Japanese Man Arrested On 3D Printed Firearms Possession Charges

[Karloff]

Japanese Man Arrested On 3D Printed Firearms Possession Charges

Several of the plastic weapons are capable of causing injury.

A 27 year old resident of Kawasaki, Japan, has been arrested on charges of illegal possession of firearms, all of which were created by 3D printer technology. The police discovered five plastic weapons and a 3D printer at the suspect's home, and two of the firearms were later proved to be capable of killing or wounding, according to a report by public broadcaster NHK. This is believed to be the first time that a man has been arrested in Japan for printing his own guns.

"I made the guns by the 3D printer at home. I did not think it was illegal," the suspect is quoted as telling police. Firearm blueprints were found on the suspect's computer, which are believed to have been downloaded from the internet. The police have declined to comment on the case.

The suspect is known to have made several social media and Twitter comments justifying possession and manufacture of guns, and is said to have posted YouTube videos showing him firing what appears to be a 3D printed pistol. He's alleged to have claimed that gun restrictions are a violation of human rights.

According to the Jiji news agency, in addition to the printed weapons the suspect also possessed ten toy guns.

Source: Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/08/us-japan-guns-idUSKBN0DO0TT20140508]


Permalink

 

[shadowxvii]

Wait...NHK? This is clearly a conspiracy !

Still, pretty scary thing, now that anyone with a computer and a 3D printer can get an actual working gun....

 

[kajinking]

In the US this guy would be a hero with massive media coverage.

 

[epicdwarf]

In the US this guy would be a hero with massive media coverage.

Depends. If he was doing it illegally(which the man here was), he would just be seen as a common criminal. If he was doing it legally and got in trouble, then he would be seen as a hero.

OT: Poor guy didn't know any better. Although he still had it coming because he didn't check if there were any laws against this. I wonder if he is going to stand up against law, and if so change it. Although the possibility of that is slim at best.

 

[Rabid_meese]

Oh boy. Just imagine when every house has a 3D printer, and the design of these guns isn't so poor that you'll probably end up blowing off your hand. I imagine finding bullets to shoot out of 3D printed guns would be rather difficult.

I imagine this guy will probably be praised as a hero in America. GUNS ARE TEH FREEDOM YEAH.

In all seriousness, he has the right to think firearm access is a basic human right, and taking them away is a violation of his basic human rights. Unless he's planning an overthrow of the government, he has to work within the system to get things changed. There is a small window in which people will recognize protesting, and usually possession isn't seen as political dissonance.

If he wants to make a difference, he should try to get things changed within the countries laws. Printing a few guns isn't going to change laws - and, to be honest, they probably won't offer him much self defense. Unless the potential harasser takes pity on them for the gun misfiring and blowing off the guys hand. Seriously - no matter how many times they test these, they're still made from cheap plastic resin. Bullets are controlled explosions that get really hot. Recipe. for. disaster.

 

[rasputin0009]

The story may sound crazy to Americans who can legally make a gun out of anything. But to most people of countries with better gun laws, it's reasonable. Just the fact that the guns have a pretty high chance of exploding in your own face is good enough of a reason to make it illegal to print them.

 

[Auberon]

My first thought was "no way would these work, they would melt when fired". Shows me being an engineer, I suppose.

 

[Ferisar]

The story may sound crazy to Americans who can legally make a gun out of anything. But to most people of countries with better gun laws, it's reasonable. Just the fact that the guns have a pretty high chance of exploding in your own face is good enough of a reason to make it illegal to print them.

Dat hyperbole.

OT:
Yeah no. I'm good off of that. I don't want to get killed by the equivalent of a high-tech Nerf gun that shoots real bullets.

Although I suppose it's inevitable before it can be distributed illegally with some frequency given the tech operated is still entirely legal, just the manufacturing isn't.

 

[hazard99]

Where would he get the bullets to use the guns?

 

[epicdwarf]

The story may sound crazy to Americans who can legally make a gun out of anything. But to most people of countries with better gun laws, it's reasonable. Just the fact that the guns have a pretty high chance of exploding in your own face is good enough of a reason to make it illegal to print them.

From what I hear, guns are usually remotely tested on a range before they are put in the hands of a customer. Although, for most well made firearms, this is not a problem. A well built M16 has less of a chance of blowing up in your face then your average toaster.

Where would he get the bullets to use the guns?

You can make them yourself. From what I understand, you only need a few machines and materials to make them yourself.

 

[gridsleep]

So it's not legal to make plastic firearms that may or may not work as a hobby, but it is legal for the government to spend billions of dollars (trillions of yen) building a nuclear power plant in a known danger zone against mountains of protest and evidence, that then is destroyed in a natural disaster leading to the deaths of thousands of people, the abandonment of thousands of innocent animals, the loss of a city, the destruction of a large portion of the country, fallout in other countries and the ocean, and an endless circle of blaming the other guy. Yeah, Japan is a civilized country all right.
Oh, and apparently, since no one else here has mentioned it, spies on people's Internet activity.

 

[UNHchabo]

Wait...NHK? This is clearly a conspiracy !

