World's First 3D Printer Rifle Goes Bang, Barrel Breaks

[Comocat]

Now if this works, does that mean they could eventually make uzis or whatever later? Is this going to be another technology being invented before anyone realizes all the negatives that go along with it. Could we be witness to the start of a future of illigal guns sweeping the world? After all, if this does work, all you need is a printer and money to make what you need. Sure a few criminals would enjoy this, all the fun of getting guns without the danger of importing them.

Well, yes, but the danger of having an illegal weapon isn't just importing it, it's having it sit there waiting for police to find it.

The Sten gun, for example, was designed so that it could be built in garages all around the UK. After the war people generally stopped building Sten guns, because they are more than a little incriminating. Northern Ireland is an exception to this, mind.

OTOH, if you want to murder someone, might be very convenient to go to your printer, make a gun, use it just once and get rid of it.

It seems like it would be easier to find a murderer who used one of these guns. There are probably only a handful of 3-d prints in a given area, so once ballistics found polymer on the bullet, you've effectively narrowed your suspects considerably. For the forseeable future the materials and equipment required to make guns like this are going to put you on more watch lists than buying a handgun over Craigslist.

 

[surg3n]

I said this months ago, a lot of people said this - a 3D printed firearm won't work, the materials aren't strong enough yet. Is going to take someone loosing an eye, or finger, or their life before people drop the idea.

Hell, what's the fascination with printing a gun anyway - it's counter-productive to any pro-gun control argument, so why are they doing it!
Here's a thought - if your stupid enough to print out a plastic gun and put a real bullet in it, and try to fire it - well your too bloody stupid to own anything like a real gun - let alone mess with the mechanics and physics involved in making a safe firearm. Barrels and mechanisms are made from strengthened lumps of steel to incredibly strict tolerances for a good reason.

 

[Dalisclock]

The ability to cheaply and quickly produce untraceable disposable firearms using an item for which there are thousands of legitimate uses.

Yeah, this is exactly what humanity needs.

Firearms that will likely explode the first or second time you use them.

I'm not terribly worried. Well, not for me, because I don't plan on firing one. I feel for the guy trying to fire one.

 

[Shanahanapp]

Clearly the world needs more guns that are easier to access. Goddamn, this type of thing pissed me off. Arrest this bastard, he's a psycho.

He is a psycho...says the unassuming furry....

Well in my opinion anyone who thinks it's a good idea to give free guns to anyone is a bit of a psycho, yeah. In my opinion an ideal world would have no guns.

 

[AntiChri5]

The ability to cheaply and quickly produce untraceable disposable firearms using an item for which there are thousands of legitimate uses.

Yeah, this is exactly what humanity needs.

I don't think we're at the point that we need to worry too much yet. We're talking about making a small caliber rifle that's basically one shot, and being smooth bore, may not be that accurate. For the people who need an untraceable gun to do some shady work, buying on the black market is always going to get you better quality, power, and reliability than this.

But the age where people can print off guns that aren't plastic pieces of crap is fast approaching, and like it or not, there's absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

Yeah, at this point it's a clunky piece of shit. Incredibly impractical and stupid compared to just getting a gun. But compare the first computers to the average smartphone today...... Eventually these will work well, be much smaller and probably get past metal detectors.

It being single shot is no real comfort though. Sometimes that's all it takes.

 

[Chinchama]

Clearly the world needs more guns that are easier to access. Goddamn, this type of thing pissed me off. Arrest this bastard, he's a psycho.

He is a psycho...says the unassuming furry....

Well in my opinion anyone who thinks it's a good idea to give free guns to anyone is a bit of a psycho, yeah. In my opinion an ideal world would have no guns.

I think guns are one of the greatest signs of equality. If there was a world with no guns, the meek would be preyed upon by those physically strong. Having a gun is a great equalizer. It can make an 8 year girl just as dangerous as a 28 yr old 140 MMA fighter.

People need to have a sense of personal responsibility of what is right and what is wrong. Guns are not the problem, it is the mental state of the general population that is the problem.

 

[Lil_Rimmy]

.... Seriously?

People, I live in Australia, and right now I have a functioning musket sitting in my garage that I built from paper, cardboard, a shit ton of glue and some Peizo Ignitors with a friend. It just uses Armstrong Mixture for gunpower with a spark that sets off some rubbing alcohol, and there you go, a gun.

