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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

#81

Post by Zak »

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'm not the OP, but I do have evidence that a homebrew firearms industry is likely to spring up anywhere with a large number of violent criminals:

http://improguns.blogspot.co.uk/

Most of these are either machine pistols or disguised firearms, both of which are already severely restricted in the US. It seems likely to me that restrictions on firearms in those countries are the reason people are building guns instead of buying them.

Some of these guns came from Brazil and Ecuador, which have significantly higher homicide rates and tighter restrictions on firearms than the United States. This suggests to me that some other factor is likely responsible for the high homicide rates.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#82

Post by derleth »

drhayes9 wrote: post #61
ericmoritz wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

True, but cars are good for something other than killing things. See my other, longer comment here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4298113

> cars are good for something other than killing things

Not all kinds of cars. What legitimate use does a massively overpowered Lamborghini have? Or a massively overpowered motorcycle?

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#83

Post by cobrausn »

grecy wrote: post #59
pielud wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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? How many people would he kill compared to a high-caliber semi-automatic assault rifle with 1000+ rounds of ammo? > It's just a tool. A tool that enables the holder to seriously injure or kill many more people than other readily available tools.

Stop saying '1000+ rounds of ammo', as it makes you sound like the alarmist you are.

Point of fact - a loaded magazine for an AR-15 weighs in at approximately one pound. To carry '1000+ rounds of ammo', you would need to carry something like 30 magazines. Try it sometime - that only happens in video games for a reason.

A large truck driven through a crowded market could kill many more people than your average looney with a semi-automatic rifle. These highly publicized events make up only a tiny fraction of the number of homicides we experience per year, most of which only use a few bullets, and not from a 'high-caliber semi-automatic assault rifle'. Calm down.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#84

Post by Symmetry »

grecy wrote: post #59
pielud wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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? How many people would he kill compared to a high-caliber semi-automatic assault rifle with 1000+ rounds of ammo? > It's just a tool. A tool that enables the holder to seriously injure or kill many more people than other readily available tools.

In this particular example he had a finite list of people he wanted to kill in either case, so if moderately athletic guy who's for-armed himself with a baseball bat and knife I'd expect him to be able to murder a person or small number of people with or without a gun.

As to someone who's really crazy and wants to kill as many people as possible, well, people who use bombs seem be much more deadly than people who use guns, so I'd be nervous about banning guns for fear of channeling them into less visceral but more deadly sorts of mayhem.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#85

Post by JabavuAdams »

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…

The US is different -- the murder rate is a cultural/economic problem, not a guns problem per se.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#86

Post by ryanmarsh »

I love how HN jumps immediately into a gun control debate and almost completely misses the fact that what he printed is a long way from an AR-15. It's just a piece of metal called the lower receiver. When I say lower receiver, I believe he built just the shell not the trigger assembly or bushings. In addition, the bolt and barrel (the upper) weren't manufactured. But lets assume for a minute that he printed the entire thing from scratch, how is this any different than the fact that anybody with a good machine shop can produce a full AR-15 by hand?

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#87

Post by cobrausn »

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.

Most Americans actually believe in the decriminalization of both - you don't need to be a libertarian. It is the parties they vote for that don't.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#88

Post by mgarfias »

kunle wrote: post #64
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…

Banning guns will require a change in the constitution, and will likely never happen as a result. In addition, even if it did happen, it would likely be unpopular because of the demand side as you mention. That being said, the argument(s) for mandatory background checks, tracking whose buying what, and assault weapons restrictions are pretty compelling, and while they are supply side solutions, they can hardly be cal…

What is an "assault weapon"? Oh, did you mean an AR15? The most popular firearm sold in the US for the past few years. Which Heller specifically protects ("in common use").

Dude, go ahead and out everyone in my neighor hood with an AR15 or other detachable box magazine fed automatic rifle. You know what will happen? Not a damn thing - we all have these things here.

I personally have had well over 6000 rds of ammo at some point. You know what? It didnt go bad, nor did it magically get shot at innocent people. I either buy in bulk, or reload in bulk because its cheaper. WAY cheaper. When you shoot 150+ rounds of ammo a week shooting competition, you can not do otherwise.

As far as arsenels being defensible? WTF does that even mean. I can have an arsenal if I want to. I'm not hurting anyone with it, so what business of it is yours?

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#89

Post by mc32 »

derleth wrote: post #71
mc32 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Furthermore, will you be the one going door to door to collect everyone's firearms? Japan made it very difficult to own new firearms after they passed new Swords and Firearms laws. They allowed current gun owners to keep them, but they were not transferrable or inheritable. In other words, there are precendents for "taking away" arms, it's not unheard of. Peopple have figured out how to do this.

> Peopple have figured out how to do this. 'This' being 'taking firearms away from people willing to obey the laws in the first place'. What's the problem with using that logic to take firearms away from criminals?

Because by definition, criminals do not obey the law. If arms were taken out of circulation, there would be none to obtain except via smuggling --which is time consuming, requires connections, is costly, etc. It would certainly require advanced planning to carry out. The criminal could not just go down to Sears and buy one or down to the seedy area of town and then do a stick up later in the day.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#90

Post by angersock »

grecy wrote: post #68
angersock wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I resent your (probably intentional) choice of names. Were you trying to pick on rednecks/hicks? Anyways, most likely: he does nothing. Your option A is silly. First, 1000 rounds of .223 is fairly heavy (that's > 30 magazines of normal size). Second, "Unregistered"? "Unlicensed"? What good is paperwork going to do if he decides to shoot someone? We already have ( http://www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp#background ) f…

> I resent your (probably intentional) choice of names. Were you trying to pick on rednecks/hicks? Apologies. I was trying to use a "generic" name. > Second, "Unregistered"? "Unlicensed"? What good is paperwork going to do if he decides to shoot someone? I expect he'll be less likely to kill people if he knows the weapon is tied to him. (and he might not have it in the first place, which is the case if I try to buy o…

  I expect he'll be less likely to kill people if he knows 
  the weapon is tied to him.
If he's already hot-blooded, it seems reasonable that he won't care.

  I mean say a .22 instead of a center fire. Less killing 
  power. bolt action also means less killing power (i.e. 
  much slower)
Ah, okay, but why not something like a 12-gauge shell, or just a blunderbuss? Or just normal/common 9mm/.45 ammunition?

  knife could harm or kill just a couple of people.
Mankind has been using knives to kill in great numbers since we discovered the first sharp flint. Even in only the past ten years:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_school_massacre

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre

I won't even waste time pointing out how effective a set of box cutters can be.

  IED is in the same range as a homemade gun in that it 
  takes a long time and lots of effort to make.
This is incorrect.

  Actually, I own a .30-06 and a 12 gauge and regularly go  
  hunting.
Cool. What models, out of curiosity?
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