A lot of folks on this thread have commented that printing a lower, let alone a full working firearm, would be very, very difficult/impossible, due to the lack of strong enough metal.
OK, me not being an engineer, I might buy that.
But the central theme here is that a 3-D printer provides for more freedom, particularly as related to the firearm issue. I **DO** agree, and here’s why:
First, I am willing to bet that magazines can be printed. That rips the guts out of any magazine ban.
Second, many of the gun grabbers have proposed eliminating ammo. Well, let’s see: I’ll bet that brass cases can be printed, and primer cups and anvils as well. Bullets for sure, but we can always cast them anyway (that’s old technology, and even if lead is banned then one could melt down pre-1982 pennies, which are 95% copper and 5% zinc). Yes, melting down U.S. cents is illegal, but so is printing a gun - proceed at your own risk.
Third, while I don’t think that smokeless powder can be printed, it is quite possible to print the components of a small-scale machine to produce it. Anyhow, as others have brought out here and elsewhere, you just need a reliable single-shot to be able to obtain more modern weapons that you don’t have to manufacture or print.
Fourth, I would imagine that literally every piece of reloading equipment that one could think of could be printed, so if they try to ban/confiscate that, 3-D printers could ride to the rescue.
Fifth, there are a lot of other things that can also be printed - think grenades (sans the powder - which can be made without too much trouble, as it just has to explode, not meter well as with a reloading set-up). Also think about various black-powder guns (assuming that “they” outlaw those also)... I seem to remember quite a lot of people being killed with those over the last few centuries.
FYI, I don’t know why everyone is so high on the Liberator. A weapon with a storied history, no doubt, but if you’re talking about printing a weapon from the past that’s easy to make, what about the Sten gun? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten I seem to remember reading that they cost something like $6.00 to manufacture back then - so maybe its $100 worth of parts now?
http://www.milsurps.com/content.php?r=422-Blueprints-for-The-STEN-MKII-(complete-machine-plans)
I am very, very happy about the maturing of this technology, as it is quite liberating. Remember the quote from The Weapon Shops of Isher by A.E. Van Vogt: ‘The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.’ With this technology, the only way TPTB could stop the production of weapons by civilians would be to shut off the delivery of electricity TO EVERYONE...and even then, there are enough ways to produce electricity that such an act won’t work in the long run. We humans are a mere few steps away from being able to be free of dictatorships - if this technology spreads, and I have little doubt that it will.
Of course, all the usual multi-lettered federal agencies should understand that I don’t advocate any illegal acts. This entire post is merely a theoretical academic discussion, still protected under the 1st Amendment.
Yep and then the gub'ment bans sales of ammo and or primers and powder to individuals.
(can't print ammo)
It is cool tech, but anybody who’d pop off a round in a receiver printed on an HP deserves to get his head blown off!
;-)