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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

The only test of a plastic rifle I can find rooting around on the Interwebs is this, 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]

Originally Posted by Mr.Bookworm

The only test of a plastic rifle I can find rooting around on the Interwebs is this, 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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by Red Mage Black

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.