so-and-sos house with his legally purchased, unlicensed, unregistered semi automatic assault rifle and 1000+ rounds, and kills the whole family, and anyone else unlucky enough to be nearby. or b) He spends days (weeks?) making his own gun, gunpowder and…

And that's the big question: What percentage of homicides are done spur of the moment by people who would not acquire weapons illegally under a ban?

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#43

Post by reitzensteinm »

tjic wrote: post #39
reitzensteinm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no more effective in the United States. As an outsider, this is one of the most irrational things about American politics to me. Talk about guns, then talk about drugs, and each of the two major parties literally adopts the arguments of the other. Then again, it's a perfectly rational system from the p…

> Talk about guns, then talk about drugs, and each party literally adopts the arguments of the other. Except libertarians. We believe in decriminalization of both.

You're right. I only meant the big two; I went through about five variations of the phrasing and couldn't find one that wasn't awkward.

Fixed for correctness.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#44

Post by mc32 »

grecy wrote: post #36
ef4 wrote: post #26

Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is just the next step in making it even easier. If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally harder to make than methamphetamine. People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no…

> If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Do you have any stats or experience to back that up? It might happen, but you are stating as fact something that's not been tested. Anecdotally, in Australia where gun laws are very strict, it's difficult to get firearms. Yes, serious hardened criminals still get their hands on them, which certainly is…

I think you're right.

Japan which has a very strict sword and firearms law, afaik, has not seen a "homebrew" industry spruot since they passed the laws back in the '70s. And, it's not as though there are no criminals. The Yak syndicates are not, on principle, against the use of guns --they do occasionally used smuggled guns to settle things.

Now, Japan does allow some kinds of firearms, typically to farmers and such who need to deal with threats/vermin, but the permit process is lengthy and few people obtain them.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#45

Post by OmegaHN »

grecy wrote: post #38
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. See my post about making guns by hand. As a 12 year old boy I was making gunpowder from drugstore items and launching rockets made from rolled-up newspaper. This stuff ain't hard to do!!

Of course. Let's pretend Billy Bob is a heated rage because he just found out so-and-so slept with so-and-so (or whatever). What's more likely? a) He walks around to so-and-sos house with his legally purchased, unlicensed, unregistered semi automatic assault rifle and 1000+ rounds, and kills the whole family, and anyone else unlucky enough to be nearby. or b) He spends days (weeks?) making his own gun, gunpowder and…

I think that the problem lies with Billy Bob, not the gun. It's not worth preventing the edge cases if that means reducing the average person's ability to defend themselves. Say that one person of the family had a pistol, and ran and got it while the Billy was busy shooting the others? The family member could then shoot Billy and possibly save a few family members. Guns are a means of personal power, and while loose gun laws mean that an unlawful person can get a gun, it also means that other people can defend themselves against said person, or other, non-gun-related crimes such as burglary.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#46

Post by hef19898 »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #14

Doesn't pass the sniff test. Chamber pressure in a .22 cal pistol is on the order of 20,000 PSI [1] The tensile strength of thermoplastic at standard temperatures is 1/2 that [2] and it goes down as the temperature goes up (its a thermo plastic for a reason). Firing a .22 caliber round using gunpowder would destroy the barrel on the first firing. Now I could believe you built the receiver and triggering mechanism on…

During my studies we ssome classes in rapid prototyping. One of our favorites (since prototype car parts or funtional gear boxes aren't simply cool enough) was a fully funtional, for 20 shots or so, (semi?)-automatic rifle. And that was 6-7 years ago. The only non plastic part was the barrel, after the 20 shots the resin and plastics melted so.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#47

Post by nitrogen »

grecy wrote: post #36
ef4 wrote: post #26

Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is just the next step in making it even easier. If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally harder to make than methamphetamine. People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no…

> If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Do you have any stats or experience to back that up? It might happen, but you are stating as fact something that's not been tested. Anecdotally, in Australia where gun laws are very strict, it's difficult to get firearms. Yes, serious hardened criminals still get their hands on them, which certainly is…

With a murder rate twice any other developed country[1], the United States clearly has a serious violence problem, and taking guns out of the hands of the average Joe would surely help reduce it.

The second clause does not follow from the first. Murder in the US is heavily demographically biased, and most gun owners are not murderers. Furthermore, will you be the one going door to door to collect everyone's firearms? It sounds like you are saying, "Surely, we must do something. This is something; therefore, we must do this."

Using the argument of "Hardened criminals will still get them anyway" is like saying we shouldn't have a law against murder because some people will do it anyway, so it's a waste of time. The point is to deter or make it extremely difficult for as many people as possible.

No, no it's not. You are conflating possession of a tool with misuse of the tool to commit a crime. The US has been trying to make it "extremely difficult for as many people as possible" to do a lot of things, and failed spectacularly. Now imagine that same level of failure applied to something protected in the US constitution.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#48

Post by pielud »

grecy wrote: post #38
HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. See my post about making guns by hand. As a 12 year old boy I was making gunpowder from drugstore items and launching rockets made from rolled-up newspaper. This stuff ain't hard to do!!

Of course. Let's pretend Billy Bob is a heated rage because he just found out so-and-so slept with so-and-so (or whatever). What's more likely? a) He walks around to so-and-sos house with his legally purchased, unlicensed, unregistered semi automatic assault rifle and 1000+ rounds, and kills the whole family, and anyone else unlucky enough to be nearby. or b) He spends days (weeks?) making his own gun, gunpowder and…

Why wouldn't he just grab a knife from his kitchen? Or run them down with his car? Or a bat? Or set their house on fire?

Not having a gun isn't going to stop a person who wants to hurt someone else from doing it. It's just a tool.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#49

Post by mc32 »

ericmoritz wrote: post #41
ef4 wrote: post #26

Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is just the next step in making it even easier. If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally harder to make than methamphetamine. People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no…

Not only is prohibition pointless; the actual harm caused by guns is relatively low compared to other causes. More people are harmed by cars than handguns.

But people need to get to places. People don't need guns for daily survival. Japan annually sees double digit gun-deaths. In the US we see triple digit accidental gun deaths.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#50

Post by [deleted] »

grecy wrote: post #36
ef4 wrote: post #26

Any competent machinist can make functional semiautomatic weapons. This is just the next step in making it even easier. If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Gunpowder is not fundamentally harder to make than methamphetamine. People who quite rightly see our drug laws as pointless and ineffective somehow often miss that a gun ban would be no…

> If the United States ever got serious about banning firearms, a massive homebrew industry would grow up overnight. Do you have any stats or experience to back that up? It might happen, but you are stating as fact something that's not been tested. Anecdotally, in Australia where gun laws are very strict, it's difficult to get firearms. Yes, serious hardened criminals still get their hands on them, which certainly is…

[deleted]
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