If you can 3D print a gun at home, you're welcome to shoot me with it

[Junkdrawer]

I'm on the record as one of the very few people in the tech press who is sceptical about home 3D printing. Indeed, when I last weighed in on the subject – arguing that it was not the epoch-defining technology some evangelists claim, but instead a sort of vaguely-useful-for making-plastic-spoons, garden-shed technology – I received a barrage of abuse. One commenter called me an "unimaginative conservative old man who smells faintly of p—".

One of the key claims that evangelists (and press doomsayers) make is that 3D printing of firearms will inevitably happen – that home-printed plastic guns will enable every criminal (or freedom fighter worried the UN/NWO/EUSSR are coming to take his guns) to print off his own unmarked, untraceable, unlicensed assault rifle. Indeed, several of the more breathless pieces have insisted that the "Terrifying future of 3D printed weapons" is already here – that 3D-printed guns "you can download and make yourself" are a reality.

...

Of course, I'm talking about home printing. What about the industrial end of the spectrum? As one commenter said on my last piece, "where people are printing up medical implants within 5 microns on a 1.1M sintered titanium machine, or complex 3D sand moulds are printed by an ExOne printer, things are pretty stunning. These devices may well augment and even replace some manufacturing processes currently in place. They are very costly though, and will never find their way to the average consumer's workbench, office or garage".

So, it's all very well to upload weapon parts to the internet, but without a printer able to manage micron-wide measurements and high tolerances, you aren't any more dangerous than a bloke hand-casting 17th-century falconet cannons in his garden. So even if Mr Wilson can print his gun, I suspect I'm in less danger having him shoot at me with it than he is from pulling the trigger.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/willardfoxton2/100008957/if-you-can-3d-print-a-gun-at-home-youre-welcome-to-shoot-me-with-it/

So, the 3D printers you can buy at Staples can print spoons and plastic army men, but not guns. There ARE printers that could print a gun, but they're hideously expensive.

And guess what? Now that you've warned the World that the potential for abuse exists, the good stuff will probably never make it into consumer hands. Ever.

As DUer GravityCollapse put it succinctly: This is why we can't have nice things.

[olddots]

1. One part of progress will be learning to live with progress .

n.t.

[galileoreloaded]

5. (clap clap clap) nt

[Junkdrawer]

17. and learning to make progress gunner-safe...

a FAR tougher row to hoe....

[Blue Owl]

2. I can print out a bullet in ten seconds

Just hit Option 8, then Control P, and BLAMMO!

[kona808]

3. "They are very costly though, and will never find their way to the average consumer"

Famous last words.

There are 3d printers available for less than $1000 already.


http://www.acgears.com/maker/3d-printing/up-mini-3d-printer?gclid=CPOtiO6pjLcCFS9eQgodFG8A_g

For perspective I paid over $4000 for a wide carriage OKI dot matrix in the late 80's.

[Junkdrawer]

4. Buy one, print out the downloaded design and give Mr. Fox a call....

Just FYI: The printer used by Cody Wilson is a $32,000 + machine and I believe the manufacturer demanded it back when its use was revealed.

As I say, all Cody Wilson did was warn the World about the potential for abuse. Resolution and polymers will NOW be tightly controlled around the World.

End result: All kinds of NON-LETHAL uses for the technology will suffer.

Good job.

[kona808]

8. "Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons

Computers in the future may have only 1,000 vacuum tubes and weigh only 1.5 tons." -- Popular Mechanics, 1949

[Junkdrawer]

11. Nowhere do I doubt the technology’s potential....

It's the now-proven potential for abuse that will have to be overcome.

[kysrsoze]

6. Yeah, I don't buy it either. There will also be cases of printing guns and hitting bystanders

There's always potential to go wrong.

[Initech]

7. The sad thing is that no matter how great a new technology that comes along...

Some asshole will come along and find a way to make weapons from it.

[Junkdrawer]

10. There are probably thousands of LEGITIMATE uses for the technology....

that will suffer because now we dare not let home 3D printers do more than print chess pieces.

Offhand: You could create a program that takes custom measurements and creates semi-disposable prosthetics for amputees at a fraction of today's costs. But that would require really hard polymers....

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

9. My girlfriend uses a professional 3D printer at work, it is used for chassis prototyping

And she laughs her ass off at the "futurist" predictions for this technology. She doesn't think there is that much of a market for making your own bobble-heads or bits of mass produced plastic junk for 20x the price.

[NightWatcher]

12. if their aim was to make a one-shot home made gun, why not make a zip gun

from parts you have in the garage in lieu of spending thousands on a printer

[Junkdrawer]

14. And not poison the technology well?

What fun is that?

[NCTraveler]

15. Please stop talking about reality.

People are going to buy one of these printers to produce guns. You should be aware of this. Doesn't matter that one can be made easier and cheaper from parts purchased at your local hardware store. Everyone is trying to attach whatever they can to guns right now. It is the topic of the moment. And yes, I say this as a gun grabber. Spending all of this time associating this printer with guns waters down real and necessary conversations. I actually think that is what many are doing.

[NightWatcher]

16. like you've said, here in Florida we've got more guns than grains of sand on the beach

I need to renew my permit (so I can keep a gun in my car) but I'm scared to go to the range with all these nuts that keep accidentally shooting each other at the range or the gun stores.

the printers are only a distraction to talk about instead of real change or control

[NCTraveler]

13. I think this is all about nothing.

It is a really neat product, and I hope it becomes cheaper and more user friendly. Then again I am in Florida and surrounded by guns. Statistically, the number of guns in Florida will not increase due to this printer. Not when used guns are so easy to purchase. Legally or illegally. I don't think anyone has a full grasp on how many Floridians are armed. Many are very well armed.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Funny. I'd have thought someone here would be taking this guy up....

on the challenge.

What's the matter?

[Junkdrawer]

19. No takers