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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

#121

Post by InclinedPlane »

yason wrote: post #92
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.

He probably would but the probability of actually killing the victim would be much lower. You can kill a lot more people more easily and more accidentally with a gun and also with quite a high probability compared to a knife. Guns just require one click to inflict a fatal wound if you know the tinies imaginable bit of knowledge of where to aim. So you can just shoot another person off the bat but with a knife or anot…

This just isn't true. The easiest way to kill a lot of people quickly (or even semi-accidentally) is with arson.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#122

Post by ktizo »

nsxwolf wrote: post #106
mc32 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except that soon you'll be able to just print the guns out at home.

And the drugs - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that...

And some spare organs in case of accidents involving the guns and the drugs - http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engine...

And nice little chocolate things - http://www.chocedge.com/

And a new home after you destroy your existing one with the guns after binging out on all the drugs and chocolate - http://www.contourcrafting.org/

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#123

Post by ktizo »

lgbr wrote: post #104
danielweber wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only with open carry. It's possible that pulling out a gun may defuse a situation, but lots of people seem to think "I'll just wave my gun and it'll stop the people harassing me." You should only pull out a gun if the situation, at that time, is dangerous enough to warrant pulling the trigger.

A gun doesn't have to be visible to deter crime. Just the possibility of a victim having a gun is plenty of deterrence. I'd much rather burgle an Australian or English home than one in the US, given how many homes in the US have guns.

If you know a home has guns, aren't you just as likely to burgle it while the occupants are out, probably in order to steal the guns?

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#124

Post by drhayes9 »

derleth wrote: post #109
drhayes9 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you lobbying for the restriction of vehicles? Or are you making a point by analogy with guns that I'm missing?

My point is, once you try to determine the primary uses of certain things, you come to the conclusion that certain popular items are primarily useless and serve mainly to keep emergency rooms in business.

Well, I was limiting this to guns, but okay, sure.

I'm not sure what your larger point is, though.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#125

Post by drhayes9 »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #114
drhayes9 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, this tool has only one use: it kills things. Whenever I see arguments about how we should ban cars because they kill more people than guns per year, I always think about that. Cars are good for all kinds of things, and they happen to incidentally cause death. Guns are pretty much only good for killing things. I live in the U.S. I'm not saying we should uniformly ban all weapons, period; I think the issue…

Yes, guns destroy human beings, that is their purpose. And it is difficult for a lot of people to grapple with the idea that such seemingly fundamentally, some would say, evil devices can be used for good. The comparison with cars is a good one though. Cars are an example of how lethal power exists in the hands of many in society. And that's true to an enormous degree, not just with cars though they are a prime examp…

Thank you for your thoughtful comment on a touchy issue.

That is a good point about the comparison with cars. I have been stepping neatly past the trust idea (which applies to computers as well, and I'm a coder). It's a very powerful idea that I haven't thought about enough.

But I think firearms do represent a unique capability: how many bricks per minute can you throw? From how far away could you snipe someone with a pencil? I think it's one of degree: assault weapons, high-powered sniper rifles, semi-autos that can be easily modified for full-auto fire... Those weapons are all over a boundary for me, a boundary that the U.S. is too lax with drawing.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#126

Post by nsxwolf »

ktizo wrote: post #122
nsxwolf wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that soon you'll be able to just print the guns out at home.

And the drugs - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that... And some spare organs in case of accidents involving the guns and the drugs - http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engine... And nice little chocolate things - http://www.chocedge.com/ And a new home after you destroy your existing one with the guns after binging out on all the drugs and chocolate - http://www.contourcraf…

This is a very exciting future indeed. There hasn't been something like this since the home computing revolution. It's the 1970s again, and we're still at the Homebrew Computer Club stage.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#127

Post by mc32 »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #93
mc32 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Japan has a completely different culture from the US (obviously). You can't ignore the effects of such different attitudes towards individualism, income disparity, acceptable levels of violence, and trust in government. Never mind that the US is a multicultural society, whereas Japan isn't really.

True.. but as it regarded homebrew, there is "pent up demand" demostrated by the trickled smuggling by the gokudo syndicates. Yet, there isn't a homebrew industry. Instead, the few illegal arms are smuggled in. My point was that homebrew does not seem to spring up once firearms are made illegal, to any significant extent. Americans own approx 300 firearms. I don't think homebrew would manufacture in that quantity.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#128

Post by mc32 »

nsxwolf wrote: post #106
mc32 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except that soon you'll be able to just print the guns out at home.

People could --but to what degree of success? A gunsmith, yes, but any yobbo at home? They might fire once, they might explode.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#129

Post by ktizo »

nsxwolf wrote: post #126
ktizo wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the drugs - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jul/21/chemputer-that... And some spare organs in case of accidents involving the guns and the drugs - http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_growing_organs_engine... And nice little chocolate things - http://www.chocedge.com/ And a new home after you destroy your existing one with the guns after binging out on all the drugs and chocolate - http://www.contourcraf…

This is a very exciting future indeed. There hasn't been something like this since the home computing revolution. It's the 1970s again, and we're still at the Homebrew Computer Club stage.

Tell me about it. I went and bought a reprap. I now have a 3d printer on my desk that's priced well under a grand, that is cheap as hell to run and that is designed from the outset for making replacement and upgraded components for itself. - http://www.reprap.org

Why more people haven't bought one already is more of a mystery to me.

Re: Gunsmith Uses 3D Printer To Make A Rifle

#130

Post by wlesieutre »

reitzensteinm wrote: post #34
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…

> 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 of the two major parties literally adopts the arguments of the other.

Not really. Neither party has many elected officials in favor of changing anything about drug laws. And the main argument in favor of legal gun ownership is about the right to defend yourself, which doesn't apply as well to cocaine, for example.

The debate based on personal choice and responsibility versus increased government authority shows up almost exclusively from people of a more libertarian bent, but not necessarily on one side of D/R or the other.

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