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3D Printing Under Attack

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Edvard:
 ;D ;D ;D

app103:

Really? A cheap untraceable gun suitable for use at close range doesn't inspire all sorts of creative thinking?

It doesn't even need to be durable. All it needs to do is be able to fire a single shot (or six) with a fair degree of reliability and voila - Disposable guns! One step better than the so-called 'Saturday Night Special.' Doesn't even need to be that accurate as long as it keeps fairly close to the direction it's pointed in. Look at the flare guns found on boats. Most are now made of plastic. And they perform for their intended use as well as the old-fashioned durable variety.

So much for even having (highly flawed) ballistic or manufacturer's data to fall back on for traceability when a weapon has no pedigree whatsoever. Especially if it's ground up and recycled (or even melted a bit and tossed) shortly after it's been used. It's almost like saying: "Imagine a gun."

 8)
-40hz (October 14, 2012, 05:41 AM)
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You made me think of this again.

At one time, its inventor tried to get it classified as a medical device, with the possibility of Medicare picking up the costs for any elderly or disabled person that wanted one. http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Company_hopes_to_gun_for_seniors_1208.html

FDA didn't buy his claims and rejected it. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28116693

And that one resembles this one, which I am sure the patent has long since expired. I bet this one would be a perfect candidate for 3D printing (without the worry of DRM protected designs), if/when the technology does get to a point where guns could be printed.

Stoic Joker:
And that one resembles this one, which I am sure the patent has long since expired. I bet this one would be a perfect candidate for 3D printing (without the worry of DRM protected designs), if/when the technology does get to a point where guns could be printed.-app103 (October 15, 2012, 11:10 AM)
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Interesting point. Just because you can't print a specific gun ... Doesn't mean you can't print a gun like device. Computers do tend to be horribly specific...and deviations can be filed off quite easily.

How about printing a plastic 38 revolver, and using a steel cylinder.

app103:
I always had issues with certain sci-fi stories that depict the future as rather steampunkish in appearance (I am looking at you, Firefly). I could never understand how we get from where we are now to a sort of backwards styled but advanced future. Now I know. Now it all makes sense. It's all due to DRM in 3D printing forcing people to use very old copyright/patent expired designs and building from there.  :D

40hz:
How about printing a plastic 38 revolver, and using a steel cylinder.
-Stoic Joker (October 15, 2012, 11:38 AM)
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Anything that has a barrel and some kind of receiver durable enough that it won't blow up in your hand when you fired it would do.

And if it's only a one-shot (or disposable) that shouldn't be too hard considering the number of improvised (but deadly firearms) that can be fabricated even without a fancy 3D printer. A quick Google will net you dozens of designs - so it's not as if 3D printing brought a new capability to the table. It just promises to make it easier for the technically challenged - and possibly spawn a bigger US 'cottage' armament industry.

Not that you even need for it to be a traditional firearm. There are lots of other projectile weapons that don't depend on a charge to do their work. Although the phrase "zip gun" has gone out of vogue, it hasn't removed them from the street. ANd with some of the new materials they're being made from, they've gotten a lot deadlier.. A friend of mine who is with our State Police showed me a homebrew "gun" that could punch a triangular wedge of sharpened scrap metal through a half-inch piece of solid core plywood at 10 yards. With no flash and hardly any sound either - so it doesn't need a silencer or muzzle flash arrestor for 'stealth' use. This was the real deal - a genuine man-killer - and one nasty piece of hardware. Even had a pretty little silver cross amateurishly embedded in the grip.

The only thing that caused a drop in the zip gun's market share was the influx of dirt cheap "real guns" which started appearing (in the US) in earnest during the 80s.

Sad truth is, weapons acquisition is driven by a need - real or perceived - to have a fallback in an emergency.

The only way they're ever going to get a handle the number of guns on the street is if the powers that be finally start addressing the root causes behind it. Most people I know prefer not to own or carry a gun. But I'm seeing and hearing of more and more people who used to be adamantly opposed to "having a weapon in the house" now seriously considering getting one and learning how to use it.

Maybe the time has come to drop the glittering generalities and propaganda and start some genuine dialog about why this is happening?

Hello? Washington? State Governments? Is there anybody out there?

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