Coming soon: Printable guns?
At least one group, called Defense Distributed, is claiming to have created downloadable weapon parts that can be built using the increasingly popular new-generation of printer that utilizes plastics and other materials to create 3-D objects with moving parts. University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, the 24-year-old “Wiki Weapons” project leader, says the group last month test fired a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle — one of the weapon types used in the Connecticut elementary school massacre — which was built with some key parts created on a 3-D printer. The gun was fired six times before it broke.
Though no independent observer was there to verify the test, a short video clip showing the gun firing and breaking was posted to YouTube. Federal firearms regulators said they are aware of the technology’s gun-making potential, but do not believe an entire weapon has yet been made.
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The internal temps and pressures will be tough to overcome on a gun that will hold up to repeated use, maybe stick to low-power rounds to make something durable.
Bishop on December 21, 2012 at 4:43 PM
But yeah, super interesting. When I can print out a Smith 500, let me know.
Bishop on December 21, 2012 at 4:45 PM
They’ve already got it to prototype stage–there’s a youtube video of them test firing it. It only lasted a few rounds before it broke.
But this will be very worrisome for gun-control advocates. Democratization of manufacturing means it’ll be much harder for them to implement any sort of gun control.
Mohonri on December 21, 2012 at 4:48 PM
Coming soon… Deja Vu… Printable Gun has been a headline no less than 3 times now. However I have yet to see a printable gun.
Kaptain Amerika on December 21, 2012 at 4:49 PM
Dave Rywall’s Depends just overflowed.
Schadenfreude on December 21, 2012 at 4:50 PM
Congatulations: you just invented the world’s most expensive zip gun.
logis on December 21, 2012 at 4:57 PM
OH NOES!
THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
— Panic hits the Liberals! (you know, the people who don’t think things through….)
Sheesh… a gun without ammo is just a club.
Now, print Ammo, with primer, powder, etc., and now we’re talking
ProfShadow on December 21, 2012 at 4:58 PM
OT: 4 people shot dead in a PA church and 3 state troopers wounded arriving at the scene.
Blake on December 21, 2012 at 4:59 PM
Its interesting, I suspect without capital the current companies will have a tough time creating a sustainable weapon.
rob verdi on December 21, 2012 at 5:01 PM
logis
assuming this is correct, printable guns are more advanced then you think.
http://thenextweb.com/shareables/2012/07/26/the-worlds-first-3d-printed-gun-is-a-terrifying-thing/
rob verdi on December 21, 2012 at 5:03 PM
Just treat them as disposable and set it to print 10 copies and chuck ‘em in the trash when you’re done with them.
Eventually you can set put the copier on your nightstand, tie it in with your yard motion detector and it will be ready to load by the time the intruder breaks down the door.
So what if you’re a heavy sleeper and you wake up in the morning sometime with six or eight pistols covering your slippers ’cause the bunnies were in your garden. No biggie if you need to go out and buy another printer cartridge.
Dusty on December 21, 2012 at 5:05 PM
Actually it would behoove all of us to get some metal working equipment – small machine shop lathe and mill to be able to build such things right now….
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:12 PM
We might need them to produce Victory Guns for supplying to partisan units working behind the lines after the coup.
Bishop on December 21, 2012 at 5:17 PM
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:18 PM
Meh. Just a few Christians. No biggie.
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:19 PM
All you need is an incredibly expensive and complex robot.
NeoKong on December 21, 2012 at 5:21 PM
I was thinking about this the other day. Just what would it take you become a self-sufficient gun owner?
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Guns are what we call a ‘mature’ technology – even the Eugene Stoner’s venerable creation hails back over 50 + years ago – that’s many moons in another lingo.
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Now you’re talkin’.
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:21 PM
Eugene Stoner. Was he the guy who developed the AK15?
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:24 PM
I am getting so sick of this BS story. The “printable” parts of the gun DO NOT include the barrel OR the firing mechanism and firing pin. In other words it is NOT A PRINTABLE GUN! You can only make a few parts with a printer.
