Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

translate.google.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–37 of 37 posts

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#31

Post by mc32 »

smsm42 wrote: post #28
chrischen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He may not do that, but he could go and buy a plastic gun for $10 from someone who does know how to use a 3D printer. Think about this: a curious kid could accidentally shoot himself now in many fewer steps than before. Download, load it into dad's printer, assemble. Though, I'm assuming these plastic guns still need real bullets.

"Curious kid" could also drink bleach or fall from a roof or bite into an electric cable or spill a boiling soup on his head. That's what parents are for. If the kid is smart enough to use dad's printer, he has the mental capacity to understand the dangers. If the parents didn't educate him it's their failure.

But aren't parents supposed to keep dangerous chemicals away from the reach of curious children?

They can be told over and over of the dangers, but get a few together and all those warnings can flee their brains. If the stuff is inaccessible, then they can't --I mean, unless they're insolent, but most children will refrain from braking into locked closets. Leave things out and it's a different story.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#32

Post by chrischen »

smsm42 wrote: post #28
chrischen wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He may not do that, but he could go and buy a plastic gun for $10 from someone who does know how to use a 3D printer. Think about this: a curious kid could accidentally shoot himself now in many fewer steps than before. Download, load it into dad's printer, assemble. Though, I'm assuming these plastic guns still need real bullets.

"Curious kid" could also drink bleach or fall from a roof or bite into an electric cable or spill a boiling soup on his head. That's what parents are for. If the kid is smart enough to use dad's printer, he has the mental capacity to understand the dangers. If the parents didn't educate him it's their failure.

Yea that's why it's so dangerous... because we know that many parents will fail at this.

Keep in mind a better analogy is a personal computer. A curious kid might use it and stumble on pornography. But we're not going to go locking computers into closets. Plus the dangers of printing a gun aren't that clearcut for a 10 or 12 year old, especially in our violent video game world of today.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#33

Post by lifeguard »

malandrew wrote: post #7
lifeguard wrote: post #2

Plastic firearms are harmless.

correction: "Plastic firearms are [currently] "harmless" [in the grander scheme of things and in most cases]." AFAIK all current designs can only fire one bullet before breaking, making them pretty useless for most situations where someone would want one. The only legitimate threat they currently pose is targeted assassinations, and those are a non-issue if you don't have enemies. If you do, invest in bodyguards and…

correction: Plastic firearms are useless and they always will be.

A plastic firearm is the same thing as holding a cartridge in a pair of pliers and hitting it with a rock.

Rifling in a plastic firearm that fires metal projectiles shows how stupid this exercise is. For rifling to spin a projectile, it must be harder than said projectile, and cut into it forcing it to spin. eg bullets are made of lead or copper and are fired through tempered steel.

The first liberator zip guns that the OSS dropped in France in the 40s were a psy op. They were never used to injure "the enemy".

Most armed government employees -- the presumed intended targets for these dangerous toys -- wear a spectra vest with a metal strike plate the makes plastic and wood projectiles harmless. I guess if one were to use a taser to disable an opponent, then they could hold one of these roman candles to the temple of their victim, and if the plastic gun didn't explode in the shooter's face it would seriously harm the victim.

A simple metal pipe, while not rifled, is vastly superior to plastic guns with one inch barrels because the propellant actually has a chance to burn and generate force. These plastic guns do not contain the force of the propellant and transfer it to the projectile.

These plastic gun affectionatos are an embarrassment to the intelligent readers of HN.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#34

Post by smsm42 »

mc32 wrote: post #31
smsm42 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Curious kid" could also drink bleach or fall from a roof or bite into an electric cable or spill a boiling soup on his head. That's what parents are for. If the kid is smart enough to use dad's printer, he has the mental capacity to understand the dangers. If the parents didn't educate him it's their failure.

But aren't parents supposed to keep dangerous chemicals away from the reach of curious children? They can be told over and over of the dangers, but get a few together and all those warnings can flee their brains. If the stuff is inaccessible, then they can't --I mean, unless they're insolent, but most children will refrain from braking into locked closets. Leave things out and it's a different story.

Yes, they are supposed to. That's the whole point - it's parents' responsibility, not yours or government's.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#35

Post by smsm42 »

chrischen wrote: post #32
smsm42 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Curious kid" could also drink bleach or fall from a roof or bite into an electric cable or spill a boiling soup on his head. That's what parents are for. If the kid is smart enough to use dad's printer, he has the mental capacity to understand the dangers. If the parents didn't educate him it's their failure.

Yea that's why it's so dangerous... because we know that many parents will fail at this. Keep in mind a better analogy is a personal computer. A curious kid might use it and stumble on pornography. But we're not going to go locking computers into closets. Plus the dangers of printing a gun aren't that clearcut for a 10 or 12 year old, especially in our violent video game world of today.

>>> Plus the dangers of printing a gun aren't that clearcut for a 10 or 12 year old

So explain it. Show the real gun and what happens when one is used and explain what can it do and how dangerous it is. Kids at 12, if they're not mentally damaged, can understand basic safety just fine, and guns are not magic - they are tools, and tools can be dangerous (most homes have lots of dangerous or potentially tools). So kids should be taught not to mess with dangerous tools.

Video games have little to do with it - any kid old enough to meaningfully use a computer can understand difference between fairy tale and reality.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#36

Post by VBprogrammer »

MichaelGG wrote: post #18
Sanddancer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3d printed guns are a lot less scary than a number of things that exist already that could do a lot more damage. Given their construction, they're only accurate to a few feet, and given their one-time use abilities, you're not going to do much with them before you get tackled by several angry co-passengers. Were I an evil terrorist, I'd be looking much more at other, completely legal things. Items such as two-part ep…

It seems the existential threat to an airplane remains the same: cockpit access. Note that in some areas, taxis have more security than an airplane, in the sense that there's no way to escalate from passenger to pilot (dividing wall). Even today, I see pilots open the cockpit during flight to use the toilet. Usually, the FA blocks the passageway with a cart. It seems plausible to me that there's a short period of tim…

Millions of flights a year are conducted safely with this apparently lax security. Perhaps the pilots simply weight up the minuscule risk and rate urinating in their trousers as the greater inconvenience.

Back in the 90s I still remember the day when a kind flight attendant came to my seat and took me to the cockpit of the 767 we were flying to Florida in.

Back then aircraft were occasionally hijacked, they'd be forced to divert or land somewhere and some ridiculous demands made before, more often than not, everyone was allowed to go home unhurt.

Re: 3D Printed Gun Smuggled Into Israeli Parliament

#37

Post by 6d0debc071 »

MichaelGG wrote: post #19
6d0debc071 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Heck, a repeat of 9-11 went out the door when they decided to lock the cockpit. Which, really, they should have done much earlier considering all the planes that were hijacked in the past and the previous attempt(s?) to use planes as weapons against buildings. I can think of at least one person who got as far as a plane, intending to have it flown into the White House, I believe, long before 9-11. Really shoulda lock…

They still open them on many flights for the pilots to access the toilet.

At least it reduces your vulnerability if you only unlock them for the few seconds it takes to step through for the toilet, I suppose. If they've some means to verify there's not a knife wielding maniac waiting outside the door the risk's probably minuscule.

Still. You'd think they'd have a toilet as part of the secure area on bigger planes - which I imagine is where most of the pilots who need to visit the men's room are. >_<

Post reply on HN