Posted on 05/07/2013 10:08:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
A New York Democrat wants to revise gun laws to encompass a downloadable plastic gun produced on a 3-D printer.
On Friday, Defense Distributed premiered its plastic firearm with only one small necessary metal part: the firing pin.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) wants to pour water on this invention with his Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, which extends a 1988 ban on plastic guns that expires this year and extends it to include homemade, plastic high-capacity magazines and receivers. The piece of metal in the downloadable gun, which allows it to be spotted by metal detectors, keeps it within current law.
“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. 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 appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms,” Israel said.
Israel “revamped” his bill to make it “illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy, or sell any firearm, receiver, or magazine that is homemade and not detectable by metal detector and/or does not present an accurate image when put through an x-ray machine.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was so alarmed by Friday’s demonstration video of the downloadable gun that he called a Sunday news conference to jump on board Israel’s bill.
“We’re facing a situation where anyone — a felon, a terrorist — can open a gun factory in their garage, and the weapons they make will be undetectable,” Schumer said. “It’s stomach churning.”
The senator clarified he doesn’t want to ban 3-D printers outright.
See update on next page.
UPDATE: On CNBC today, Schumer said “at the very least” Congress needs to make it “a crime to have such a gun.”
#8220;If the police see you carrying one on the street, they’ll know it’s a crime. If anybody sees you doing it, they’ll know it’s a crime,” he said. “What we should do beyond that, I don’t know. I mean, obviously there are First Amendment issues. We’ve had this issue about bombs being put on the Internet in the past. And obviously someone could go overseas and put something on the Internet where our laws don’t govern.”
“But we have to do more than just make it a crime. I agree with that, mindful of the various constitutional and other types of constraints,” the senator continued. “And I don’t want to abolish these printers, that’s for sure, because I think by and large they do good things.”
Schumer said Congress has to investigate all ways in which guns can be made and regulate them.
“Everyone saw that John Malkovich movie, In the Line of Fire. It was a frightening movie. He spent months and months and months trying to craft a gun made of wood and plastic and figuring out a way,” he said.
“Obviously, you still have to deal with the bullets, but they could be put in a metal casing that could get through a metal detector without it ever being revealed there — a bullet. But he spent months doing this so he could assassinate the president, and the movie was frightening. He was one of the best bad guys I’ve ever seen in a movie. But now it’s real. And that’s — that’s much more frightening.”
PJM FLASHBACK: Gutenberg’s Rifle: The Downloadable Firearm Is Almost Real
So this is how they’re going to do gun control? They’re going to rush through legislation to ban 3D gun manufacturing, fill it with massive gun control legislation, likely the same as proposed last month, and they’ll pass it as “common sense” in the dark of night.
Stomach churning indeed.
The funny thing is that these morons don’t even realize that if one “opts out” of the TSA body-scanners, on never even goes through a metal detector. One could have cartridges and a gun barrel easily secreted in a body cavity, and this would never be detected by the pat-down.
The new naked body scanners (some X-ray, some high-frequency microwave) actually make flying LESS secure.
Too late. It’s gone viral.
Sorry. You can’t block this without blocking all 3-d printing. Furthermore, if you try to block the CAD files, they’ll just be put on an offshore server.
This perfectly illustrates the fanatical insanity of liberal politicians like Shmuck Shoomer.
Repubs already getting squishy ..... Reid waiting to bring the gun control bill up again ....
If the police see you carrying one on the street, they’ll know it’s a crime.
Because if we just pass this law, the CRIMINALS who were planning to break the law with these guns, will certainly obey it and not make them.
Oh, dear - citizens might actually have the sort of access to weapons mandated in the Bill of Rights.
Our government Masters can’t allow that!
But the only way freedom can really be controlled is through the moral conscience and foundation of those who are free. That way it remains free...the government powermongers (like the bozo dem referred to in this article) always want to turn it into tyranny.
What part of the constitution gives the fedguv the jurisdiction and power to make such a law?
Stomach-churning? You’re not supposed to eat it; you’re supposed to fire it at a target . . .
Hehehehe... almost 50,000 downloads of the printable hand gun software yesterday.
I suspect that if they push through the legislation that that number should grow exponentially.
Liberalism IS a mental disorder and they prove it all day, every day, never fails.
maybe they’re making them out of White Castle sliders.
high cap mag and fires transfatty fries...a Nanny Bloomturd nightmare.
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.