
How 3D Printing Is Inflaming The Gun Control Debate - Futurebot
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how-3d-printing-is-inflaming-the-gun-control-debate.php
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tsotha
_If you think the gun debate in the United States is heated now..._

It's not, really. The pro gun-control side has pretty much been routed, both
in the courts and in the polls.

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te_chris
That's just sad then. The right for a private citizen to bear arms is
completely ridiculous.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Many argue the 2nd Amendment is for ensuring states can bear arms, which makes
more sense to me.

~~~
tsotha
It's certainly not worded that way.

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Andaith
The USA is generally accustomed to guns as a society. I'm more interested in
how this is going to affect countries like the U.K. and Australia with very
strict gun laws.

I'm especially interested in the U.K. because people don't even like the idea
of the police using water cannon, but if any 3D printer can produce a gun, I
think they're going to need to arm all police.

How countries in that situation handle the problem is going to be really
interesting. Especially how it affects 3D printing. Is it going to be dying
business models all over again? Or will the countries adapt to a new reality?

~~~
shabble
I suspect the much bigger issue in the UK at least is the availability of
ammunition. It's been really quite easy to manufacture weapons (which, at
their simplest, are just a tube strong enough to stop the cartridge walls
bursting)

It seems a relatively common technique is to rebore the barrel of a starter
(blank-firing) pistol or modify an air-rifle, there was a guy caught not that
long ago with his own machine shop making full-auto capable weapons, iirc.

But bullets; I'm sure they're easier to smuggle, and there are legitimate ways
to get then (rifles only, pistols being banned entirely) Making your own is
also difficult, although buying a sack or 2 of spent cases and a tumbler is
possible, there aren't really any decent sources of propellant, nor
primer/caps.

It's hard to say objectively which is the harder component to
manufacture/acquire, but I'm going to go with ammo right now. Not sure where
the enforcement effort will be best spent in future though. It may be that the
focus is moved towards detection, perhaps with something like the directional
microphone arrays that can do gunshot detection/localisation. We could even
mount them on all the millions of CCTV cams we have scattered around the
place, what could possibly go wrong?

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ChuckMcM
This. Silly journalists don't realize that its always been possible to build
guns at home. One of the advertised benefits of owning a Smithy brand
combination lathe and mill is that you can do gunsmithing. Bullets though, and
by that we mean ammunition you would want to carry around, is quite a bit
tougher.

My Dad and brother-in-law are both fans of black powder guns, and have made
their own powder for them. But while a musket is still a solid defense against
someone who isn't armed, its not much of a threat to someone wearing ballistic
armor and carrying a M4.

