Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

This Is The World's First Entirely 3D-Printed Gun (Photos)
Forbes ^ | 5/03/2013 @ 7:00AM | Andy Greenberg

Posted on 05/03/2013 12:17:28 PM PDT by null and void


The 3D-printed gun that Cody Wilson calls the "Liberator."

Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.

Now he has.

Early next week [the] founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,”

All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS plastic, [except] a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.

Technically, Defense Distributed’s gun has one other non-printed component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.

Since it was founded last August, Wilson’s group has sought to make as many components of a gun as possible into printable blueprints and to host those controversial files online, thwarting gun laws and blurring the lines between the regulation of firearms and information censorship.

Stay tuned for more. In the mean time, here’s another photo of Defense Distributed’s prototype.

Congressman Steve Israel issued a press release Friday responding to this story: “Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” his statement reads. “When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now to extend the ban [on] plastic firearms.”

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 3dprinting; banglist; cody; defense; distributed; gun; guncontrol; liberator; obama; plastic; print; printed; secondamendment; wilson
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last
To: null and void

That’s not a gun, that’s a hand grenade. There is no way that plastic is going to hold the pressures of a real centerfire pistol round.

The best they might manage is a one-shot device that destroys itself without harming the user.


41 posted on 05/03/2013 1:08:05 PM PDT by MikeJ
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN
"...including backpacks were rummaged through for valuables by TSA agents."

Ban black backpacks. Only allow see-through backpacks...

42 posted on 05/03/2013 1:08:31 PM PDT by hummingbird (So much conspiracy and not enough time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: null and void
I would think it possible to make plastic casings and bullets too, at least with a fair bit of carbon fiber. Graphite lined barrel? Interesting.

Do TSA scanners pick up graphite?

43 posted on 05/03/2013 1:09:54 PM PDT by Carry_Okie (An economy is not a zero-sum game, but politics usually is.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: kingu
"That’ll be the government’s take on it, rather than simply: The people have debated the 2nd Amendment, and the 2nd won."

BTTT.

44 posted on 05/03/2013 1:11:05 PM PDT by hummingbird (So much conspiracy and not enough time.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: The_Media_never_lie
"Not everyone should be allowed nude in public."

So you're saying we would just be trading one form of terrorism for another.

45 posted on 05/03/2013 1:12:54 PM PDT by DannyTN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum

The broken trigger suggests that the designer was a CAD commando, obsessed with extrusions, volumes of revolution, splined curves, and constructive solid geometry, but spent his time napping during strengths of materials class.


46 posted on 05/03/2013 1:20:21 PM PDT by SpaceBar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: null and void

They’ll be push to outlaw cad soon.


47 posted on 05/03/2013 1:23:04 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mylife

The WW II Liberator was designed to fire a .45ACP shot into someone’s head, after which the shooter would take the victim’s full-featured gun.


48 posted on 05/03/2013 1:23:55 PM PDT by pabianice
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: DannyTN
As the sayin' goes..  photo What_Has_Been_Seen_Cant_Be_Unseen_Wallpaper_464rz_zpsc272d013.jpg
49 posted on 05/03/2013 1:25:27 PM PDT by Quickgun (I got here kicking,screaming and covered in someone else's blood. I can go out that way if I have to)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: Usually_Disappointed

The scary thing here, is that a single bullet starts to get into false alarm territory. People don’t like false alarms (turn the sensitivity down...!) or having to explain their implants (a LOT of people have some kind of metal part).


50 posted on 05/03/2013 1:26:49 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is v?ery late in the day.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: MrB

You can drop a gun in acid and it’s gone.

You can drop a plastic gun in an acid and it’s gone.

It’s not like this can’t be done now or that it’s a novel idea.


51 posted on 05/03/2013 1:26:50 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: mylife

RE Liberator:

Any gun gets you a better gun.


52 posted on 05/03/2013 1:27:31 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

Given this is “House”, the kicker should be “When you’re an a$$hole and you have to deal with stupid people.”


53 posted on 05/03/2013 1:29:55 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: NFHale

True.


54 posted on 05/03/2013 1:31:09 PM PDT by mylife (Opinions $1, Half Baked Ideas 50c)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: ryan71
Well that won’t hold back the federales.

Did the Afghanis go force-on-force against the Soviets?

Did the Vietcong start off engaging in set-piece battles against us?

55 posted on 05/03/2013 1:50:07 PM PDT by null and void ("Och, aye 'twas a huge beastie the shape of a haggis but the size o' the football pitch at Dunkeld!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: E. Pluribus Unum
Is that a broken trigger?

Sure looks like it...

56 posted on 05/03/2013 1:53:38 PM PDT by null and void ("Och, aye 'twas a huge beastie the shape of a haggis but the size o' the football pitch at Dunkeld!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: MikeJ; All

It is only meant to fire a few times. I am pretty sure it will do that.

I believe the base model is in .22, but many centerfire cartridges have lower pressures.

They could use .32 S&W or .38 S&W. Both are still available.

Heck, they might be *more* available than .22 at the moment!


57 posted on 05/03/2013 2:41:54 PM PDT by marktwain (The MSM must die for the Republic to live. Long live the new media!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: kingu
And now we have the justification required for TSA in bus stations, train stations, subway stations, . . .

Which is why they made it a "T" for Transportation instead of "A" for Airport. That allows them on highway checkpoints at some time in the future - if it hasn't already happened. They slid that one by without anybody raising the alarm of "Bureaucracy Creep".

58 posted on 05/03/2013 2:53:56 PM PDT by Oatka (This is America. Assimilate or evaporate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: GraceG

59 posted on 05/03/2013 3:45:53 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (The monsters are due on Maple Street)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: null and void

Not with that plastic gun.


60 posted on 05/03/2013 5:10:20 PM PDT by ryan71 (The republican party is dead to me. Dead. Don't bother trying to revive it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson