Posted on 09/09/2012 11:46:34 AM PDT by AnonymousConservative
Welcome to the dark side of 3D printing.
The hobby is best known for creating colorful toys and trinkets, but some enthusiasts are working on design files that would allow anyone to print a working gun. These don't exist yet, but some believe it's only a matter of time
Why would a 3D-printed gun be appealing? For one, it could potentially be cheap. You can buy a preassembled 3D printer for about $500. A spool of ABS plastic to print with goes for $50.
In fact, plans for working gun parts already exist. They can be found on a site called Thingiverse and on similar sites, alongside thousands of free plans for toys, jewelry, tools, and design equipment
In June, Michael "HaveBlue" Guslick reported on his blog about successfully test-firing a homemade gun whose key component, the lower receiver, he made from ABS plastic on a '90s-era Stratasys FDM 1600 3D printer.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
More on the Wiki Weapons Project here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2922376/posts
I can’t wait for the day
3d printer control NOW!
Possession of the 3D printer plans for the action of a fire arm will require a FFL.
I can already tell you:
If you use a 3D printer to print up a milspec M16 receiver with the sear hole in place, they're going to call it an unregistered machine gun unless you're a BATFE-licensed Class 2/7 with a paid Special Operational Tax (SOT).
A SolidWorks .DXF file of an M16 receiver, a 3D Printer, and a bunch of ABS plastic isn't going to constitute constructive possession. Actually printing a 100% milspec stripped lower M16 receiver is the violation. All it has to do is fire more than one round per pull of the trigger even if the ATF Tech Branch has to insert real M16 parts inside the bare receiver and then mount a genuine M16/AR15 barreled upper receiver on your 3D printed lower.
Now if it's just a 'Title 1' gun -- an ordinary semi-auto rifle or pistol you're printing up with your 3D printer, that's already legal in just about all states. It's already legal to build your own homemade firearm out of steel or snot, or wood, hewn from stone, or cast from bronze. etc.
Printing up a grenade body or pipe bomb is going to be an unregistered Destructive Device unless you have a Class 10/SOT license (and the ATF-approved storage magazine for explosives, among other things).
Oh Yeah! Now there are 3D printers that make 4140 steel parts? How about just printing a car? With supercharger. Cool.
Uh, Mr. Liberal Pantywaist, sir? What's inherently "dark" about guns? That it's dangerous to your and your butt buddies' hopes of tyranny in America? What?
Uh, Mr. Liberal Pantywaist, sir? What's inherently "dark" about guns? That it's dangerous to your and your butt buddies' hopes of tyranny in America? What?
Now, where did i put those spec drawings of the flux capacitor?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.