Free Republic

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,...

Yesterday when I saw the picture of the first fully 3D printed gun (I realize the firing pin is a nail and was not printed) I almost wept for joy. This is a first important step away from the dominance of the state over their citizens in many parts of the world. Americans enjoy the protection of Second Amendment, but many places that purport to be free countries have banned all guns outright or have made ownership so restrictive that getting a firearm is almost impossible. Other parts of the world are not so free as even that. Firearm ownership...

The first downloadable gun has gone viral. The plastic firearm that can be churned out on a 3-D printer and easily assembled was downloaded at least 50,000 times Monday, according to the self-described anarchist who made it available for free online. Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed, a collective of gun advocates, said the most downloads were done in Spain followed by the United States.

On a hour long interview with Alex Jones, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed states that they will be releasing files for a functional, completely 3D printed pistol within a month. Cody states "We have found some ways to make printable guns work." Defense Distributed has already shown that they can make workable, usable magazines and lower receivers. This will be the first completely printable firearm. Expectations are not high, but Cody Wilson believes that it will be capable of a few shots before it becomes inoperable. It will be a modern day Liberator pistol, delivered by the internet rather than...

Just to establish a baseline of what we’re talking about here, any of you who regularly watch shows like How it’s Made, Modern Marvels or any of the other science and technology offerings on cable probably already know about 3-D printing. (One of the featured manufacturers of these machines has a nice video tutorial on it.) Basically, a 3-D model is designed and the “printer” lays down one layer after another of material until the model is produced. And some of these machines are already getting down to the affordable range.So what would you do if you got one? Well,...