Downloadable 3D gun plans have been ubiquitous online for about five years. Almost nothing has changed in reality. Anyone tech savvy enough to 3D print a gun is certainly capable of accessing the Pirate Bay.
Infringing on what is a clear exercise of first amendment rights isn't going to change anything, and it would be a horrible precedent to set. Whatever your feelings on gun control are, the ability of the government to control the physical items in the possession of the populace is going to be over soon. Just like ride-sharing, Air BnB, and a bunch of other new tech, 3D printing is going to leave the government increasingly out of the picture and put the power to create where it belongs, in the hands of people. Without government or corporate gatekeepers.
Like the war on drugs, the war on 3D printing will be lost. Give it up. Whatever you do, however you try to interfere, people are going to have the ability to make what they want, by themselves, in their basements. More and more cheaply, more and more easily. People, working class people, all of us, will have access to technology that can make the stuff in our heads into material fact.
If you don't think this is good, please, don't call yourself a liberal. You're not. Either way, though, like it or not, it's going to happen. You can't stop the democratising force of technology.
I think 3D printing is cool. Just to have the ability to create stuff in your own home is fun. I have a friend who loves to make stuff with his 3D printer. The quality is not particularly great and everything comes out just one colour. I expect it is because he is using a very low end printer.
Apparently it will be possible to 3D print houses fairly soon. So the world of 3D printing is quite exciting. I think the industry can grow much faster if it remains open source. Sadly, this sort of thing is always open to abuse.
Fear of people 3D printing guns should not be used as an excuse to attack the promising 3D printing industry.
The cost of a 3D printer capable of printing a functioning gun is going to be very high. I also suspect the quality of 3D printed guns would be very low. There is a lot of quality engineering that goes into making a reliable gun. Guns also need to be very durable and 3D printed plastics are not designed to endure explosions and constant moving and rubbing of the internal mechanism (think of friction of plastic on plastic). Cleaning plastic is also going to be far more troublesome than cleaning metal.
Supposedly high quality American guns have reliability issues, they jam frequently if they not are not constantly cleaned. The famous M16 is notorious for jamming. Then again, the kalashnikov does not have that problem. So if your best American guns are not that reliable, imagine how bad a 3D printed gun is going to be. In short, nothing to worry about.
@honeybee, just out of curiosity, would you ever consider printing a 3D gun?
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I have never felt the need to carry firearms, so the answer is no.
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That's good. You write a lot about guns so I thought you might be a gun person. You are such a mystery man. Your posts are also a daily must read for me.
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Guns don't kill people. People with guns, kill people. Forbid people NOT guns xD
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They have no authority to restrict this! If I decide to build, I have a machine shop; and I will build it with steel. That said, I also have a 3D printer.... :)
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I've heard someone is releasing files to 3D print deadly sharp set squares.
https://steemit.com/guns/@smurphed/3d-weapons-of-mass-destruction
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Secrecy is not security. The government will never succeed in trying to keep information from the public at large. Even if you can't download it, it doesn't stop someone from coming up with it on their own. A year ago, I knew nothing about 3D printing. But, I've learned a lot over the past year as I built my own. My experience tells me one thing... there's not a chance that I will ever pull the trigger on a 3D printed gun and risk blowing off the finger that I use to click my mouse. If I wanted to do it though, there is nothing to stop me or anyone else from designing our own and then printing it out. It's all about control and who gets to be in control... of information, of production and of our lives.
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