You Can 3D Print A Heavy-Caliber Gun — And It’s Totally Legal — But Should It Be?

[Electric Monk]

(CBS SF) — With a 3D printer and enough thermoplastic, you can mass produce plastic assault rifles from the convenience of your own home without going through a rigorous background check.

Advanced 3D-printing technology now allows for people to make durable guns. And as far as current federal laws are concerned, it’s totally legal.

Medium writer Keith Mizokami documented his experience building not just any regular firearm, but a full-on assault rifle.

All it took was three hours and some light tools.

“I was an AR-15 grease monkey,” Mizokami wrote. “During the course of several projects, I’d built an entire rifle from scratch. But I’d never built the lower receiver of an AR-15. By U.S. government standards, I’d be manufacturing a firearm.”

more
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/27/gun-3d-printing-assault-rifle-lower-receiver-plans-firearms/

I hope they have a high failure rate, so this fails to catch on. I also think this should be regulated, or we'll have yahoos making machine guns with no background checks at all.

[Duckhunter935]

1. A Heavy-Caliber Gun

Is this

[Electric Monk]

2. Someone didn't RTFA, re: 5.56

CM901 is a step above the AR-15, capable of firing the more powerful 7.62 millimeter bullet for greater range and killing power.

[Duckhunter935]

7. Thank you

I stand corrected, still the same as any civilian rifle that is legal to own.

[NaturalHigh]

4. "AK-47 civilian clone from a shovel."

Seriously?

I envy people like that, as I barely have the skills to make a peanut butter sandwich.

[Duckhunter935]

9. Link

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning!

[NaturalHigh]

11. Awesome. Thanks!

[Eleanors38]

46. So, how could that cat start a forging fire?

[stone space]

3. No.

But Should It Be?

[Duckhunter935]

13. why?

you can do that now with computer controlled mills and a block of aluminum. Legal to own and produce your own if you are not prohibited and do not sell or give away.

[Mopar151]

30. You're exactly right.

Among other things in my machining career, I've been a moldmaker, and have made tooling and machines for all sorts of composites - including metal-matrix composites and composite armor. 3D printers are much ado about little - there are guys in Pakistan making replica AK-47's with 1700's blacksmith technology. A CAD program, a telephone, and a checkbook - ar least in NH, where bidness is boomin` -will buy you all the gun parts you can carry, in proper grades of heat-treated steel.
None of this should dissuade those in pursuit of universal background checks, or those looking to unseat the NRA from their proximity to power. Lots of this has to do, not with impeding access for clever, resourceful people, but for mentally defective, terminally belligerent idiots.

[GGJohn]

26. Why?

Afraid that someone would carry one into your calculuz class?

[stone space]

27. You are creepy.

Afraid that someone would carry one into your calculuz class?

[GGJohn]

28. Thank you.

I try.

[Duckhunter935]

31. Creepy man

[GGJohn]

35. If I could change my screen name,

I'd change it to Creepy Man.
Thanks for that.

[beevul]

37. Calcululz! n/t

[GGJohn]

38. LOL!!!! eom.

[NaturalHigh]

5. Not really a new thing. I was reading a similar article the other day.

"I hope they have a high failure rate, so this fails to catch on. I also think this should be regulated, or we'll have yahoos making machine guns with no background checks at all."

Too late my friend. The cat has been out of the bag for a while. It can be done easily for $1200. The whole gun ban wet dream has been dead for a long time.

[Eleanors38]

47. "Failure rate." Think vacuum tubes in early computers. Frankly, semi-auto technology...

is simpler and easier to build than Colt's Patent revolvers of 180 years ago.

[NutmegYankee]

6. That is impossible to regulate.

The technology is getting so good you can do it in your garage or basement. It's going to be as pointless as banning the manufacture of alcohol (which I do in 5 gallon batches every three months or so). Sure, you can pass a law to ban it, just like fundies did in 1920 with making beer at home, but good luck enforcing it. Hell, drugs use at home has been illegal for over 40 years, with felony punishment. And we all know how much of a whopping success that has been.

[NaturalHigh]

10. "5 gallon batches every three months or so"

Beer or something else? My father-in-law makes a kickass pilsner, but I'm not impressed with his few attempts at liquor.

[NutmegYankee]

14. Beer.

I make a Kölsch style in late winter/spring for summer drinking, and Hefeweizen, cream ale, and IPAs for other seasons. They come out very good.

[NaturalHigh]

17. Cool.

[gejohnston]

21. over 40 years?

LSD-1965, pot (federal, some states earlier)-1937, heroin/cocaine etc-1914

[NutmegYankee]

23. All dates over 40 years old.

My how time flies...

[NaturalHigh]

8. Bookmarking for later.

This article says that the printer they used for this thing only costs $500. I'm going to get one of these.

Thanks Electric Monk!

[Duckhunter935]

12. I will probably here in the future

I built one from a parts kit and a receiver. Next step would be to completely build one from scratch.

[NaturalHigh]

15. Does this really strike you as reliable?

I mean, it seems really cool, but do you think it's the real deal?

I'll be the first to admit that I'm no machinist A monkey would have a better chance at building something than me, but I love to do something like this. Not only that, but imagine what else not firearms-related we could build with these things.

[Duckhunter935]

18. Not yet

The buffer tube connection will be the problem and it is better suited to the lower recoil of the 5.56 rather than the 7.62.

I would give it some time for better materials.

[Puha Ekapi]

43. I've built...

...a couple from 80% forged 7075 receivers. No serial, no records, no violation of any laws. I have 3 more in the pipeline right now. Two ar-15's, one will be 5.56, the other 6.8 SPC, and the third is an ar-10 80% lower that I'll build in 7mm-08.

