Printable Gunmaker About to Test in Texas

[Callate]

No technology so cool that some jackass won't try to find an irredeemably irresponsible use for it.

So, maybe the "printable gun" won't be all that effective. Maybe it won't survive the shock of more than one or two shots, even.

What does the market for a disposable weapon that only survives one or two uses look like?...

 

[Aureliano]

So, your options: a highly inaccurate 'gun' that fires at best one or two shots if it doesn't blow up in your hand first and requires careful construction as well as access to proper ammunition, or an easily accessible stabbing/cutting implement called a 'knife' or 'pair of scissors' that you can find in almost every kitchen, is very easy to use and never runs out of ammunition.

Which is more dangerous?

 

[delroland]

Who said anything about this gun being disposable? Most guns these days are made of ceramics, plastics, and/or metal, and industrial 3D printers can handle all of those materials. The main issue will be the resolution of the barrel, and my guess is that they will simply bore out the printed barrel to smooth the edges and add rifling.

 

[Vegosiux]

So, your options: a highly inaccurate 'gun' that fires at best one or two shots if it doesn't blow up in your hand first and requires careful construction as well as access to proper ammunition, or an easily accessible stabbing/cutting implement called a 'knife' or 'pair of scissors' that you can find in almost every kitchen, is very easy to use and never runs out of ammunition.

Which is more dangerous?

Pffff, knife? Scissors? You have hands, do you not? They never run out of ammunition, and you don't even have to go looking for them if you want to bash someone!

I suppose they're the most dangrous of them all!

On a more serious note, no, the gun is still more dangerous, both to the wielder and whoever might find themselves on the wrong end of it.

 

[Quazimofo]

So, your options: a highly inaccurate 'gun' that fires at best one or two shots if it doesn't blow up in your hand first and requires careful construction as well as access to proper ammunition, or an easily accessible stabbing/cutting implement called a 'knife' or 'pair of scissors' that you can find in almost every kitchen, is very easy to use and never runs out of ammunition.

Which is more dangerous?

the gun, due to danger to the operator, and if it does manage to squeeze off a round, if it was properly aimed, something is going to break violently, whether that be some vase or someone's bones or heart.

Knives have a very definitive area of danger, which can be reacted to and dodged or blocked or otherwise rendered not-dangerous by a LOT of people, with little (notice how i didn't say no) skill required. very few can dodge the shrapnel from an exploding gun, or can dodge bullets.

skilled knife users are always dangerous. skilled gun users more-so, but you dont need skill to use a gun, even if it is a 1 shot thing.

 

[Yeager942]

I think that it is amazing that 3D printing has advanced to the stage that we can now construct more complex machines.

But such technology is being wasted on creating handguns...

 

[ShindoL Shill]

-snip-

Yeah, but I don't think a company called Defense Distributed running the 'Wiki Weapon' project is planning to make satellites.

 

[LazyAza]

Because what the world needs is more easily available ways to senselessly murder. *facepalm*

 

[O maestre]

Everyone in N. America - "Huh, cool."
Everyone outside of N. America - "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

Printable guns... where's my ride off this planet.

pretty much this, americans are perhaps the most frightening species this planet has ever produced. i do not fear climate change or nuclear annihilation or weapons in general... i fear an american with his hand on the trigger/button


captcha: "end of the world"


no shit captcha

 

[JarinArenos]

I'm watching with a sort of worried fascination here. I'm in favor of innovation, and the concepts used - should this succeed - will open up all sorts of interesting applications elsewhere. On the other hand, it also has the distinct potential to create a widespread proliferation of unregistered weapons that could disrupt our nice record-low armed violence rates in the US. Guess we'll see how it hashes out in the long run.

An increased supply of guns does not increase the rate of crime, if you were to look at the gun crime rate in Europe before and after the inaction of gun laws you would see that the rate remained the same. Guns do not cause crime, if they did Switzerland would be a backwater hellhole.

