FYI: Is It Legal To 3-D Print A Handgun?

Earlier this week, the Wiki Weapons Project--an initiative to create a 3-D printed handgun and distribute the digital design file for free online--ran into a stumbling block when 3-D printer provider Stratasys pulled the lease on a printer it had provided the group. Stratasys cited a clause in the lease agreement that allows the company to rescind a lease for printers believed to be used for unlawful purposes. That raises the obvious (and thorny) question: Is the Wiki Weapons Project doing anything illegal?

We at PopSci are experts on many things, but federal firearms regulations and intellectual property law are not among them. As we understand it, one is required to obtain a federal firearms manufacturing license to produce firearms in this country--if those firearms are for sale. The Wiki Weapons Project has demonstrated no intention to sell any potential firearm it creates, but rather to create a freely distributed digital file that would allow anyone with the right hardware and know-how to print their own firearm.

And the law doesn't have much to say about that, not explicitly, anyway. Regardless of your personal feelings toward the Wiki Weapons Project, it is at the very least forcing us to take a look at what happens in a world where information (which wants to be free) can be easily converted into physical objects--many of which (like firearms) are not supposed to flow freely.

“This raises lots of interesting questions,” says Michael Weinberg, a staff attorney at Public Knowledge, a legal consortium focused on digital technology, the internet and intellectual property. “There are going to be a lot of stories in the future about people doing interesting things and uninteresting things with 3-D printing. The question people need to ask themselves is: was this possible before 3-D printing?

What material would you like?

http://objet.com/3d-printing-materials
Clear, opaque, ridged, rubbery, biocompatible, high temperature.

http://www.shapeways.com/materials/
Aluminum filled nylon, plastics, sterling silver, Stainless steel, Gypsum (Plaster of Paris), Ceramics (Food grade, no less!), glass.

http://production3dprinters.com/slm/spro125-direct-metal-slm-production-printer
Choose from a large range of metal alloys, including aluminum and titanium.

You can even make stuff out of corn starch or sugar...

“Wow! You’ve actually read that?

You must be OOOOOOLD!”

I know you’re being sarcastic, but FU anyway. :>)

FYI, I didn’t buy it fresh off the press, but got it from a used book store (oh, I know, going to a bookstore = OLDDDD!). Chronologically 51, emotionally about 17 (just ask my wife).

Take care.

Do you guys know the story of The Weapon Shops of Isher?

Alan E. Van Vogt was a Canadian born writer. The book was written shortly after the first Canadian attempt to force long gun owners into a firearms registry. The Canadians revolted (peaceably, as Canadians do) and the first long gun registry attempt was destroyed.

The Canadians are now working on finishing off the second attempt. Yes, I got a lot of questions about the name, and kept a copy of the book available to answer them. A few people understood the literary reference.

Metallic printing:

Yes, there’s a LOT of work being done on this. The reason is money. Think about this for a moment: As material costs go up (thanks to Bernanke turning the dollar into the value of a popcorn fart), it behooves any manufacturing company to use only the metal they need to make a widget, rather than get a larger block of casting of said metal and machine away what they don’t need - and then try to reclaim the chips as scrap. Additive machining gets your economics working in this direction. It is the reason why MIM took off in gun manufacturing in the late 90’s. Look inside a modern S&W revolver, and most of the lockwork you see in there was MIM’ed. The flat springs are still spring steel.

Ruger went sort of down this road a long time ago with their investment casting.

Damascus barrels:

Actually, if you go back and read WW Greener’s book on shotguns, you’d find out that some Damascus barrels exceeded the capabilities of “fluid steel” (as it was called then) in barrels in handling proof loads.

The dirty little secret is that many American shotgun manufactures used no-name Belgian damascus barrels, produced cheaply in Liege for the US gun market. The highest end (”best”) US shotguns (Parker, high-end LC Smith) had much better quality damascus barrels, and the “best gun” London/Birmingham guns and German (Suhl) guns can handle moderate modern loads as long as they’re inspected before use. RST makes shotshells for these guns. Another issue with the older Damascus guns is that they often have 2 1/2 inch chambers, NOT 2 3/4 inch chambers. Put a 2 3/4 shell into a 2 1/2 inch chamber, and you get very high pressures due to the constriction of the shell mouth into the bore. That’s true for fluid steel barrels too. All 16 gauge shotguns should have their chambers inspected and verified because so many of them produced will have shorter chambers than modern shells, even in “fluid steel.”

I learned a lot about damascus barrels this year. It’s incredibly interesting stuff. Here’s a site where you can see some of the beauty that was damascus steel:

http://www.damascus-barrels.com/Image_barrels.html

And a pointer to RST:

http://www.rstshells.com/

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