Finally: The flying car arrives

“Gun control” has always been a question of who rules- government or the citizenry. When The One (and some HA trolls) retort that “since the people are the government here, only a paranoid is afraid of government”, they are being disingenuous; the basic definition of government is “a small group with power making decisions for everyone, with the force to make those decisions stick”.

That said, this really isn’t that big a deal. Because making firearms has always been easier than most non-gun experts think. (And much easier than most hoplophobes imagine.)

The WW2 Liberator pistol (Guide Lamp Co. inventory item FP45) was little more than two stamped pieces of sheet metal, a piece of 1/2″ nominal steel tubing, a couple of cast bits, and two springs. It fired .45 ACP ammunition well enough that it could kill an enemy soldier and allow his weapon to be “liberated”, hence its name. It held ten spare rounds in a trap in the butt, and probably wouldn’t hold up for much more than that. But that would be enough to provide a resistance group with ten rifles courtesy of the enemy- and subtract ten grunts from the enemy’s ranks in the process.

Similar improvised weapons have been made worldwide, in machine shops, garages, and even in villages. They ranged from primitive single-shots like the FP45, to sophisticated copies of factory-made weapons from the Darra Adam Kel region of the Hindu Kush, or entirely new designs created by the “Paltik” smiths of the Philippines. (Think fully-automatic 12-gauge shotguns with blowback SMG-type actions feeding from 10-round detachable box magazines.)

During the war, the Danish underground manufactured their own Sten Mk II SMGs, due to a shortage of same in SOE’s available stocks. (They mostly went to France and the Balkans). After the war, the Israelis did the same thing to arm their defense forces. (Fun fact; a shot-out 0.303in SMLE barrel can make two Sten barrels; just cut it in two, chop off the chamber section, bore the rest of it out, rifle and chamber it to 9mm spec, and then machine it outside to fit the receiver. Done.)

3D printing is simply the next step in this procedure. Any reasonably well-equipped home workshop c be used to make an effective firearm, if the user knows their business. This just brings that procedure up to the present state of the art.

The real problem is ammunition. As any prison guard knows, any con can make a “zip gun” to fire ay cartridge; the trick is keeping the ammo out of the lockup. Cartridges are harder to make, from scratch, as they require deep-drawing capability to form them from brass, as well as the brass alloy itself. Bullets, propellants, and primers are easier- in fact much easier. (And no, I’m not explaining how here.)

3d printing may solve that problem, too. The most likely outcome here would be not 3D printed weapons using conventional rounds, but an entirely new class of small arms firing ammunition optimized for their structure. One possibility is Plastic-Cased Telescoped Ammunition, aka PCTA;

http://www.google.com/patents/US5233928

Ammunition of this type could be made by 3D printing at least as easily as a weapon to fire it could be. please note that such ammunition is being developed by the military due to being very useful in designing and building very-high-rate-of-fire (VHRF) automatic weapons, such as automatic cannon. For real fun, try Combustible Plastic Cased Telescoped Ammunition (CPCTA), which burns up its plastic casing along with its propellant charge, leaving nothing but an ignition squib to eject, or maybe not even that. (Metal can be sintered into “bands” in the case to provide electrical ignition contact “strips”, eliminating the need for a separate igniter.) By eliminating the ejection stroke, such weapons can have appallingly high rates of fire, making them useful as aircraft guns or light AAA.

On the personal level, something equivalent to the Colonial Marine “pulse rifle” in Aliens, or the “mini-Gatling” assault rifles in Deep Rising, are entirely within the realm of probability, not just possibility.

And you’ll be able to make them, and their ammo, yourself. Needless to say, this all takes “plastic model building” to a whole new level.

As to outlawing it, that’s about as realistic as outlawing the Laws of Thermodynamics. Which, come to think of it, some of our “brilliant” lawmakers have tried to in the past. (The Universe remained unmoved.)

There is no accounting for arrogance and stupidity. Especially on the part of politicians.

cheers

eon

eon on May 4, 2013 at 9:51 AM