Posted on 08/05/2022 5:48:17 AM PDT by marktwain
On July 30, 2022, Houston, Texas, organized a gun “buyback” event. It was the first such event held in Houston. “Buyback” is an Orwellian term because the guns were never owned by the government, so it cannot “buy” them “back.” More appropriately, it was a gun turn-in event.
According to people on Twitter, at least sixty-two 3D-printed pistols were turned in at $150 each. That would be a total of $9,300 for the box of mostly plastic pistols. The 3D-printed pistols are “ghost guns” because they do not have a government-approved serial number on them.
Mayor Turner confirmed that “ghost guns” were taken in at the event. From abc13.com:
“I’ve heard it all. ‘Oh it’s just going to be junk guns, this and that.’ You
don’t have a solution to problems, please just sit down and let us step
up, the people who are going to do the work,” Finner said.“We’ve taken in ghost guns. We’ve taken in rifles. Automatics have been taken in, and so the program is working,” Turner said.
The rules, as published by the Houston government, were fairly clear. The turn-in was “no questions asked”. There was no limit on how many guns could be turned in. There were no limits on how much one person could receive. From houstontx.gov:
Filament for making simple 3D printed pistols is much less. Some estimated less than $5 worth of materials were used for the 3D printed pistols turned in.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
The government is really stupid to buy such things. But nothing ever stops them from foolishly spending taxpayer's money.
> Some estimated less than $5 worth of materials were used for the 3D printed pistols turned in.
Sounds like an outstanding opportunity for some arbitrage. Best to find out first if there aren’t some side laws about “manufacturing” firearms so that legal fees don’t eat up the profits.
The pistols were very simple single shot designs. They have been shown to be able to fire a few shots before they become non-functional.
Wow. The technology has improved quite a bit.
Yep, all of the above issues but know how to avoid them now. I am designing and building a 3d printer with multi color capabily now, so add 2 destroyed main boards to that list.
To others, there are several catagories of ghost guns. The best are ar15 and glock style where you simply print the frame and add the parts. M&P Shield is the best at this. Print frame, clean up and fit parts. Print takes a day and the rest takes about 2 hours, full functioning ghost gun. The other style is full plastic, a couple of shots and done. Then there is the fgc9. All plastic but barrel hammer and some bits. All metal parts can be bought at hardware store and there are full directions on making the barrel using edm.
Who knew these miscreants could master a 3-d printer...
Some just look like guns. Some are fully functional. The idea is like the 'Liberator' guns that were dropped into Europe during WWII. You use the Liberator to get a real gun.
I dutifully turned in a handgun I found as a young kid. It netted me $50.cash, which I turned around and used to buy a Ruger MkII from a buddy.
The pistol I turned in was a Hopkins & Allen .32, that I found when digging a hole in my folk’s back yard. Totally rusted, and inoperable, but cleaned up good enough to convince the “buyback experts”.
I know of people printing all sorts of modern stuff that will hold up (glock, Hk, AR/AK etc clones) on $200 Creality Ender printers
Here’s a goo intro into this tech
https://twitter.com/printingguns
Great story.
Houston Democrats Hosted a Gun Buyback Event and One Clever Man Took Full Advantage
08/02/2022 11:42:45 AM PDT · by rktman · 72 replies
townhall.com ^ | 8/2/2022 1215 hrs edt | Spencer Brown
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4082706/posts
We all go through that. Walk away from a print in progress, come back a couple hours later to see a mass of filament spaghetti. Warping of the item because of uneven heat on the platform bed. Nozzles bumping into half-printed structures and knocking them over. Worst is clogged nozzles. Even after printing is done, having the item split and break and trying it all over in a different orientation.
These 3D guns are not safe! If you build one, do it with high-strength nylon filament, and assemble with metal components for structural integrity and heat. And wear goggles if firing one.
It would still be a money losing proposition
You could make more money selling a stolen gun to another criminal than selling it at a gun buy back.
The only advantage is that you don’t have to worry about your fellow felon shooting you if you take it to the buy back.
Hooray!
Now that Houston got rid of the guns, it should get rid of the New Orleans migrants...
I remember a good friend from the 1950s, who used to brag, constantly, about being from Houston...
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