Posted on 05/05/2013 10:02:39 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Just to establish a baseline of what we’re talking about here, any of you who regularly watch shows like How it’s Made, Modern Marvels or any of the other science and technology offerings on cable probably already know about 3-D printing. (One of the featured manufacturers of these machines has a nice video tutorial on it.) Basically, a 3-D model is designed and the “printer” lays down one layer after another of material until the model is produced. And some of these machines are already getting down to the affordable range.
So what would you do if you got one? Well, if you’re Cody Wilson, you’d print a gun of course. Forbes has the exclusive.
Eight months ago, Cody Wilson set out to create the world’s first entirely 3D-printable handgun.
Now he has.
Early next week, Wilson, a 25-year University of Texas law student and founder of the non-profit group Defense Distributed, plans to release the 3D-printable CAD files for a gun he calls “the Liberator,” pictured in its initial form above. He’s agreed to let me document the process of the gun’s creation, so long as I don’t publish details of its mechanics or its testing until it’s been proven to work reliably and the file has been uploaded to Defense Distributed’s online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org.
Here’s a picture of the piece, provided by Forbes.
Now, if you’re the same kind of sensitive, caring person as me, you’re probably sitting there thinking the same thing I was. “That is totally awesome. I have got to get me one of these.” But this does bring up some dicey subjects. Cody Wilson has been working on this project since last summer – obviously just to make a point that I’m not all that concerned about – and he seems to have pretty much pulled it off in a relatively short period. (Forbes has a good summary of the whole back story at the link.) But I get the impression he was never expecting a fool proof product on the first go.
“We want to show this principle: That a handgun is printable,” says Wilson, a 24-year-old second-year law student at the University of Texas. “You don’t need to be able to put 200 rounds through it…It only has to fire once. But even if the design is a little unworkable, it doesn’t matter, as long as it has that guarantee of lethality.”
As far as I’m concerned, 3-D printing technology is absolutely awesome. It may be the first step on the road to replicators. The number of up-sides to this are probably too numerous to count, since early stage manufacturing for some small businesses who are just starting out might be a lot more affordable. But we have to deal with the fact that the technology is now – or very shortly will be – cranking out guns. Dr. Joyner seems to agree.
… [O]nce this technology becomes more affordable and widespread—and that’s going to happen very, very soon—it’s going to make a lot of existing laws obsolete.
Indeed, there are already attempts to regulate the technology:
New York congressman Steve Israel has responded to Defense Distributed’s work by introducing a bill that would renew the Undetectable Firearms Act with new provisions aimed specifically at 3D printed components. In January, personal 3D printing firm Makerbot removed all gun components from Thingiverse, its popular site for hosting users’ printable designs.
All of that opposition has only made Wilson more eager to prove the possibility of a 3D printed firearm. “Everyone talks about the 3D printing revolution. Well, what did you think would happen when everyone has the means of production?” Wilson asked when we spoke earlier in the week. “I’m interested to see what the potential for this tool really is. Can it print a gun?”
The very nature of the technology would seem to make it next to impossible to regulate.
As technology expands in any area of endeavor, things change. As prices drop and availability increases, the idea of some single set of well regulated manufacturers acting as gatekeepers of tools becomes more and more problematic. And now that seems to be happening in the field of manufacturing complex mechanisms. Yet again, people will be asking us… what do we do about this? I have no idea. But that genie is out of the bottle now, folks.
reminds me of the plastic gun used on a movie that passed through a metal detector undetected . Good thing our enemies are poor/s.
I’m holding out for the printable Bazooka.
EXCERPT FROM WASHINGTON TIMES:
TEXAS, May 4, 2013 — Twenty-five year-old University of Texas law student, Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, says his company has developed the world’s first 3D-printed handgun. The gun, which is comprised of sixteen pieces, is called “The Liberator”; and with the exception of the firing pin, is made from Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a common thermoplastic.
It is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
The gun was printed using a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys. However, in October of last year, Stratasys seized a printer it had rented to Defense Distributed after the company learned how its machine was being used.
In March, Defense Distributed obtained a federal firearms license making it a legal gun manufacturer. The company also included in its design, a six ounce chunk of steel to be inserted into the body of the liberator to make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act.
According to its website, the specific purposes for which Defense Distributed is organized are “to defend the civil liberty of popular access to arms as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, through facilitating global access to, and the collaborative production of, information and knowledge related to 3D printing of arms; and to publish and distribute, at no cost to the public, such information and knowledge in the promotion of the public interest.”
The company plans to promote its agenda by releasing the 3D-printable CAD files for the gun to its online collection of printable gun blueprints at Defcad.org, where anyone who can afford the formidable price of a 3D printer, will be able to download and print the gun, legally or not, with no serial number, background check, or any other regulatory restriction.
Here is the website:
I saw the YouTube of this guy. Pretty impressive..
The printable gun . . . actually kind of cool.
So are the Democrats now going to ban the printing press?
And the bullets????
ping
This sentence is biased, intentionally or not, to the point of being very misleading. It's perfectly legal to make guns for your own use, assuming you're not a prohibited possessor such as a felon, and as long as the guns aren't NFA items. Even BATFE freely admits this. So what's with this "legally or not" crap?
RE: I saw the YouTube of this guy. Pretty impressive..
The full 24 minute video documentary of the 3-D gun printing process can be found here for those interested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DconsfGsXyA
It already has 5.6 Million views.
‘So what’s with this “legally or not” crap?’
You’re comments are based on the Law as established by the Federal Government of the United States. That’s not the only government that establishes law.
Personally, I am waiting for The printable gun that will not blow up in your hand} [has arrived.
Wanna bet thousands of democrats are planning to buy the printers or files?
Staples to sell ‘affordable’ $1,299 3D printer starting in June.
http://www.examiner.com/article/staples-to-sell-affordable-1-299-3d-printer-starting-june
likely easier than a rifle as the pressures exit the posterior since the rounds are basically rocket propelled. The Bazooka is just a launch tube with an ignitor switch while a rifle needs to channel the propellant’s pressure to move the projectile forward. This means the rifle needs to withstand the internal pressures built up while the bazooka merely acts as an aiming platform.
you can find some in the 500-600 range though not with as many bells and whistles.
Why, are there some states that prohibit rolling your own?
I especially like the name he chose. The Liberator was a single-shot .45 caliber pistol dropped by the thousands into occupied Europe during WWII to provide resistance fighters some firepower to oppose the Nazis. A very fitting tribute to that gun.
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