Andy Greenberg at Forbes writes:
Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.
Now he has.
Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,” pictured in its initial form above.
Greenberg goes on:
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys, with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Technically, Defense Distributed’s gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.
Of course, Defcad’s users may not adhere to so many rules. Once the file is online, anyone will be able to download and print the gun in the privacy of their garage, legally or not, with no serial number, background check, or other regulatory hurdles. “You can print a lethal device,” Wilson told me last summer. “It’s kind of scary, but that’s what we’re aiming to show.”
UPDATE from Greenberg:
Defense Distributed’s political opponents aren’t waiting around for its printable gun to be finished and uploaded before calling for it to be banned. Congressman Steve Israel issued a press release Friday responding to this story: “Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” his statement reads. “When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now to extend the ban [on] plastic firearms.”
(ht Drewmx)
The statists won't be able to keep up with the flow of new products once the 3d printing business hours mainstream. I read an article in an airplane mag this week that talked about the future of airplane replacement parts and 3d printing.
ReplyDeleteWe are not yet for the replacement market but there but the Chinese are making 15 meter long titanium wing beams for a production airplane and GE Is using the technology for turbine blade production on its GEnx engines.
Brain power is soon going to win the war against force.
you can just see the crims in their lairs looking at his 3d printer, thinking ' "I could have gone on a crime spree if Congressman Isreal hadn't banned plastic guns".
ReplyDeleteIn a related story, unnamed souces have confirmed that trials attempting to print a terrorist, complete with explosives and box cutters, have been an abject failure, as the "bombers" suffer from "premature detonation". Intelligence sources postulate that the bombers are self detonating in anticipation of receiving 76 iPads when they reach heaven...
ReplyDelete