First 3-D-printed gun fired

Jan 2009
360
0
Seattle
Pretty sweet, it'll be interesting to see where this leads.

Source

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.


Eight months into its mission to create and distribute the computer-assisted design (CAD) for a 100-percent 3-D printed gun, Defense Distributed is about as close to this goal as it can legally get. That is, provided laws don't change to make what the group is doing illegal.

Even now, Defense Distributed's latest success — though it may be a rather costly and cumbersome way to obtain a firearm, especially one that tends to self destruct — has gun-control advocates on the move. This was predicted by Wilson, who has long said that his group’s ultimate goal is not to build arms, but to test constitutional rights.

"I think this isn't a project about firearms, it’s a project about political equality," Wilson recently told NBC’s Nightly News.

Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas in Austin, is federally licensed to manufacture and sell guns and gun parts, as long as they're not fully automatic. Not only is it legal for Wilson to make "The Liberator," but distributing its plans for others to make it is also legal, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"An individual who wishes to manufacturer a firearm for his or her personal use does not need a license, as long as it isn’t for an automatic firearm," an ATF spokesperson told NBC News.

But the fact that the gun can be homemade and is largely plastic — and therefore harder to spot via metal detectors — has made it the center of a new debate in Washington.


Sen. Chuck Schumer, speaking in support of the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, shown with an image of a 3-D printed gun from Defense Distributed.

On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., endorsed a bill, entitled the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, that would bring the 1988 law up to date by banning 3-D-printed guns that "have no metal and could therefore slip through a metal detector." Under the law, it would be a crime to build such a weapon.

"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 at a conference. "It's stomach churning." Schumer said his bill would not restrict the use of 3-D printers for other purposes.

Schumer was speaking in support of legislation, proposed in the House of Representatives Friday by Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., that bans "homemade, 3-D printed, plastic high-capacity magazines."



"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," read Israel's statement.



On a technical level, enforcing the ban could be challenging. Firmware locks for 3-D printers and takedown protocols for CAD files for firearms have been proposed by some, and scoffed at by others.


"Every one of those measures is a nonsense and worse: unworkable combinations of authoritarianism, censorship and wishful thinking," author Cory Doctorow wrote in criticism of Israel’s initial proposal. "Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns. And all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3-D printers."


It's legal for most Americans to buy guns, and it's also easy for many people to acquire guns illegally, too. Industrial-level 3-D printers currently capable of producing "The Liberator" can cost upwards of $10,000, and require some training to operate. They may never put guns into the hands of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain them, but they still may become tools for nefarious acts.

"This technology is emerging so quickly that few law enforcement officials know what a 3-D printer is or understand how it can be used," Jim Bueermann, former Redlands, Calif., police chief who is now president of the non-profit Police Foundation, told NBC News.

"I think we are going to see some very creative, technologically astute examples of criminal acts that are enabled by this technology," he added. "This is one of the unintended consequences of the democratizing of the Internet."
 
Jan 2009
1,318
1
Kirkland, WA
Wow, very interesting.

The point of legality is fascinating. Again, anyone that would legally be transporting one of these ISN'T going to be the problem. It would only be someone illegally trying to smuggle one in.

Same argument, different topic...
 
Dec 2010
305
0
Fall City
My question is how the heck to these NY politicians expect to enforce some of these laws. Here in the next couple of years a 3D printer might be pretty common. How do you expect to limit the spread of the internet. Do people really expect to stop the flow of information over the internet to other people.... We all saw the Arab Spring and how social media was still very accessible even when governments tried to shut it down.

I for one regularly go on to the Defense Distributed website and download new updates of the stuff they are doing. Then put it on an external drive so I always have it. This information is already out there and it will NEVER go away. It makes me laugh when people try and put the genie back in the bottle....

This is a new age and information is every where and accessible by anyone. Sorry to tell anyone that is scared of the internet, but it ain't going anywhere to its bout time you learn how to use it.

I for one am very excited for the time we are all living in. In the past humans could hope for maybe one or MAYBE two major break through's in science and technology in their lifetime. Now we see new break through almost on a weekly or monthly basis. Some people seem scared of this idea and want to back to a world that was slower and in some ways easy to manage. Now the world has become smaller and more dynamic.
 
Jan 2010
371
0
Sherwood, OR
I think it is funny that they are required to put a piece of metal in it so it shows up on metal detectors. Until they come up with ammo that doesn't use metal bullets or casings, it seems unnecessary.
 
Apr 2013
10
0
Everett, WA
For some really perplexing reason (which I don't recall now), the phrase "short rope + tall tree" came to mind, while reading this article.

:evil:
 
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