Now, if I were to take this and go shoot someone, not only would it be unlikely to even bruise them, but it would probably miss, mis-fire or just go balls-up. It's the kind of thing that you build just for the sake of having a kick-ass musket you can shoot a log with.

It's the same with these printers. Do you honestly think that someone can kill someone with that gun? Look at it, it took many tries to finally fire, and then the barrel broke. If you actually wanted to murder someone, it would be easier to just print out a fucking sharp plastic knife!

And please, dear lawd in dem heavens or whatever, stop saying "Soon" or "In the future". In just about every thread I see now, someone goes "There's nothing wrong with it... but in the future!" It is completely irrelevant. When they invented bombs, they were not worrying about atomic bombs. Yes, progress brings with it many things, but at the moment we have not progressed to the point where we can do all the things people are worring about. And besides, every time someone says "You can just print a real machine-gun!" think about how other tech has caught up. By the time we can do that, why the hell wouldn't we have full on laser guns? Or invulnerable mech-suits? etc. etc.

Just take this for what it is, some guy printing a barrel and a trigger and throwing some gunpowder in there to watch it go boom.

 

[Shanahanapp]

Clearly the world needs more guns that are easier to access. Goddamn, this type of thing pissed me off. Arrest this bastard, he's a psycho.

He is a psycho...says the unassuming furry....

Well in my opinion anyone who thinks it's a good idea to give free guns to anyone is a bit of a psycho, yeah. In my opinion an ideal world would have no guns.

I think guns are one of the greatest signs of equality. If there was a world with no guns, the meek would be preyed upon by those physically strong. Having a gun is a great equalizer. It can make an 8 year girl just as dangerous as a 28 yr old 140 MMA fighter.

People need to have a sense of personal responsibility of what is right and what is wrong. Guns are not the problem, it is the mental state of the general population that is the problem.

But someone who is of the mental state to shoot someone can't if they don't have access to a free gun off the internet.

Honestly the gun in the video doesn't worry me to much but the natural evolution of this is printed Uzis and printed assault rifles. I can see the argument for equalizing when it's a small handgun or whatever but I doubt "CanadianGunNut" is just going to stop at that.

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

This reminds me of the way you get weapons in Mass Effect 2, where you buy the schematics and the ship makes them for you. However, in Mass Effect, I assume the guns are made from metal, and don't break after one shot.

And to everyone thinking that this will give anyone the ability to make themselves a gun, they still have to buy the ammunition. I assume they need a permit for that, too.

 

[Chinchama]

Clearly the world needs more guns that are easier to access. Goddamn, this type of thing pissed me off. Arrest this bastard, he's a psycho.

He is a psycho...says the unassuming furry....

Well in my opinion anyone who thinks it's a good idea to give free guns to anyone is a bit of a psycho, yeah. In my opinion an ideal world would have no guns.

I think guns are one of the greatest signs of equality. If there was a world with no guns, the meek would be preyed upon by those physically strong. Having a gun is a great equalizer. It can make an 8 year girl just as dangerous as a 28 yr old 140 MMA fighter.

People need to have a sense of personal responsibility of what is right and what is wrong. Guns are not the problem, it is the mental state of the general population that is the problem.


I don't understand why people are freaking about a plastic gun...its just the thought or the look is scary I guess. Its not like people aren't already building their own guns at home from left over scraps. For example..

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Now if this works, does that mean they could eventually make uzis or whatever later? Is this going to be another technology being invented before anyone realizes all the negatives that go along with it. Could we be witness to the start of a future of illigal guns sweeping the world? After all, if this does work, all you need is a printer and money to make what you need. Sure a few criminals would enjoy this, all the fun of getting guns without the danger of importing them.

Well, yes, but the danger of having an illegal weapon isn't just importing it, it's having it sit there waiting for police to find it.

The Sten gun, for example, was designed so that it could be built in garages all around the UK. After the war people generally stopped building Sten guns, because they are more than a little incriminating. Northern Ireland is an exception to this, mind.

OTOH, if you want to murder someone, might be very convenient to go to your printer, make a gun, use it just once and get rid of it.

