3D printer + open source = GUNS FOR EVERYONE

[Aerozord]

So this is something I didn't expect to see for a while. A gun produced by a 3D printer. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/04/fully_3d_printed_gun/)
Final testing for the firearm is still ongoing by the group's founder Cody Wilson, who said that the plans should be online next week. The Liberator is printed from ABS plastic using a Dimension SST printer from Stratasys
To be clear, this is a fully functional firearm that discharges conventional bullets. Besides the firing pin it is completely plastic.

This is also an open source project so these blueprints will be freely available. Not that it would matter, this will be easy enough to pirate and made free to all. So even if the weapon was made illegal it would be easy to make.

Honestly the ability to mass-produce guns doesn't bother me. Its the fact that most metal detectors aren't gonna be able to detect this thing.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I am... rather doubtful this actually works. They've tried to build plastic guns before and they invariably end up exploding or just plain not working. You really do need metal to build a gun.

But, anyway, assuming the Lego gun (seriously, that's what ABS plastic is) actually works, you still need bullets. Bullets that will set off metal detectors just fine.

And anyway, it's not like you can't build a gun out of spare scrap from a junkyard, some basic tools, and one of the twenty zillion guides to doing just that on the Internet. The ability to build a gun in your home isn't exactly new.

[Ryong]

I saw a plastic rifle that was being made that couldn't take more than 100 shots or it'd split in two, I assume this still has the same issue.

Ammo would still get detected by metal detectors, though, no?

Gah ninja'd!

[Mr.Bookworm]

I saw a plastic rifle that was being made that couldn't take more than 100 shots or it'd split in two, I assume this still has the same issue.

The only test of a plastic rifle I can find rooting around on the Interwebs is this (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/weaponeers/), by the same guys who make the Lego gun up there. In that case, the gun shattered after six shots, and it wasn't actually entirely made out of plastic.

Anyway, you could print a gun if you had a 3D printer that prints metal, but such technology is a ways away from being commercially available.

I would also be entirely unsurprised if some Senator rams an anti-plastic gun law (or renews the one that already expired) through Congress in the near future.

Gah ninja'd!

Victory!

[Ryong]

The only test of a plastic rifle I can find rooting around on the Interwebs is this (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/12/weaponeers/), by the same guys who make the Lego gun up there. In that case, the gun shattered after six shots, and it wasn't actually entirely made out of plastic.

My sources are assholes it seems, but yeah, I thought it was the same guys.

[Sithdarth]

1) As a general rule the threshold for walk through metal detectors are high enough they won't detect a single bullet or rather they generally aren't maintained well enough to detect a single bullet. I'd say this is doubly true of temporary ones set up outside of venues for political speeches. These things kind of tend to vary wildly but there is a fairly good chance you can get a bullet through one. Especially if its in a different pocket from the plastic gun or if you disguise it as something else. To be honest it seems like the whole gun might able to be assembled by hand on the spot quite quickly which would make it much easier to sneak the nail and the bullet in as just random pocket items.

2) It takes exactly one bullet and one shot to kill a person if you hit them somewhere vital and you are close enough.

3) Politicians still have a habit of shaking the hands of people in the crowds and basically getting far closer than is safe even without the threat of a gun capable of a single shot.

4) A gun you can make from what is probably $4 worth of plastic and a $0.20 nail more than pays for itself even if it only lasts one shot. This is clearly not meant to be a long term kind of weapon. It is a small self defense weapon that is meant to be easily and quickly replaced should you ever be forced to use it.

[Bells]

To be perfectly honest, although, with today's technology i could be proven wrong in the next couple of hours...

But i don't have a big problem with this... i'm not entirely ok with it. But i don't see it becoming an epidemic issue. I think we, globally, are going to need to have better talks abou gun safety when and where it actually applies... as nobody wants kids making berettas for fun in their rooms....

But it's not like this is going to be used to supply insurgent armies or drug cartels. The quality is simply not there to have a gun that, in the truth of the matter, is not as reliable as a "real gun".

However, as Sith pointed out... one shot is enough. And although i don't see this being an issue in larger scales, but when you can get catch your loved one cheating on you, run back home in a rage filled moment, print an untraceable gun that only needs to work once.... yeah, that's troubling.

But more than that, i saw reports stating that it was possible to print accessories and adaptations for guns. So, if you can print parts to mod a weapon to make a real gun more dangerous.... that is much more problematic.

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

More or less a fancier crafted zip-gun. Not to downplay it or anything, but ehhh..I've seen how-to's on paper mache zip guns or others generally made out of stuff rummaged from trash cans or construction sites.

Nor to say one is more effective than the other. just sayin, if one really wants to make one then 3d printing, while fancy, isn't the easiest way to go about things. Plus 3d printers can be fairly cost prohibitive as is. Now when they're affordable enough to pick up at just about any tech store? Yeah, i'd be a bit more concerned about it.

[Red Mage Black]

More or less a fancier crafted zip-gun. Not to downplay it or anything, but ehhh..I've seen how-to's on paper mache zip guns or others generally made out of stuff rummaged from trash cans or construction sites.