Gun control has never been about guns anyway, it has always been about a
society that thinks killing people is an acceptable way to settle disputes.

~~~
sukuriant
'Gun control has never been about guns anyway, it has always been about a
society that thinks killing people is an acceptable way to settle disputes.'

Eh?

I thought it was always about people misusing and people being afraid of big,
scary, long range killing machines.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Just think about it. Lets say that everyone in your society was convinced the
best way to settle a disagreement with you was to have a walk off [1], do you
think you would worry that someone owned or was carrying a gun? Looking at the
NRA surveys of gun owners, #1 reason for owning hand guns is 'self defense'.
If you're not going to be attacked that reason goes away.

[1] Yes that is a Zoolander reference.

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sukuriant
While I am not a member of the NRA; I had always perceived the 'self defense'
side of gun ownership as twofold:

1) in the event that someone else has a gun and is assaulting you with one;
either that, or your in a situation where the assailant is substantially
stronger than you and isn't stopping (or is attacking someone you love). For
example, a mountain lion or bear.

and more importantly,

2) a detourant.

    
    
        * "I'm not going to steal from that guy, because he's packing and I like living."
        * "It would be unwise for me to attack that car dealership, because one of the 
           patrons might shoot me." 
        * "Opening fire in this mall would be a generally bad idea, considering one in
           four people in it have a glock on their hip."

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ChuckMcM
In #1 its really about people not wildlife. Either folks don't think they will
be attacked by wildlife or they feel like wildlife won't attack them without
'cause' and since they don't feel compelled to give cause they don't worry
about it.

And of course if your society didn't think attacking people was a reasonable
course of action then #1 goes away.

And as a deterrent the your three examples all presume a human out to do harm.
Back to my ideological, if unrealistic, observational comment.

Does that help get my point?

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Zak
I grew up in rural Alaska. I routinely carried firearms for protection from
wildlife from a fairly young age.

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gsibble
I'm a very staunch gun rights supporter. I've owned about a dozen weapons over
the years, fired many more since I was a child, and hold a Tennessee carry
permit (good in 38 states). I've taken numerous handgun and rifle classes and
donate to the NRA.

With that said, I'm still very frightened by the potential of weapon
manufacturing through 3D printing. If and when it becomes effective and
economic at producing firearms, nefarious institutions will not hesitate to
produce them in mass quantities, no matter what the law says. And I don't like
it. I support gun rights for law abiding citizens, not criminals. Obviously
some no-brainer laws such as restrictions due to prior felony convictions
would become impossible to enforce.

I have spent some time considering how to prevent this eventual situation and
am at a real loss. File sharing's history has made it very clear that laws and
technology cannot stop economically interested parties from finding and
exploiting loopholes and weaknesses.

Does anyone have any ideas how we could prevent this technology from being
used to arm would be felons or dangerous individuals?

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daeken
I think you overstate the potential for this to erode regulations. If a felon
wants a weapon, how is buying it from a guy printing guns any different from
buying it from a guy who imports weapons? There are plenty of those guys
already around.

If this was simple to do in your own home, I'd say this might be a real issue,
but it's ridiculously easy to get a black market weapon right now already; 3d
printing isn't going to have a marked effect on that for a long time.

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bunderbunder
_If a felon wants a weapon, how is buying it from a guy printing guns any
different from buying it from a guy who imports weapons?_

Why go through the trouble of finding an illegal weapons importer when you can
just get a friend without a felony on their record to buy one for you?

I think the bigger issue would be importing large volumes of weapons which are
banned for civilian use, _a la_ drug cartels. An argument could be made that
it would be a lot easier for them to switch to 3D printing the guns. Although
I doubt that is really the case. Any criminal organization with any power is
going to be a big player in the black market, which means they are already
going to be attached to an extensive and proven-successful smuggling network.

I think it would be a much bigger deal for groups like the Michigan Militia.
Whether that's a good thing or not is probably good fodder for an acrimonious
debate, so I'll stay away.

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protomyth
It seems tech journalists aren't aware that people can already build weapons
at home. I guess it will be easier now, but that's just technology's way.

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gsibble
It takes a lot more effort and skill to build a weapon manually now than it
would to print one with a 3D printer, so I see the concern.

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RyJones
Not really. I've built an AK with a parts kit, a hammer, a flat, and a vice in
a parking lot. There are myriad screw-built AKs out there where even the
hammer for the rivets is dispensed with. [0]

If you want to dismiss AKs from consideration, making an AR15 lower out of
flat chunks of aluminum and a drill press is easy enough; they aren't much for
looks, but they are quite functional. [1]

This is setting aside completely home-built weapons; while unpleasant, a
functioning STeN-type MG is no challenge to build from scrap.[2]

[0] <http://www.ak-47.us/build/Matt_Screw_Build.php> [1] I'm searching the
ar15.com archives for the pictures, will edit in soon [2]
<http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/>