I dont admit to knowing much about the printer.....but i know the tech will get a lot better. Also, you would have a gun that you can melt, well it would be easier to destroy than a metal gun. Plus what about metal detectors at airports? Can this gun be smuggled through? Could this be a terrorist wet dream? An if you make your own gun, there will be no registration number or way to trace it to anyone? I dont know. I just hope the people in charge are looking at this new tech to protect us from it being used negatively. Thing is its an amazing machine, alot of stuff can be done with it to help mankind. Im think fake organs for people having transplant surgery or can it make faces like in Darkman or Mission Impossible so people who are disfigured can have this fixed?

One thing i would use it for is to make some Dynasty Warrior figures. A Lu Bu statue would be awesome.

 

[Shanahanapp]

I don't understand why people are freaking about a plastic gun...its just the thought or the look is scary I guess. Its not like people aren't already building their own guns at home from left over scraps. For example..

Yes but it's a lot easier to print a plastic gun off the internet.

 

[Chinchama]

I dont admit to knowing much about the printer.....but i know the tech will get a lot better. Also, you would have a gun that you can melt, well it would be easier to destroy than a metal gun. Plus what about metal detectors at airports? Can this gun be smuggled through? Could this be a terrorist wet dream? An if you make your own gun, there will be no registration number or way to trace it to anyone? I dont know. I just hope the people in charge are looking at this new tech to protect us from it being used negatively. Thing is its an amazing machine, alot of stuff can be done with it to help mankind. Im think fake organs for people having transplant surgery or can it make faces like in Darkman or Mission Impossible so people who are disfigured can have this fixed?[\quote]

One thing i would use it for is to make some Dynasty Warrior figures. A Lu Bu statue would be awesome.

The bullets you would need are still metal so that should set off security, plus new scanners show objects on your person the same way x-ray machines do and they would recognize an obscure object probably. As far as tracing, I'm sure government offices like the NSA would be tracing the ip's of all people downloading the files to print these (so the truest form of un- traceability would be to design your own). And perhaps in the future because of things like this maybe each printer will have a unique signature in the way it forms plastic, similar to how papers from typewriters can be connected to a specific typewriter.

 

[Vivi22]

The ability to cheaply and quickly produce untraceable disposable firearms using an item for which there are thousands of legitimate uses.

Yeah, this is exactly what humanity needs.

I don't think we're at the point that we need to worry too much yet. We're talking about making a small caliber rifle that's basically one shot, and being smooth bore, may not be that accurate. For the people who need an untraceable gun to do some shady work, buying on the black market is always going to get you better quality, power, and reliability than this.

But the age where people can print off guns that aren't plastic pieces of crap is fast approaching, and like it or not, there's absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

Yeah, at this point it's a clunky piece of shit. Incredibly impractical and stupid compared to just getting a gun. But compare the first computers to the average smartphone today...... Eventually these will work well, be much smaller and probably get past metal detectors.

It being single shot is no real comfort though. Sometimes that's all it takes.

Yeah, I'm absolutely not saying this will never be a problem. It's inevitable that these things will become more effective.

 

[Nghtgnt]

I almost expect that the NRA would offer the plans for various guns along with lifetime memberships to their organization just to make sure that every American had a gun.

Nah, the NRA is more representative of gun manufacturers these days, so they are more likely to be against people making their own guns in lieu of buying.

 

[GeneralBob]

Perhaps what we'll see is the regulation of the printing resins. From what I've seen, most feel about as strong as malleable sandstone, probably not nearly strong enough for a rapid fire weapon. If/when/if not already high strength resins are developed, their sale could be restricted via permit or what have you.

Also 3d printers are expensive, to do this "convenient weapon printing" could easily run up $50,000. Sure there are cheap home-use printers but I doubt they're precise enough to reliably print moving firearm components.

 

[Estranged180]

Considering that you still need ammo, the simple solution to this (assuming that a printable gun is feasible) is to require licences for ammo and gunpowder/primer.

This is how gun control is really going to work, no facetiousness here. I've been saying it for years, take away the bullets, the gun is nothing more than a club with which to beat people senseless. Were I in politics, I'd probably jump at this opportunity to outlaw the bullets, or at least require a license, background check, criminal records check, etc. to buy them. Yes, I know this is a harsh stance to take, but people are stupid.Stupid enough to run around killing one another for no reason.

I know that sounded preachy, but considering the source (me, I'll get to that shortly) it wasn't intended.

Source: Estranged180, son of a NYC cop.