How 3-D Printed Guns Evolved Into Serious Weapons in a Year

This doesn&#x27;t seem to me like nearly as big of a revolution as the media is making it out to be. You can already buy all the CNC mills and lathes and other machine tools that you have space and money for, and use them to manufacture firearms if you want to. Granted, it takes a lot more time and money than using 3D printers.<p>At least in the US, the laws are pretty clear and established on manufacturing firearms, and I don&#x27;t see how they would be any different for 3D printed guns. Right now, as an individual, you can manufacture and posses any firearm that meets the legal definition of a pistol, rifle, or shotgun with no licenses at all, unless prohibited by state laws. You only need a license if you want to sell them. AFAIK, you can actually sell the guns you build, as long as you aren&#x27;t believed to be in the business of manufacturing them for sale, which is a bit of a fuzzy line.<p>If you want to manufacture anything full-auto, anything explosive, or certain other categories of weapons, then you need a special manufacturer&#x27;s license for that, regardless of what you plan to do with them, and are much more strictly prohibited on who you can sell them to and how. AFAIK, currently, any newly manufactured full-auto firearm can only be sold legally to either police departments or other licensed dealers.<p>Nevertheless, this is still an interesting field, and I&#x27;d like to see what the 3D printing innovators manage to come up with as far as useful firearms.

Full disclosure: I was involved in the defense distributed project of initially designing the Liberator. A startup I was helping run printed their first AR-15 lower receiver. I actually pressed print on a number of their first builds.<p>As user ufmace (and artificialidiot) points out, this is NOT nearly as big of a revolution as the media is making it out to be. You CAN buy CNC mills or lathes to build higher quality weapons with little or no licensure, for generally the same or less $$ than a 3D printer. You could also buy much of what is necessary to build a Liberator-style weapon in a Home Depot. You could also buy a czech-stamped 9x18 makarov pistol for under $150, and put hundreds or thousands of rounds through it, all without talking to an FFL holder.<p>This was a perfect storm of tech interest and general wonderment in 3D printing meeting zealotry applied towards gun laws, from both directions. People from Defense Distributed are well aware of this; nonsense or not, it made a great launch pad and buzz mill. Mr. Wilson has already signed his book deal and on to his Dark Wallet project.<p>Me personally, I&#x27;ve always thought that building some STL files of the solvent trap adapter[0] or adapter used in the Econo-Can suppressor[1] would be more meaningful parts to distribute via 3D printers (If you&#x27;re all into the freedom-of-weapons via technology bandwagon, which I&#x27;m not). Suppressors are a very real tactical advantage, and small threaded adapters are much more likely to stand up to the stresses of weapons use.<p>[0]-<a href="https://cadizgunworks.com/store/index.php?route=product/product&amp;product_id=54" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cadizgunworks.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;index.php?route=product&#x2F;prod...</a> [1]-<a href="https://cadizgunworks.com/store/index.php?route=product/category&amp;path=20_26_69" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cadizgunworks.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;index.php?route=product&#x2F;cate...</a>

I&#x27;m glad I live in a country (Norway) with a ton of guns and very little gun violence. I don&#x27;t think easier access is going to change that going forward. Perhaps a little bit.<p>Other countries are less fortunate. It is my hope that instead of building higher walls--in the literal sense, or in the form of checkpoints--we can take a closer look at what drives the gun violence. Inequality seems to be a big factor. Access to psychiatric treatment might be another.<p>It saddens me that the easiest solution might be to simply ban 3d-printers. This would get someone a cheap political win, not actually solve the problem, and ruin something great for everyone else.

For the about the same price of a 3d printer and plastics, you can buy a small lathe and aluminium stock to build a gun far superiour yet just as dangerous for the user. Required skill is comparable. Why aren&#x27;t there any talks about banning those hobby machines too? Because you need a good scary story to sell and cutting metal is old news. I don&#x27;t buy the plastic widget manufacturers getting in the way angle either. Do you have any idea how much cheaper is buying a mass produced thing instead of designing, building and botching the same piece with worse tolerances and worse materials?

You can spend $1000+ for a serious handgun, or $25 for one of these jokes. Why the price difference? Because handgun manufacturers are stupid?<p>No, its because machining hardened steel designed to contain the gas pressure required to project a bullet down a barrel at high speed is costly. Tolerances have to be very fine to fire again and again without jamming.<p>With a plastic gun, what kind of muzzle velocity is being achieved? Can it penetrate a pop can at 10 feet? Will it break skin? I&#x27;m dubious.

Printing 3-D guns is pretty useless unless one can also print 3-D bullets.<p>(for the record I would be a bit leery of operating a device used to explode gunpowder in a chamber and force a projectile down a tube at high velocity that had been printed from plastic on a hobbyists printer...)

I don&#x27;t yet see how these are serious, but with advances in material science for 3d feedstocks they definitely will.<p>On a threat level, printed guns probably rank lower than death by bee sting.

&quot;a key part of a semi-automatic weapon called the lower receiver. That part, which comprises most of the body of a gun, is the most regulated element of a firearm. Print a lower receiver, and you can buy the rest of a gun’s components off the shelf without an ID or waiting period.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s an easy fix I would think. But I&#x27;m surprised that the barrel isn&#x27;t just as highly regulated.

Gunsmithing in Pakistan:<p><a href="http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2012/07/30/gunsmithing-in-pakistan/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thefirearmblog.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2012&#x2F;07&#x2F;30&#x2F;gunsmithing-in...</a><p>edit: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FinRqCocwGE" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=FinRqCocwGE</a>

The first thing this made me think of is that there are a burgeoning group of &quot;share economy&quot; type 3D printing services. What happens if a buyer essentially crowdsources 3D printing of various parts for a functional gun and then uses it to commit a crime?<p>Interesting to think about...

I guess it&#x27;s because of the plastic but all of the guns look like they were sold at Toys-R-Us.<p>BTW: The gun made in Japan (1st video in the article) has a background track that is hilarious and worth the click.