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World's first 3D printed gun test fired

m.bbc.co.uk

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Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#61

Post by jlgreco »

roel_v wrote: post #40
oneandoneis2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. Even here in the UK I can walk into an antique shop and buy a gun that can be put back into service in minutes. Guns aren't, and never have been, the thing that you need to regulate to keep down gun crime. Bullets are. If you have a gun, you have a gun for life. But if you don't have a never-ending supply of bullets, you might as well have a paperweight. Bullets are harder to get and harder to make than gun…

You're going to rob a store with a flintlock pistol? With a 3d printed gun you can. Furthermore, bullets are much harder to regulate than guns. Plenty of people have access to bullets and can make 50 of them disappear, claiming they shot them. "But if you don't have a never-ending supply of bullets," Why a never-ending supply? You only need 5 bullets at most for each robbery or murder you commit. A box of 50 can last…

> "rob a store ... With a 3d printed gun you can."

Can you?

The reason guns work so well for robbing is because they work really well at threatening. This is why you can rob a store with an airsoft gun or with children's toys with the orange bit removed. Toys that look like guns work great, but guns that look like toys? Not so much

The fact that it seems incredibly unlikely that they will become more than single-shot anytime soon basically means that even firing the gun during the robbery isn't going to be a very good way to rob a store.

The best you could manage is to fire your single round into the ceiling to demonstrate that what you had was a gun, and then hope the clerk doesn't realize that you can't fire any more shots. Meanwhile if you do that then you have just blown any chance at your robbery being uneventful and unnoticed.

You would honestly have better luck trying to rob a store with a jacket and your index finger. Considering the availability of jackets and index fingers, you would have to be a complete idiot to choose the printed gun instead of your index finger.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#62

Post by hga »

reader5000 wrote: post #58
hga wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you find it difficult to believe the two are in near perfect alignment? OK, it was a bit complicated when there were large stocks of military surplus still to be liquidated, the NRA supported both the GCA of '68 but also the later relaxation of imports of military surplus. On the other hand, do you really think the members of the NRA find it damning that one of the Nominating Committee members is "a timber com…

The gun industry sells an image of masculinity and rugged individualism. The NRA is part of this image, and arguably is the greatest public relations strategy in the history of Western consumerism. Unlike say blue jeans commercials where manly men hang out on their pickup trucks which most people realize is purely for marketing, people really think the NRA and associated marketing is real. All the purchase of a firea…

http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&cate...

http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produc...

But most people just use Duracoat: http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.d...

As in the famous, and very real and functioning California legal Hello Kitty AR-15: https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=is...

Or see this curated list: http://www.kittyhell.com/category/hello-kitty-guns/

To my eyes, most of these guns look to be real.

If your mind isn't completely closed, you might take a gander at: http://women.nra.org/

As for your more general point, since the members of the NRA don't agree with your positions on the consequences of an armed polity, we are indeed very much in alignment with the firearms industry.

Granted, we might be wrong, but you can't blithely substitute your opinion for the opinions of NRA members and then legitimately come to your overall opinion. Ah, it also goes without saying that we don't believe in the concept of false consciousness. We don't think anything is wrong with Kansas (especially now that it's under conservative state government for the first time ever and going even more pro-gun).

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#63

Post by evan_ »

jlgreco wrote: post #61
roel_v wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're going to rob a store with a flintlock pistol? With a 3d printed gun you can. Furthermore, bullets are much harder to regulate than guns. Plenty of people have access to bullets and can make 50 of them disappear, claiming they shot them. "But if you don't have a never-ending supply of bullets," Why a never-ending supply? You only need 5 bullets at most for each robbery or murder you commit. A box of 50 can last…

> "rob a store ... With a 3d printed gun you can." Can you? The reason guns work so well for robbing is because they work really well at threatening. This is why you can rob a store with an airsoft gun or with children's toys with the orange bit removed. Toys that look like guns work great, but guns that look like toys? Not so much The fact that it seems incredibly unlikely that they will become more than single-shot…

You don't think it's ever going to be possible to make a 3d-printed gun that looks like a gun?

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#64

Post by ghshephard »

lifeisstillgood wrote: post #39
cturner wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a big story. 3d printing opens many possibilities that CNC doesn't offer. A CNC requires specialised skill. Downloading and printing 3d doesn't. Building guns with a CNC requires a lot of labour. Whereas you can imagine having a lab full of 3d printers being operated by a single pensioner. 3d printers look like they'll be generic and mass-produced. If so, in ten years there will be 3d printers everywhere…

> eople sitting in refugee camps on the edge of hotzones won't have have difficulty getting access to them. I am sorry but really - people in a refugee camp, with no sanitation, insufficient food and clean water, and yet working 3D printers with plentiful supplies of plastic dust? Refugee camps are by defintion, walkable from the worlds worst trouble spots, Access to weapons in the worlds worst trouble spots is not h…

Interestingly enough, Peter Hamilton, in "Great North Road", envisions and interesting future in which they had an expedition, which for the most part relied on their 3D Printers and base printing material. Tents, Vehicle Repairs, components - they just kept churning them out.

