Posted on 06/21/2019 10:54:57 AM PDT by BenLurkin
No, probably not.
It has lead to an incredibly long term period of relative peace, compared to WWI and WWII.
The lunatics in the Maryland General Asylum (legislature) proposed banning the possession of 3d gun computer files this year.
I sent a letter to my lunatic telling him what a great idea that was, after he can show me one thing in the history of the world that has been un-invented.
Where are the files?
I just wanna 3-D print my own aircraft carrier.
And fighter jets, too.
Man, those were good times.
SCTV and “Fridays”
“... it seems to me a 3-d print of these things on most widely available printers would be more danger to the user than to anyone else, if actually fired...” [OldNewYork, post 18]
Not if the parts are designed properly.
It’s been proven that barrels, breeches, even springs can be made from relatively soft materials (some plastics) that will withstand a few firings from moderate-pressure pistol cartridges like 9mm NATO (rifle rounds, which create pressures twice as high, are another story).
It’s unlikely that any additive manufacturing process will provide one-for-one replacements for parts that are currently fashioned from steel or aluminum, so we’re not going to see anything like an all-3D Glock 17 nor Colt’s AR-15.
Any 3D-printed gun will not be the match of a more conventionally manufactured firearm in size, weight, durability, accuracy, nor handling qualities.
Making it go bang once isn’t the problem; making it do so, over and over, without fail, for a useful length of time is.
Even when guns are made of steel and aluminum, shaping the part isn’t the limitation; heat treatment, tempering, hardening are. One cannot simply forge (nor machine, nor cast) a barrel out of, say, steel and have it work. It must be tempered and often surface hardened: sometimes in a number of different ways, in the proper sequence too.
Springs are the worst: one must coil a spring first, out of soft material. Only then can it be heat-treated (tempered) to bring out its elasticity. It can be done theoretically with a backyard furnace, but getting the right temperature and duration can require some skill, and (given certain parts shapes) cannot be done without modern instruments and heat sources, typically available only to heavy industry.
No wonder governments that limit their citizens’ access to weaponry for home and personal defense are worried about these things. Thanks for your informed answer.
Every existing law that controls a person from making a firearm with files, drills, mills, and/or a lathe also applies to anyone printing one with a 3D printer. Way too much hysteria on this subject.
It is a common problem for gunsmiths.
Additionally there are numerous ready made coil springs easily purchased on the market.
You evil bastard. Oh the huge manatee!
There’s a huge difference between a 3D printable FRAME and a 3D printable GUN (which is all parts).
The all printed pistols even need secondary machining to work at all.
So, no, not one of of four but four out of four.
As Garth Tater points out in #18, the “firearm” is the frame (The piece that gets the serial number).
If you can make a frame, then all the other parts (barrel, springs, etc) can currently be bought for cash without paperwork.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - A.C.Clarke
Occurred to me:
Progressives genuinely believe in magic.
Cellphones (scrying glass), 3d printing (replicators), doxxing & registration (true names), robotics (golums), engineering (conjuring), etc - the old terms aren’t used, but the attitude toward the mysterious is the same: indulging/demanding fantasy, fearing those who have mastery & confidence in arcane subjects.
They don’t grasp the science of nature (say, weather), attribute perceived threats (climate change) to angry gods who demand penance & tribute (green energy economy thru compulsory taxation) directed by high priests (politicians) and their minions (climate scientists & clean energy companies), favoring white magic (solar & wind energy) and advocating witch hunts & trials for practitioners of black arts (nuclear & fossil fuels).
Same patterns of superstition, just terms have changed.
I see. I guess that’s what’s going to most be keeping the gun-grabbers up at night currently then.
“Making springs is nowhere near as difficult as you think...
Additionally there are numerous ready made coil springs easily purchased on the market.”
One gathers you’ve not made that many.
Brownells deserves more credit that most of us can possibly imagine, for codifying this stuff into a form comprehensible to postmoderns, publishing it, and selling supplies & equipment that make it possible for untrained people to dabble in the art.
My apologies for insufficient verbal completeness and lack of precision.
It is possible for trained people to make good springs, but it takes time & practice to master the skill. Yet more difficult is the ability to turn out a useful quantity possessed of sufficient quality.
There are large numbers of specialty manufacturers who turn out good numbers of specialized springs; so in one sense the market situation is better than ever. But more and more of these are following the market, toward supplying springs for modern guns, for customized versions of same, and for historic arms or copies (think of the ever-mounting numbers: AR-15 knockoffs, Colt’s Government-Model copies, Ruger Vaqueros, Colt’s SAA etc).
Finding a replacement for the bolt spring on a S&W No 1, or the mainsprings of Merwin Hulbert revolvers, is another story.
And for applications that require a spring more complex than a constant-diameter helical coil, the task is more complex. Springs for the chamber indicators in Walther’s P38 and PP have long tails & curves with multiple radii in more than one plane.
General gunsmithing and repair are a dying part of the profession, in part because the American public doesn’t want to pay the amounts required for sole proprietors and other small operators to support themselves. The liability climate is also unfavorable, the regulatory situation isn’t hopeful, and government hostility (federal and local) poses additional problems. Manufacturers are less willing to sell parts to third parties such as independent repair firms; same with repair & servicing information - for similar reasons.
“...all that might change if I was somehow transported to the hinterlands of Pakistan and needed to do something to support my family. Still, way beyond anything we could do in the high tech world we live in.” [Garth Tater, post 31]
Thanks bundles for the wonderful photo of the artisan at work. Fascinating, to see the dozen-odd TT-33 pistols hanging on the wall over his head.
Certainly the Tribal Areas are famous around the world, for the skills of locals, using the most basic tools. But the wonder of it is that any such guns work at all, not that they can come anywhere close to issue arms from industrial sources. Better than nothing, of course; but strength, service life, and accuracy are something else.
The latter three attributes are the result of industrial processes, created through applied science & engineering, monitored by instruments in the hands of skilled personnel: the First World mastered them over 100 years ago and the Second World has been copying them.
But that still doesn’t make them truly 3D printed because you still need all these other more difficult to make parts.
Meanwhile, I wonder how long it will take these whining nitwits to start demanding registration and control of privately held lathes and mills that actually can crank out worthwhile parts to use with those scary 3D printed frames?
And after that what about privately owned grinding stones needed to sharpen knives?
Our whittling knives needed to make pointed sticks?
Or fresh fruit and 10 ton falling weights?
How far down this rabbit hole will the surrender-all-to-government monkeys really go?
I know, silly question.
Those that want government to do everything for people roughly fall into two camps: those ignorant that a government that can do anything for you can do anything to you and those eagerly hoping to do all sorts of stuff to the people once they swallow the bait.
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