Still, pretty scary thing, now that anyone with a computer and a 3D printer can get an actual working gun....

The story may sound crazy to Americans who can legally make a gun out of anything. But to most people of countries with better gun laws, it's reasonable. Just the fact that the guns have a pretty high chance of exploding in your own face is good enough of a reason to make it illegal to print them.

You can already make a much more lethal firearm with $5 worth of materials at the hardware store -- a section of pipe, an endcap, and a nail can be made into a shotgun. Then if you have a simple metalshop, let alone a CNC setup, you can build most submachineguns from scratch pretty easily -- every military in WWII made a submachinegun designed to be made from stamped steel, cause they're cheap and easy to make (compared with the Thompson, for instance, which is milled).

When criminals can't get guns through their normal methods (theft, bribery, or smuggling), they're still be able to do so by making them.

 

[gridsleep]

Where would he get the bullets to use the guns?

That is a very potent question. Doubt you'll ever get a satisfying answer. This is about the right of power and politicians' fears of undetectable firearms. Probably the same reason you can't buy a cell phone without GPS built in. Which is why I don't have a cell phone. I won't comment on firearms.

 

[CriticalMiss]

You can already make a much more lethal firearm with $5 worth of materials at the hardware store -- a section of pipe, an endcap, and a nail can be made into a shotgun. Then if you have a simple metalshop, let alone a CNC setup, you can build most submachineguns from scratch pretty easily -- every military in WWII made a submachinegun designed to be made from stamped steel, cause they're cheap and easy to make (compared with the Thompson, for instance, which is milled).

When criminals can't get guns through their normal methods (theft, bribery, or smuggling), they're still be able to do so by making them.

This reminds me of an episode of Mythbusters where they go to a prison which displays weapons made by inmates using only materials they could get hold of. On top of all the crude shivs some clever sod had made what looked like a pistol and a submachine gun. 3D printing is really just about making a homemade gun that is prettier and a bit safer.

 

[Kuala BangoDango]

Guy should have hid the gu ns better...out in plain sight.

All he had to do was print them with a screw-on attachment on the bottom (just in front of the trig ger)that makes it so they can screw onto plastic bottles filled with water, Windex or something and anyone looking at it would think it's a squirt/spray bottle.

Seriously. That's the first thing I thought when I saw those was that they look like the spray parts of squirt bottles.

Store them like that under the kitchen or bathroom sink and no one would think twice.

 

[5mj7R7yf4Dwr3gdZyyu9PeGNwYjlNrjzuh3iTXQG]

OT: Poor guy didn't know any better. Although he still had it coming because he didn't check if there were any laws against this. I wonder if he is going to stand up against law, and if so change it. Although the possibility of that is slim at best.

It shouldn't be the responsibility of an individual citizen to be knowledgeable of what is legal or not so much as what is wrongdoing or not. In printing out guns for what was evidently a collection, he was not causing harm. He was not infringing on the rights of others. In that regard, his actions do not rise to the level of penalization beyond, maybe, confiscation of the printed weapons.

I get that we instinctively want to respect authority and the code of law, but that presupposes that the authorship of our laws is done with wisdom and the best interests of the community, which is commonly not the case. Perhaps more often than it is.

238U[footnote]As of this posting I have not received a US National Security Letter or any classified gag order from an agent of the United States.
This post does not contain an encrypted secret message
Thursday, May 08, 2014 1:01:29 PM
necklace jass accountant market energy composer bus station shopping centre[/footnote]

 

[medv4380]

Wait...NHK? This is clearly a conspiracy !

Still, pretty scary thing, now that anyone with a computer and a 3D printer can get an actual working gun....

3D printers are still expensive though, right?

Depends on quality and how much is expensive to you. 3k is pretty spendy, but that's the high end of the versions commercially available, and excluding the industrial 3D printers because those are going to run in Millions. Still 3K is well within the range of possible of most people if they desperately wanted one. The mid to low range can get as cheep as 500 and that's basically a 3D printer for about as much as you'd spend on a new game system with a couple of games. Those are within the price range of the general population.

They're just not that good. Only the crazy want a 3D printer so they can see their 3D creation delaminate over a short period of time. Which is, in part, why these 3D printed guns shatter after only a few tries. They're good for people who are working to improve them, and people who are working on developing designs that will work better when excellent 3D printers become available.

 

[Meximagician]

When criminals can't get guns through their normal methods (theft, bribery, or smuggling), they're still be able to do so by making them.

I've never quite understood that line of reasoning.

If someone is a CNC operator and has access to their equipment, they tend to be either employed or well-off. What is their incentive to illegally manufacture firearms? Especially when the risks include a few decades in federal prison at best, or a short-lived conversation with the authorities (doubly short if involving the ATF).

Common crooks on the other hand tend not to have these jobs skills. They just get professionally built guns off the black market (or in the US, use the private sales legal loophole).

The only modern market for improvised guns are in developing nations. At which point you have to seriously start worrying about the quality.

OT: I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Steyr AUG, which can be made almost entirely of plastics.