3D Printed Guns... ATF Not Convinced They Are The Real Deal

[pErvinalia]

Interesting article about 3D printed gun parts and the wider questions this raises. You have my permission to turn this thread into the usual stupid gun debate thread. But before that point, it would be nice to get some intelligent views on the issue of 3D printed guns.

Around the same time that Cody Wilson took the stage at SXSW to discuss his new for-profit 3D-printing design database earlier this month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was finalizing his application to become a federally-licensed firearms manufacturer. Wilson stood in front of the crowd and talked about how everyone should have access to technology that made it easy for them to print gun parts in their garages.

He talked about Defense Distributed, the organization he and some friends set up to offer 3D-printed gun designs to the masses for free through a website called DEFCAD, and finally addressed the government's role in the manufacture of firearms. "I'm not soliciting help from the government," he said.

"We are trying to follow the law as it is now and be good citizens," Wilson added. "I don't view government as a benign institution."

Well, the government doesn't seem entirely sure what to think of Wilson's own institution. I talked to a number of ATF representatives, all of whom sent a similar message: 3D-printed gun technology has arrived, but it's not good enough yet to start figuring out how to regulate it.

"We are aware of all the 3D printing of firearms and have been tracking it for quite a while," Earl Woodham, spokesperson for the ATF field office in Charlotte, told me. "Our firearms technology people have looked at it, and we have not yet seen a consistently reliable firearm made with 3D printing."

Wilson demonstrating one of the 3D printer models Defense Distributed uses.

I called the ATF's Washington headquarters to get a better idea of what it took to make a gun "consistently reliable," and program manager George Semonick said the guns should be "made to last years or generations." In other words, because 3D-printed guns aren't yet as durable as their metal counterparts, the ATF doesn't yet consider them as much of a concern.

Aside from long-term durability, it's difficult to understand the difference between a regular gun and a 3D-printed gun in the ATF's eyes. Defense Distributed's gun can fire off hundreds of rounds in one sitting. Doesn't that seem pretty consistent? Plus, when a part fails, the owner can always just print a new one. That also means development is relatively cheap.

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/the-at ... real-thing

[Warren Dew]

They couldn't regulate it if they wanted to. Heck, downloading of instructions for pressure cooker bombs is protected by the first amendment; surely 3D printer plans for guns are too.

[JimC]

It's simply fantasy land, gun-nuts wanking over a future fantasy where an evil government has confiscated standard guns, but a heroic underground of underground 3-D printers has armed the populace, and defeated the men in the black helicopters...

Never going to happen, because the US is politically paralysed in its ability to control its gun nuts, and always will be...

Gun printing is never going to be the saviour of Libertarian fuckwits...

[mistermack]

It's always been possible to make a gun. This doesn't really make a difference.

If I wanted an illegal gun, I'd go down the altered replica route. I think I would end up with a better gun.
But for untraceability, the printer route might be better.

I wonder what material they use for the firing pin? I can imagine that it would need regular replacement. But maybe you can just make that bit out of hardened metal. Just because the printer CAN make it all, doesn't mean that it has to.

They showed one on the news earlier in the week, and it seemed perfectly genuine.
It was recoiling like a proper gun, so it must have been shooting a bullet.

I can't imagine the real wankers wanting one, it doesn't look shiny enough to give them an erection.

[pErvinalia]

Perhaps you should click on the link and actually read the article.

[Coito ergo sum]

Who has these 3D printers?
Am I behind the times? What does a contraption like this cost?

[Azathoth]

They only have to be good for one shot.

[mistermack]

Perhaps you should click on the link and actually read the article.

Too long, too windy. There was a guy with a 3D printed handgun shooting it on the news last week.
That's where my info came from.

One thought though. When these printers are everywhere, and you can borrow or hire one for very little money, it might hit the manufacturers of guns hard in the pocket.
It might, ironically, be the gun lobby who will lobby hardest for gun control on 3D printers.

I'll wait and see with interest.

[pErvinalia]

The "singularity", if you like, in 3D printing will come when you can print a 3D printer on a 3D printer.

[JimC]

The "singularity", if you like, in 3D printing will come when you can print a 3D printer on a 3D printer.

And they come with slight variations. Some of them are a little better at printing new printers than others...

[Pappa]

Who has these 3D printers?
Am I behind the times? What does a contraption like this cost?

You can buy them for $1500 now, and they're getting cheaper all the time.