Make Your Own Gun—Just What America Needs
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The United States is awash in guns. There are, by various estimates, anywhere from 270 million to 310 million guns in the United States — close to one firearm for every man, woman, and child. But in point of fact, only a minority of Americans own guns. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in February found that 37% of households had an adult who owned a gun — 24% said they owned a gun, and 13% said someone else in their household did.
Now, thanks to a confused government, and no doubt lots of encouragement from the NRA, it may soon become easier, much easier, for everyone to acquire a gun, simply by turning on their 3-D printer. Here’s the summary from Newser:
The US government has recently settled a case and it’s a win for gun rights advocates who want Americans to be able to print plastic firearms in their own homes. Per CNN, a case filed by a man named Cody Wilson in 2013 sought to secure his right to post plans online for a gun made almost entirely out of plastic that can be created using a home 3-D printing device. Wilson sued after the US State Department told him to take down the plans that year. After back-and-forth dating back to the Obama administration, Wilson was reportedly told recently that the US government has dropped its case and will even pay some of Wilson’s legal expenses.
As a result of the decision, the plans Wilson created and posted online for anyone with a 3-D printer to use will be legal for Americans to download starting next month. As the BBC notes, Wilson’s company, Defense Distributed, has announced the plans will be back on their site starting promptly August 1. “The age of the downloadable gun formally begins,” the announcement reads. Critics say they fear the increasing accessibility of home printers will only make unlicensed gun ownership easier and easier. Wilson, who identifies as a “crypto-anarchist,” says the technology hasn’t reached that point yet but welcomes the day when it does. “It’s still out of reach for them,” he said of most home 3-D printing enthusiasts. “We’ll get to watch it all develop.”
Yes. This is all America needs. More guns, untraceable, and impossible to control. I’ve no words.
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These printers have been around and affordable for quite a while, yet we’re not seeing these things because it’s so much easier and cheaper to get a real one that actually works. Look at the links in my comment above.
An all plastic printed gun isn’t likely to work anyway. You still need metal parts otherwise you’ll blow your hand off. Have you heard of one used in a crime outside of a movie? I just don’t see homemade guns as something to worry about.
Presumably anyone in the world with a 3d printer will be able to download a plastic gun???
Oh eck…even me????? 😜
Hell, it is only a matter of time until people start killing each other over politics anyway so let’s just speed up the process.
I certainly would help reduce the surplus population. The elect could wait it out in underground bunkers
A solution could be found on the Bizarro World of Htrae. The democrats would propose a bill legalizing every type of firearm to anyone without background checks. Republicans would throw a fit and ban all weapons forever.
As I’ve pointed out many times in many places, printing a gun is the worst way to produce one that actually works. It appears to be legal for an individual to make a firearm and there are many ways to do that.
I’ve talked about these kits that allow you to make the part of a semi-automatic that requires a serial number and that part you have to buy according to the law. It’s usually called the receiver, as many of you know quite well. You can legally buy the other parts, new or used as “repair parts” without restriction through the mails, or perhaps you have a stolen one where you need to get rid of the part with the number. . .
Just yesterday, I saw in a catalog, a kit that supplies a barrel and a firing pin enabling you to make a functional .410 shotgun using pipe nipples and elbows you can buy at the hardware store. Yes, it looks really stupid but who cares if you intend to use it in a murder?
All in all, printing a gun is far more expensive, and produces a truly inferior weapon. Is plastic a big advantage? hardly and most need some metal parts anyway – keep in mind many modern pistols use plastic receivers and other parts already and they sure do show up on an X-ray and plastic shows up well on airport scanners.
And then it’s quite legal for anybody, even someone who can’t pass a background check to buy a percussion weapon. Don’t laugh, Civil War revolver reproductions are very available as well as modern hunting rifles and the ATF doesn’t consider them firearms for most purposes. And they work well. I have had three of them for many years and used to enjoy shooting them when I had a farm. They are quite reliable and quite deadly.
And of course if one has access to a computerized (CNC) milling machine, you can simply put in a block of steel, upload the program and you will produce a gun that needs only minor work to assemble and use. In fact that’s how they are made at the factory. It’s not hard to find someone with such equipment.
What’s my point? A determined and knowledgeable person can own a gun despite most gun control laws and so no single or simple solution will completely control such things. It’s a very complex problem yet pro- and anti gun groups don’t like complexity – and what would they do after all if the problem was really solved?
I was shocked by these kits, but not surprised. Only in America.