So, while I agree that 3D Printing of guns is likely, for the near future to be a "First world problem" - I don't think I would make that prediction 30 years out, and certainly would never be so bold to say "Forever". I can certainly see a future in which Refugee Camps don't have Water, Food, or Sanitation, but do have a broad array of 3D Printers and base printing material.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#65

Post by ghshephard »

cturner wrote: post #16
ghshephard wrote: post #8

I always wonder why these articles don't mention that the ability to personally make a gun with a CNC machine has existed for quite a few years. There isn't a lot of new ground being broken in terms of "Freedom to create firearms in your home" with 3D printing.

I think it's a big story. 3d printing opens many possibilities that CNC doesn't offer. A CNC requires specialised skill. Downloading and printing 3d doesn't. Building guns with a CNC requires a lot of labour. Whereas you can imagine having a lab full of 3d printers being operated by a single pensioner. 3d printers look like they'll be generic and mass-produced. If so, in ten years there will be 3d printers everywhere…

Agreed that some new ground is being broken - it would just be nice if the automated CNC machines got some recognition. It's kind of amazing what they can do.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#66

Post by chiph »

chiph wrote: post #60
emarion wrote: post #27

You can't 3D print the bullets. Thus I'd speculate that this development does not significantly impact the effectiveness of gun control laws nor does it accomplish the goals of the creator.

One thing that wasn't mentioned in the article is that he had to embed a metal block into the plastic so that the gun was detectable on an x-ray machine. This was to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988. Could someone who had a printer and the downloaded file skip that part? Yes. But they could possibly be fined and jailed for up to 5 years. http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-102/pdf/STATUTE-102-Pg3...

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) has issued a statement that he plans to push for an extension of the law banning undetectable firearms. The current law (100-649) will sunset in December of 2013.

> “Everyone’s seen the movie ‘In The Line of Fire,’ where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, labored at making a gun out of plastic and wood so it could get through metal detectors and he could assassinate the president,” US Senator Charles Schumer said yesterday.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#67

Post by oneandoneis2 »

roel_v wrote: post #40
oneandoneis2 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not true. Even here in the UK I can walk into an antique shop and buy a gun that can be put back into service in minutes. Guns aren't, and never have been, the thing that you need to regulate to keep down gun crime. Bullets are. If you have a gun, you have a gun for life. But if you don't have a never-ending supply of bullets, you might as well have a paperweight. Bullets are harder to get and harder to make than gun…

You're going to rob a store with a flintlock pistol? With a 3d printed gun you can. Furthermore, bullets are much harder to regulate than guns. Plenty of people have access to bullets and can make 50 of them disappear, claiming they shot them. "But if you don't have a never-ending supply of bullets," Why a never-ending supply? You only need 5 bullets at most for each robbery or murder you commit. A box of 50 can last…

> You're going to rob a store with a flintlock pistol?

No, I'd be more tempted by a good old service revolver, actually.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#68

Post by damoncali »

cturner wrote: post #28
_delirium wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CNC machines do take skill to operate, but the amount of skill required to make a single-shot gun out of metal by conventional means is really low. It's something you can do with very rudimentary metalworking skills, using low-tech equipment. Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting.

Now if you can 3d-print a reliable rifle like an AK-47, that could get interesting. The team that made this gun are already doing the most difficult bit from the AR-15, a semi-automatic rifle that has been used in several massacres in the west (including the one that sparked heavy gun regulation in Australia in the 90s). That's why I thought this was news. First they made the lower-receiver of a powerful gun. Now the…

They actually made one of the easiest parts. Far more difficult, if not impossible today would be the barrel. A trigger that worked more than once would also be extremely challenging. Not to mention that it would melt in short order.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#69

Post by damoncali »

emarion wrote: post #27

You can't 3D print the bullets. Thus I'd speculate that this development does not significantly impact the effectiveness of gun control laws nor does it accomplish the goals of the creator.

Look into caseless ammunition. It has been around for at least 20 years. Then ask how far off we are.

Re: World's first 3D printed gun test fired

#70

Post by reader5000 »

hga wrote: post #62
reader5000 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gun industry sells an image of masculinity and rugged individualism. The NRA is part of this image, and arguably is the greatest public relations strategy in the history of Western consumerism. Unlike say blue jeans commercials where manly men hang out on their pickup trucks which most people realize is purely for marketing, people really think the NRA and associated marketing is real. All the purchase of a firea…

http://www.taurususa.com/product-details.cfm?id=717&cate... http://www.smith-wesson.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Produc... But most people just use Duracoat: http://www.lauerweaponry.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.d... As in the famous, and very real and functioning California legal Hello Kitty AR-15: https://www.google.com/search?q=hello+kitty+ar-15&tbm=is... Or see this curated list: http://www.kittyhell.com/ca…

Gun corporations exploit dim bulbs for profit. It's the harsh truth, friend.
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