[petronius]

16. Yes, it should be legal. But since I support UBCs, I think it would be fine to

require that the person pass a background check before doing so. Perhaps the best way would be to open NICS to everybody--free of charge--so that anyone could run a check and get a confirmation of having passed before pressing 'print'...

[NaturalHigh]

19. What if it would print other things, though?

What if it could print a fan or a table? Car parts?

Would we still need a permit?

This 3-D technology is really going to be interesting.

[petronius]

20. I don't mean a permit for the printer, just for before printing a firearm

I.e., before 'transferring' a gun from non-existence into your possession, you call/log-in to NICS, get a confirmation of some sort, and if you pass the BGC, you press 'print.' Sort of like the permit to purchase that I think some states use, where you have a 30-day certificate or something like that to verify that you've passed the check...

[NutmegYankee]

24. The problem is most of the people using the machine specifically want to not let the Gov't know.

So a requirement to get a background check achieves nothing. The only way to stop gun manufacture with the machines is to either prohibit personal ownership or heavily license/control the machines themselves. That's why the technology is so game changing.

[petronius]

29. I wouldn't assume most, but certainly some

Still, I am more inclined to require a BCG and prosecute those who fail to follow through, rather than heavily restrict (in the hopes of creating a stumbling block for a minority of determined criminals) such a broadly-applicable and valuable technology...

[NutmegYankee]

34. That last sentence is why I call this a game changer

The BCG will be ineffective for what GC advocates want. Illegal guns are a button push away and future CNC machines will be able to hog any part out of metal at affordable prices. But any locality/state that bans or heavily restricts the machines risks turning themselves into a technological backwater. And so GC advocates have a difficult decision - acknowledge that their grasp on control has been defeated and embrace the 21st century, or become a Luddite while maintaining a strict grasp on society.

It can rock the world just like this silly invention of a tube on a stick with a burning match that allowed a mere peasant in rags to defeat a glorious noble knight in shining costly armor. Power to the Peasants!

[gejohnston]

22. we'll have yahoos making machine guns with no background checks at all.

That's already being done, and has been done before our lifetimes. Not only in occupied Europe during the second world war, but biker and drug gangs in Australia.

[madville]

25. Making "machine guns" is already illegal

if one does not have the proper federal licenses. Whether or not someone makes one out of aluminum, steel or plastic at home is not relevant.

They may have to start regulating the hardest parts of the firearm to produce at home instead of the easiest. Receivers are generally rather easy to make at home. Things like rifled barrels and bullet casings are much more difficult to make.

[NYC_SKP]

32. Yes, of course it should be totally legal, what a ridiculous question.

People are stupid if they think that a 3d thermoplastic printer can create a workable and lasting lower receiver.

And they're even more stupid thinking that this is some new thing.

Anyone with the right machine tools and the drawings can machine their own lower, one that will last.

Is this legal to do in plastic or in any material?

You tell me.

[ileus]

33. mass produce plastic assault rifles....LOL

Of course they meant lower receivers...plastic junk. The printer I dare say didn't printout the LPK, BCG, or Buffer tube and spring. I would also venture to say it didn't spit out a upper assembly.

Spend a few dollars and buy a nice forged lower and build it...you'll be much happier.



Wonder why they made the video appear like a cartoon??? Is it supposed to make it scarier or something?

[GGJohn]

36. ...

I also think this should be regulated, or we'll have yahoos making machine guns with no background checks at all.

Too late, that ship sailed out of port a long time ago.

I hope they have a high failure rate, so this fails to catch on.

So, you're hoping that people get hurt or killed?
That's mighty generous of you.

[VScott]

39. Taking it to the next level.

Now this is starting to sound promising.

The age of 3-D printing in carbon fiber has hardly arrived. But the controversy over 3-D printing carbon fiber guns is well under way.

Starting in the second half of last year, 3-D printing startup MarkForged has been shipping the Mark One, a device it advertises as the world’s first 3-D printer that prints carbon fiber; The Mark One digitally fabricates objects in a material as light as plastic and as strong by some measures as aluminum. But one group isn’t about to receive its Mark One order: Defense Distributed, the nonprofit political group that invented the first fully 3-D printed gun nearly two years ago.

Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson says he pre-ordered the Mark One about a year ago for $8,000, but was told last Friday in a phone call with a MarkForged salesman that the company refuses to sell him one, citing terms of service that disallow private citizens from using the machine to make firearms. So instead, Wilson is offering what he describes as a “bounty” to anyone who can get him MarkForged’s new carbon fiber printer.

“Anyone who’s got access to one, any reseller, any individual or business or entity that can deliver it to me, I will give them fifteen grand,” says Wilson, who has also released a YouTube video advertising his offer. “I’m going to get this printer. I’m going to make a gun with it. And I’m going to make sure everyone knows it was made with a MarkForged printer.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/03/03/_3_d_printing_company_markforged_refused_to_sell_printers_to_gun_group_does.html

[Nuclear Unicorn]

40. People illicitly acquiring machine guns could be a problem. I'd suggest calling the police but

some of them are getting in trouble for illicitly obtaining machine guns.

[Duckhunter935]

41. good one

[Puha Ekapi]

42. How exactly....

...do you propose to regulate it? By banning 3D printers and machine tools?

[virginia mountainman]

44. Made me chuckle..

Calling a 7.62 a heavy caliber gun?... Others have been calling the lowly 5.56 "powerful" and other ridiculous things.

Wonder what they will call the real powerful calibers? Like 30-06 (which is also a 7.62) or the large, magnum power rifles, like the 8mm Magnum, or 300 Win Mag?

Ion Cannons??

[blueridge3210]

45. Phased plasma rifle, in the 40 watt range?