May.5, 2013
Defense Distributed showed off world's first entirely 3D printed gun last Friday and annouced its plan to publish the blueprints for "The Liberator" on its blueprints archive Defcad.org this week.
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said this morning at a news conference in his Manhattan office that "this gun can fire regular bullets, and can accept silencers and other attachments," as he called for legislation to make building a gun using a 3D printer to be illegal.
The 3D printed gun is a small pistol-like weapon made of sixteen plastic pieces, with the exception of a single nail that's used as a firing pin, as well as something detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. But not all Defcad's users that print out the design would adhere to so many rules - they could easily replace that part with plastic.
"A terrorist, someone who's mentally ill, a spousal abuser, a felon can essentially open a gun factory in their garage," said Schumer.
Schumer wants to renew a ban on undetectable weapons that will expire at the end of the year. The bill was drafted by Congressman Steve Israel.
Steve Israel said last week in a press release that "Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print their own plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser."
Schumer said that he would be supporting legislation to make it a crime to produce such a weapon, as well as to produce high-capacity magazines and other gun parts.
It costs just $1,000 to buy a 3D printer, Schumer said he has no problem with the 3D printers. "It's an extraordinary technology" he added. But "there are a number of actors looking to use it for scary purposes. And that's what we have to stop."
Images / via: CBS News
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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First they worry about 30 round magazines, and so they try to reduce the number of rounds. Now they're worried about a single shot gun. Soon they'll be focusing on the rounds.
Ticked wrote at 5/7/2013 12:26:16 AM:
The 3d printer this was made with costs a bit less than a small home. It would be cheaper to just buy a gun.
BK wrote at 5/6/2013 8:35:36 AM:
How do you even explain things to people this removed from reality? It would be cheaper and not much more difficult to build a conventional gun factory in a garage. They do it all the time in Australia and the UK. What this really sounds like to me is an excuse labeled in a way people are more willing to except to begin establishing a precedent for dictating what people can use their 3D printers to create, and this will eventually lead to laws designed to interfere with individuals producing goods for personal use of a much less lethal nature. Mark my word, some day there will be a 3D printing version of SOPA, and this undetectable firearms acts will be what they point to as the precedent for it. Because, the only way to enforce this will be to create a new governmental power that lets them prosecute people for possessing or distributing CAD drawings, which becomes an opening for things that would make SOPA look like nothing.
Elvis Presley wrote at 5/6/2013 8:33:34 AM:
hey! I have a thought! Why don't we ban politicians who want to create crazy stupid laws that require a police state to enforce? Nah, probably wouldn't work any better than those 20,000 gun laws (including gun BANS!) that somehow still consistently fail to protect un-armed law-abiding victims from nuts with guns!
CornGolem wrote at 5/6/2013 8:12:42 AM:
What if DEFCAD was part of the scheme to take away the right of owning firearms...
tsalagi wrote at 5/6/2013 8:05:37 AM:
Just how does Chuckie propose to enforce his law?
Eldrich wrote at 5/6/2013 7:33:32 AM:
There's always an idiot who manages to overlook that metal detectors have no trouble detecting ammunition. But hey, it's good political theater for the Blue states.
JD90 wrote at 5/6/2013 3:36:04 AM:
You can machine a gun faster, and it would be more durable and reliable. Old machines can be bought for scrap value of the metal it contains. The only difference here is that a plastic gun is nearly impossible to detect, but very few buildings have metal detectors.
Proteus wrote at 5/6/2013 12:08:00 AM:
Oh yeah, so the terrorists and spousal abusers will follow these laws? LOGIC FTW!