time has come today...
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 ...
/johnny
Got it. But that doesn’t answer the question of what a metal shank is... In prison, it means a self-made knife, for killing other prisoners. What definition is this article proceeding from? Why didn’t they use a different, less evocative term, other than to paint this whole enterprise as extremist?
/johnny
extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice
~Barry Goldwater
A shank is:
1. The narrow part of the sole of a shoe under the instep.
2. A piece of material, such as metal, that is used to reinforce or shape this part of a shoe.
Not having any other ready sources of metal, prisoners would remove this part of the shoe and sharpen an edge or point on it.
time has come today...
So the article is proceeding from the definition of shank as “a piece of shoe”? Doubtful. More likely is the loaded definition so they can continue to feed biased perceptions on this issue.
The dictionary lists 23 other definitions. Pick one that pleases you.
Relax. "Shank" is the everyday word for the narrow part of a tool between the handle and the head.
I would imagine that the builder of the gun might have named the part himself. Someone capable of building a gun from scratch likely knows a little something about tools.
Pass the popcorn!
If its a one shot disposable weapon then skip the process of actually using a bullet, instead the housing itself is the cartridge, propellant, primer and projectile.
Think gun shaped bullet, one shot, throw away. Yes there is a projectile thats fired from the whole unit.
Too much effort to make a doilie looking device, hell make it look like a potato.
Thanks. Tens of thousands must have been printed by now.
It’s a fricking zip gun!
Shank is the term used when a metal strip is put into the soles of boots to reinforce it also. Think the use here is closer to that.
If the time ever came that I was so desperate that I had to fabricate a weapon, a fine and usable 12-gauge single-shot can be made from a metal pipe and a piece of wood. Not elegant, but durable.
Sure, but if you should have to make, oh, a thousand or so...can’t imagine why anyone ever would...I mean, who would ever want a thousand temporary guns? Well, except for a thousand people without them, that is...
Folks in nations and states who have extreme restrictions placed on them to obtain a self defense weapon would probably be very thankful for the opportunity to have this in lieu of nothing.
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