Warner Todd Huston on December 21, 2012 at 5:25 PM
legalinsurrection.com/2012/12/nra-press-conf-the-only-thing-that-stops-a-bad-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-good-guy-with-a-gun/
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:25 PM
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/12/nra-press-conf-the-only-thing-that-stops-a-bad-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-good-guy-with-a-gun/
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:29 PM
Moron. Stoner designed the high-magazine capacity clip.
It was Mikhail Timofeyevich Murkowski who created the AK15 and the shoulder thing that goes up.
Man alive, you people are stupid.
Bishop on December 21, 2012 at 5:30 PM
It’s been said the metal lathe can make all the other machine tools – but a small bench top milling machine won’t hurt.
A good place to start would be some ‘shop’ classes or some books on metal working.
Take a look at the link I posted and similar ones on the web to explore your machinery options.
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:31 PM
LMAO!!!!
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:32 PM
Eugene Stoner was the designer of the AR-15, aka M16.
Like a Harley motorcycle — you can customize the crud out of it. More “chrome” than bike. (lasers, red dots, lights, etc.)
http://media.techeblog.com/images/swiss_army_knife_1.jpg
AK, not as much…more like the Honda of rifles.
ProfShadow on December 21, 2012 at 5:32 PM
Heh. And for those interested, Stoner developed the selective fire rifle, too.
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:36 PM
Thanks.
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:39 PM
Galt2009 on December 21, 2012 at 5:39 PM
I’m holding out for the printable gold bars.
peski on December 21, 2012 at 5:40 PM
Try gold plating tungsten!
astonerii on December 21, 2012 at 5:51 PM
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get something past ol’ Andy.
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/12/yglesias–1.html
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:51 PM
jimgeraghty @jimgeraghty
Code Pinkers are safer at NRA press conferences than our kids are in their schools.
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 5:54 PM
Sooner or later, there will be a 3D printer that prints in metal. Then the gun control game is over.
In the meantime, Rep. Steven Israel’s bill is an exercise in legislative stupidity. You need some metal in the gun anyway to make it work, so it’s no more invisible to X-ray than a Glock.
But if, somehow, technology advanced to where you could print a working, practical plastic gun, the law won’t make any difference to criminals anyway. The “Undetectable Firearms Act” only made sense when you could impose it on firearms manufacturers, which could be easily found and regulated. If you could make such a gun on a 3D printer, the criminal would just make one in private with no traceable marks or materials, use it in his crime, then throw it away. The law would make even less sense than our “gun-free zones” do today.
But I guess if you’re a politician you have to believe in the tooth fairy and the power of words on paper to control reality.
Socratease on December 21, 2012 at 6:00 PM
davidk on December 21, 2012 at 6:02 PM
This is closer than a lot of you believe. There are several types of 3D printers. You have an additive printer which can take various materials and prints much like a ink jet printer–building a part one layer at a time. These are great for modeling various parts to ensure fit before going into actual production. They can also do neat thinks like print cellular material to build artificial body parts or scaffolding to grow more complex organs. There are already versions of these additive printers available for less than $1000 and people have put together open source collections of things to print, most of which are simple (like a cup or a toy).
Then you have a reductive printer. This actually doesn’t print, but more accurately reduces a material to create the part you want. So, you stick in a larger block of metal or wood and it cuts away the excess. These machines are much more expensive (for now), but should soon be able to make a lot of complex machines.
As these technologies become more sophisticated (and they rapidly are) and cheaper, we are going to see an entirely new commerce model. You may go online, see something you want, purchase the plan and print it out immediately. Of course, we’re going to have to figure out how to deal with intellectual property rights on these types of thing or we’ll see Napster like services popping up where people download and print anything they want without the original creator getting a cent.
Right now, people use this stuff for simple things. They create parts for their HO railroad, model airplanes, Legos, etc. In the near future it may be stuff like a part for your car, a tennis racket or even a gun.
ReaganWasRight on December 21, 2012 at 6:24 PM
I would seriously apprentice myself to a conservative metalshop worker for this very reason. Something BIG and BAD is coming down the pike and I can’t even afford a 2nd-hand shotgun. My survival instinct is screaming at me.
MelonCollie on December 21, 2012 at 11:07 PM