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First 3-D-printed gun fired, but its digital blueprints make bigger bang
NBC News ^ | Helen A.S. Popkin | Helen A.S. Popkin

Posted on 05/06/2013 4:57:42 PM PDT by Libloather

With a shot heard round the Internet, the first known 3-D printed gun is a reality. But the bigger ruckus comes from the gun's digital blueprints, now available for free download by any shooters who want to build their own.

Cody Wilson, the polemic face of the not-for-profit 3-D gunsmith Defense Distributed, fired the organization's latest prototype at the opening of a 28-second video posted on YouTube Friday. "The Liberator," as the weapon is provocatively titled, is a 16-piece firearm made almost entirely of ABS plastic, with a metal firing pin and an embedded metal shank meant to provide enough metal mass to comply with the 1988 U.S. Undetectable Firearms Act.

Blue and white, and bearing more than a passing resemblance to a Star Trek phaser, the .380-caliber pistol fires with a single "pop" in Wilson's hands. Apparently, the design works, though this version was rendered unusable after firing six rounds.

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


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; blueprints; digital; gun; guncontrol; secondamendment
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Pretty kewl.


1 posted on 05/06/2013 4:57:42 PM PDT by Libloather
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To: Libloather

> ...gun’s digital blueprints, now available for free download...

Where, where?


2 posted on 05/06/2013 5:01:36 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Libloather

is it an auto, single-shot, or must the slide be racked for each shot?


3 posted on 05/06/2013 5:02:33 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Libloather

THIS is why lezbo is going after the ammo now, instead of the guns.


4 posted on 05/06/2013 5:03:31 PM PDT by gaijin
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To: Libloather

Anything that rattles Chuckie Schumer’s cage is worth doing again!


5 posted on 05/06/2013 5:03:43 PM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: Libloather
Industrial-level 3-D printers currently capable of producing "The Liberator" can cost upwards of $10,000, and require some training to operate.

I don't know if it's "industrial-level" or not, but my son's tech school has at least one, for mechanical design classes.

I would think that Kinko's and such places would have them, so that you can go in with a thumb drive containing the blueprints of whatever you dream up, and come out with a whatever.

6 posted on 05/06/2013 5:06:45 PM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
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To: gaijin

The ammo cottage industry will grow by leaps and bounds.


7 posted on 05/06/2013 5:08:18 PM PDT by Jyotishi (Seeking the truth, a fact at a time.)
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To: Izzy Dunne
I think Staples has a couple of pilot stores set up with them. Just not here in the US, though.

/johnny

8 posted on 05/06/2013 5:22:24 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: gaijin
Not possible to print usable bullets?
9 posted on 05/06/2013 5:26:23 PM PDT by bramps (Sarah Palin got more votes in 2008 than Mitt Romney got in 2012)
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To: Libloather

Socialists have long sought control over the means of production in order to make them available to each according to his need. Now that anyone can have the “means of production” to make anything they please, the socialists
will now attempt to forbid them from producing things that socialists don’t approve of. This shows that seizing the means of production was never the end goal of socialism, but seizing control of society itself.


10 posted on 05/06/2013 5:28:12 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Jyotishi

Defense Distributed page for this printable firearm:
http://defcad.org/liberator/


11 posted on 05/06/2013 5:29:06 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
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To: Libloather

I saw a photo of that 3-D printed gun, and it looks like a cheap plastic toy. And from what I have researched, the whole thing is held together with some snap-ins, some glue and one metal screw. No thank you. I would rather trust my life to a regular shootin’ iron made of steel and other reliable metals.


12 posted on 05/06/2013 5:30:29 PM PDT by jespasinthru (Proud member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.)
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To: bramps
That would take a re-think and re-design of ammo. Like caseless ammo, and it had problems back when it was tried in military weapons. Of course, materials technology has matured since then.

Folks are thinking about it, rest assured. Including a certain cook. The cool thing about open-source projects is that no-one cares who you are, if your idea works. Degrees not required. ;)

/johnny

13 posted on 05/06/2013 5:31:34 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: jespasinthru

Point is not that the gun is good, or even safe.
Doubtless someone will make a better design, someday, but even so its not necessary for this to be significant.

The political point it the important one - that its possible to make a gun this way.

If 3D printers become common, the whole idea of gun control will be moot. They cannot at that point be effectively banned, or even controlled.


14 posted on 05/06/2013 5:35:43 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: Jyotishi

I’m not a gun guy. But I’m still very pro 2nd Amendment. I’m convinced that the population needs to be armed both for it’s own protection day to day and ultimately as a defense against a tyrannical Government. I think Obama and friends certainly agree with the second of those reasons since it is Obama himself who is in charge of a wannabe tyrannical Government.

And I’ve watched the evolution of 3D printing and, in particular, the Print Your Own Gun projects.

I’m curious. How hard is it to make your own ammo? And, assuming it’s not that hard, what will the Government start buying up next?


15 posted on 05/06/2013 5:40:14 PM PDT by InterceptPoint (If I had a tag line this is where you would find it)
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To: jespasinthru
Modern engineered plastics are not the cheap and flimsy plastics you are thinking about. There are some out there that are strong as steel.

/johnny

16 posted on 05/06/2013 5:41:18 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Libloather

Wait until someone comes out with a 3D Gatling gun! Watch lib and ATF heads spin like that’s cent in “the exorcist”. Then you’ll see the nazis come out in force...with predictable results.


17 posted on 05/06/2013 5:45:42 PM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: InterceptPoint

Ammo is much harder.
Though cases can certainly be made of plastic. I had some .38 reloadable plastic cases for my revolver in the 1970’s, that would fire plastic target bullets using either just primers or small charges; I did try it once with a lead bullet and it did work.
The problem, is chemistry.
A state that controlled ammo would doubtless control primers and propellants.
These would have to be made, and the problem there is chemistry, not fabrication. There’s no “printer” of molecules.


18 posted on 05/06/2013 5:47:08 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: Caipirabob
Actually, at the Federal level, gatling guns made pre 1900 design are legal to make. There are lots of plans out there for machinists.

Cannons are also legal. I've got an uncle that used to build them. He was part of a club that built them and shot them a couple of times a year.

/johnny

19 posted on 05/06/2013 5:49:14 PM PDT by JRandomFreeper (Gone Galt)
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To: Libloather

with a metal firing pin and an embedded metal shank
***Shank? What exactly is a shank?

http://www.google.com/#output=search&sclient=psy-ab&q=shank&oq=shank&gs_l=hp.3..0j0i46j46l3j0l2.14061.15961.0.16279.5.5.0.0.0.0.367.1133.2-3j1.4.0...0.0...1c.1.12.psy-ab.b_KxDYeX4mY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.46226182,d.cGE&fp=feb58d80aebd244e&biw=646&bih=615


20 posted on 05/06/2013 5:53:46 PM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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