The rate of crime doesn't change, but the ability for it to escalate does. But I wasn't trying to fearmonger here. I don't expect the worst out of this by any means, and I suspect he has more hurdles to clear than we think, anyway. And if it wasn't this guy, it would be someone else doing it quietly instead of making a big deal of it, which could be far worse. I'm honestly curious to see how this ends up.

 

[blackrave]

Contrary to what most people here think, I believe more or less functioning revolver could be made
Print most parts out of most durable plastic the printer can handle
Takes metal tubes and springs for some parts that need even more strength (and adjust them)
Put parts together, lubricate necessary parts and load the revolver
Accuracy would be asinine and it would break down pretty soon, but you would have revolver that most probably could withstand ~12 shots

Either way this printer would be awesome for cosplayers
Just imagine how much simpler would be to make full body "armor" with such printer

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I say good on them. It's certainly creative, although I'm not sure guns were the way to go as an exemplar of the possibilities of 3D printing.

 

[Edible Avatar]

Everyone in N. America - "Huh, cool."
Everyone outside of N. America - "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

Printable guns... where's my ride off this planet.

pretty much this, americans are perhaps the most frightening species this planet has ever produced. i do not fear climate change or nuclear annihilation or weapons in general... i fear an american with his hand on the trigger/button


captcha: "end of the world"


no shit captcha

lol YOLO bro!

OT: Its a gun.
A gun needs ammo to be used....
And it's made out of plastic....
And it is more likely to harm the user than anyone else...
...
Honestly, any knowledgeable person with a machine shop could (at the very least) come out with a similar piece,

Spoiler

in terms of danger to the user.

 

[Cpu46]

Everyone in N. America - "Huh, cool."
Everyone outside of N. America - "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

Printable guns... where's my ride off this planet.

N. American Engineering student - "This is one of the more interesting things I have seen in the past few weeks. I wonder if the printers will be special in any way or if I could run this on a Reprap?"

Honestly I understand the concern, the last thing i want is unregistered firearms available to a wide swath of the population, but despite my best efforts the mad engineer inside of me already has plans on my mental drawing board with my internal gun nut peering over his shoulder offering advice.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Let me know when we have the ability to print a nuclear bomb.

Technically, we do.

Not too many years ago did that unemployed scientist try to build a working reactor in his kitchen. Until, the most understanding police in the world, shut him down (and gave him a warning). If you have access to a lab (where protocols are very lax), you could set up experiments that essentially duplicate the Manhattan Project.

Note, I did say technically. Honestly, I am a bit surprised Iran does not already have a "device", I guess work is slowed because Israel and America WILL bomb the site until 'not a stone is left upon a stone'.

 

[Luftwaffles]

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/179192-DIY-Shovel-AK-photo-tsunami-warning


I guess we should impose some sort of law on shovels now.

 

[MercenaryCanary]

Everyone in N. America - "Huh, cool."
Everyone outside of N. America - "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!"

Printable guns... where's my ride off this planet.

I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of our FREEDOM!

And gun fire.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I think you are overreacting. this is more a benchmark or proof of concept test. A gun has to deal with something that starts at room temperature and then jumps suddenly to hundreds of degrees while simultaneously creating a massive amount pressure and kinetic force and do it more than once. The same technology that can print a gun can also print a satellite that can survive the force needed to put it into orbit or self combustion engine parts in the future. Before we debate the morality of making a printable pistol I do wish to remind you that Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun] made V2 rockets for Nazi Germany but went on to make the Saturn V for NASA. It is not science or technologies fault for what people decided to do with it. Right now we are communicating through the Internet which was originally designed to allow Generals to communicate even if under nuclear attack but today is used for commerce (legal and otherwise) and entertainment (mainly porn and kittens), all things the original architects never imagined.

damn, ninja's

snip

snip

you two might wanna read the above and calm down a bit.

besides, humans would kill each other senseless even if guns where never invented, so we all just get over that now or would we like to piss and moan about about 'how much better it'd be with out guns', when in reality all that would mean is more brutal murders more often