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sukuriant
You've been downvoted and at first I couldn't figure out a good reason why;
but...

Technically, it does take more work now than it would with a 3d printer. With
a sufficiently advanced 3d printer, it'd probably be, download p3f (printable
3d format), open cad, click print. For you, it's probably: mill steel, inserts
screws, twist screws... this is more work than a couple keystrokes and a
mouse-click, technically.

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archgoon
I'd say there's a significant difference between ordering gun parts (which can
potentially be tracked by law enforcement) and ordering raw materials that can
only incidentally be used for guns.

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sukuriant
You can create a gun from raw materials. (c.f. weapons created inside of
prisons)
[http://www.correctionsone.com/contraband/articles/1961780-15...](http://www.correctionsone.com/contraband/articles/1961780-15-deadly-
improvised-prison-weapons-and-tools/)

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Claudus
3D Printing is going to have numerous challenges for humanity to face as it
becomes more and more mainstream...

A 3D printer in every home?

    
    
      - The first virus that prints dangerous / obscene objects
      - The toy industry facing the same challenges are MPAA/RIAA
      - Printable lenses for eye glasses, contacts, cameras
      - Printing keys for any lock
      - Printable press plates for counterfeiting currency
      - etc.

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Zak
Printable lenses seem like a good thing. I don't think the others are serious
concerns:

An object that is dangerous just sitting inside a 3D printer seems unlikely in
the near future. It would be very difficult to print something that has stored
mechanical or chemical energy. Even printing something that's sharp would be a
challenge. Obscene objects are not really more problematic than subjecting
unwilling viewers to on-screen pornography.

The toy industry exploits peer pressure in children to make parents buy
overpriced junk. It deserves to be disrupted.

Printing keys is not likely to be a significant attack vector. Most keyed
locks can be easily defeated with picks or bump keys, and new keys require
only a file to manufacture today. A grinder or Dremel tool makes it as quick
as a 3D printer would be. Getting a good image of the key to be copied is a
bigger challenge than being able to make a new key of any shape.

Printing plates are not the most significant barrier to counterfeiting modern
banknotes. Other security features are harder to duplicate, and a 3D printer
is unlikely to help.

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Zak
This isn't really a significant development. Building serviceable firearms
isn't especially difficult and hasn't been for a long time. See
<http://improguns.blogspot.com/> for some examples.

Ammunition is also fairly easy to make. Anyone with enough knowledge of
chemistry to manufacture methamphetamine could also manufacture viable
propellants and priming compounds. Casting and machining brass for cartridge
cases is fairly easy. Casting lead bullets is even easier.

There's no practical way to keep this stuff out of the hands of criminals if
there's a demand for it.

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rdl
Making reasonable primers (which would work in conventional firearms, and be
sufficiently insensitive to heat and shock) is more difficult than you might
think. That's by far the hardest part of the whole process; powder is the
second hardest. Ammunition assembly is trivial (you can buy home reloading
equipment) re-use brass or manufacture brass, and make lead or solid-copper
bullets, make firearms, etc. all using home tools otherwise. Barrels are the
most difficult part of the actual firearm.

You could absolutely make a firearm which was much easier to build at home,
including ammunition (BP and some kind of shotgun or grease gun open-bolt
machine gun).

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curt
The really interesting part if I understand the recent Supreme Court rulings
is that Federal Law would no longer apply to those firearms since they
regulate commerce between the states. Since it would be built all within the
state (Montana past a similar law) the Federal Government can no longer place
any limits on those firearms.

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donavanm
Eh, pretty sure ICC is still being used on anything that could effect
interstate commerce. See asinine backyard wheat ruling from just a few back.

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callmeed
I'm curious if 3D printed guns will be easier to get through airport/other
security. Could one be printed with minimal metal parts (save ammunition)?

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praptak
I see two possible problems with a 100% plastic gun. The barrel not being
strong enough to withstand the pressure & temperature is already mentioned
elsewhere in the comments.

Another one is mass. A plastic gun will be very lightweight, so the only mass
to absorb the recoil impact is your hand. This might hurt.

~~~
greyfade
You presume that relatively soft plastics are the only things you can print.

Remember that there are strong ceramics and metal alloys that can be easily
powder-printed or laser-sintered. There are also strong plastics and epoxies
that can be produced through various curing processes that can be performed on
the same level of detail as other printing techniques.

And I can imagine a gun design where a disposable/replaceable receiver and/or
barrel can be designed out of weak materials and mass-produced.

You also presume that recoil impact will hurt your hand. There exist a number
of gun designs that minimize recoil impact by increasing the motion of the gun
or relocate/reorient the barrel to minimize the motion of the gun. See, for
example, any women's purse pistol, palm pistols, or a Rhino revolver.

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vhf
I can't wait for someone to release a virus hitting these 3D printers, hacking
them to print and detonate a fragmentation grenade whenever his owner tries to
print a gun.

3D printing era will be fun, that's for sure.