Nor to say one is more effective than the other. just sayin, if one really wants to make one then 3d printing, while fancy, isn't the easiest way to go about things. Plus 3d printers can be fairly cost prohibitive as is. Now when they're affordable enough to pick up at just about any tech store? Yeah, i'd be a bit more concerned about it.

You're also looking at something that's going to blow up on the first shot and also unlike a zip gun, you're going to end up with melted plastic all over you. I can't imagine that even with the same barrel design as a real gun, it'll be as accurate. Though I do suppose the point was already made that it was suppose to be fired at point blank.

I'd still like to know how it's going to fire in the first place. Would plastic really have enough force and be able to create enough pressure to ignite the powder? I don't even know if this thing is even functional without at least one or two metal pieces.

[tacticslion]

You're also looking at something that's going to blow up on the first shot and also unlike a zip gun, you're going to end up with melted plastic all over you. I can't imagine that even with the same barrel design as a real gun, it'll be as accurate. Though I do suppose the point was already made that it was suppose to be fired at point blank.

I'd still like to know how it's going to fire in the first place. Would plastic really have enough force and be able to create enough pressure to ignite the powder? I don't even know if this thing is even functional without at least one or two metal pieces.

I think the idea behind is for the nail to act as the hammer/create the pressure (from what I briefly read on the article).

My question about point-blank though... wouldn't be easier/better to use a shiv or some sort of ceramic knife, then? I mean, while I don't recall the specifics, that gun looks low-caliber enough not to be a big impact-type device, and if it were - as was already pointed out - it seems just as likely to leave you with melted plastic sprayed in your face and all over you as to actually eject the bullet out of the barrel.

[Aerozord]

I used to think that, but knives are highly localized injury. With medical technology, assuming a rapid response there are few places you can strike that will result in death. Bullets dont just cause damage at the impact sight but it creates shockwaves within the body and damages tissue around it.

Besides accuracy is only an issue if your goal is to kill a specific individual. If you merely want death and chaos you can just fire into a crowd of people.

[Ryanderman]

Anyway, you could print a gun if you had a 3D printer that prints metal, but such technology is a ways away from being commercially available.



They're not yet available for your home workshop, but I buy metal 3D printed parts for prototyping at work all the time. Lots of machine shops have them.

[Magus]

The thing is, printing this and assembling an actual working pistol would basically be the equivalent of making a "zip gun" and would constitute a felony if you didn't have a license for it. Homemade firearms are not always illegal, but still fall under the requirements on barrel length. You would have to have a pistol license to own this firearm. You could make a plastic rifle or shotgun legally, though.

If I were going to commit a felony by owning an illegal pistol I would probably go ahead and try to get an actual gun? I suppose there is the potential for using it in an assassination or something, but one could already make this gun now, just not so easily.

Go watch In The Line of Fire, the entire movie revolves around this concept of a ceramic gun being snuck into a presidential speech.

[Bells]

This reminds me of an episode of Burn Notice where the Spy puts a bullet inside a tight pipe and hammers it in the back with a smaller pipe with enough force to make the bullet trigger. A one-shot makeshift gun with terrible accuracy (another factor to bring in) but just a further point to say... there are plenty of ways to cause one-off harm

[Aerozord]

This does bring up something we will have to consider, perhaps in only a few decades. Eventually additive manufacturing will allow people to produce firearms with a push of a button. Not too big of a deal in the US because we can just buy one. But isn't this a big deal for nations that believe in gun control?

[Bells]

Depends on the nation really... and if it's a rich or poorer country really.

Eventually people will look for ways to make printable materials traceable somehow. i think this would probably be a good thing to find out. Cause the plastic used in 3D printers is not exactly special or overly expensive... and there are ways to control who prints what in 3D just as much as there are to control what we print in normal printers, which is virtually none.

[tacticslion]

I used to think that, but knives are highly localized injury. With medical technology, assuming a rapid response there are few places you can strike that will result in death. Bullets dont just cause damage at the impact sight but it creates shockwaves within the body and damages tissue around it.

Ah, see, that makes sense. I wasn't thinking of the full implications of the medical side of it.

Besides accuracy is only an issue if your goal is to kill a specific individual. If you merely want death and chaos you can just fire into a crowd of people.

While true, it seems that for such goals home-made bombs would be far better suited, no? Even the small ones. Either way, it would seem just as noticeable for materials on a person, though perhaps not as traceable (as Bells pointed out, the inability to monitor printing).

[Aerozord]

I dont know, alot of groups are gonna fight technology to make 3D printed objects traceable for fear of it undermining open source systems. Now it wouldn't be hard to make methods to trace objects (though possibly expensive depending on how affordable the chemicals are).

Possible this will happen. Currently 3D printers are being embraced mostly by manufacturing and being pushed more to allow entrepreneurs an easier time to prototype and perform small scale manufacturing rather than being used to grant consumers the ability to print products on demand. As such those people will have a vested interest in being able to identify "hey I made this".

Regardless this will have to be applied to the "ink". Be too easy to modify the printer or design to omit markers.