Print Your Own Firearm?

[ChicagoRSX]

I know this is only a link to the yahoo article, but I'm not sure how I feel about this. It's cool to a degree, but it's dangerous as well as the idea of bomb making instructions being online and readily available. I think this will possibly give the government and gun manufactures a fit. Please read the yahoo article and watch the video, as I'm short on time and can't summarize it at this moment.

[url="http://news.yahoo.com/you-don-t-bring-a-3d-printer-to-a-gun-fight----yet.html"]http://news.yahoo.co...ght----yet.html[/url]

[Chreees]

Only bad thing I can think of after reading that is it'd be easier to make yourself a murder weapon if you wanted to. Not good.

[gramps]

I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. The pressures generated by the powder exploding in a modern cartridge are way too much for ABS plastic. You're going to need a way to print strong steel for the chamber and barrel, and that's not going to be possible for the foreseeable future. Let's put it this way -- I don't want to be the first one to fire a printed gun; you can have that honor.

As far as bombs go, if you have the basic ingredients for printing one, you may as well go ahead and make one the conventional way.

[Stuie]

[quote name='gramps' timestamp='1347230264' post='556058']
I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. The pressures generated by the powder exploding in a modern cartridge are way too much for ABS plastic. You're going to need a way to print strong steel for the chamber and barrel, and that's not going to be possible for the foreseeable future. Let's put it this way -- I don't want to be the first one to fire a printed gun; you can have that honor.

As far as bombs go, if you have the basic ingredients for printing one, you may as well go ahead and make one the conventional way.
[/quote]

Yeah guns contain an EXPLOSION! Printing something that could do that is technology is decades away.

Printing Kabar's maybe.

There are at least 65 possible "Murder" weapons in my kitchen not counting the Candlesticks in the Observatory.

[Chreees]

Good point about the whole explosion/ABS thing. Didn't even think about how stupid of an idea that'd be.


Tapatalk'd via iPhone

[Venger]

I saw a special where they showed all the weapons that had been made in prison. One guy made a bow and arrow out of rolled news paper,glue and the elastic from his underwear. He put a guy in the hospital with it. You don't need a gun to kill someone. All you need are some craft supplies and the time. Stop worrying about the tools and concentrate on the users of the tools.
Ray

[Stuie]

[quote name='Venger' timestamp='1347285831' post='556093']
[color=#ff0000][b]Stop worrying about the tools and concentrate on the users of the tools.[/b][/color]
[/quote]

QFMFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I remember in High School I got in trouble a lot for my chain wallet. I asked why one time. "You could use it to strangle someone" I proceeded to take off my flannel long sleeve shirt... and replied "I couldn't wrap this around your neck and strangle you?" They wouldn't let me where over shirts after that. Something about being a danger to others.

Story of my life. I prove someone wrong or stupid with simple logic and I am branded dangerous or crazy.

[Rani]

When I was in high school, more years ago than most of you have been alive, we built a "sample" nuclear bomb as a science project, using Play-doh instead of actual weapons grade plutonium. We got the plans off the internet. Yeah, even back then. The information has always been there and is impossible to monitor. So they've made it much more difficult to acquire the materials. They're never going to close down the information, or at least I hope not. Because the same place you can go to get dangerous information is the same place you go to get useful knowledge. It's the people we need to worry about - not the weapons, or even the materials to build them. Fix the people problem by fixing our societal woes and we won't have to worry about a Columbine or Oklahoma City, or Boulder Theater so much.

'Rani

[gramps]

You can probably buy weapons-grade plutonium at Walmart. Try the Health and Beauty section.

We HAD the people problem just about solved at one time. All through school every boy in my class carried a pocket knife. There were several fist fights each year, but nobody ever pulled a knife on a classmate. We even had hunting rifles in our vehicles parked at school!! Nobody ever thought about using a gun in a fight.

Somewhere between then and now we lost it. Maybe we listened to too many people who were educated beyond their intelligence. Nowadays you can get in trouble for just drawing a picture of a knife. That's simply insane. There's no common sense left.

I think about stuff like that every time I have to drive onto a school campus. I'm breaking umpteen laws. Firearm? Check. OTC drugs? Check. Knife? Check. Tobacco products? Check. I'm a lawbreaker by being NORMAL!

[Urloc]

Totally agree with gramps here.

All my family were hunters and at home I had easy access to at least 6 shotguns and a good deal of smaller weapons like knives. I never even had the idea of using them in a street fight. The key here is education and not restriction.

[TheScotsman]

Manufacture is simple, a tube, and a hammer. Not much to it. Keeping it in one piece is another story. Crusher pressures go from a .22 C&B at 18,000CUP (roughly same as PSI) on the weakest end. My 408Chey is the other end of the chart, at 69,500CUP Going to take one hell of a thick chunk of polymer to keep the boom from even a whimpy cartridge all pointed down the noisy end.

[ChicagoRSX]

Well the company produced the gun, it fired 6 shots before it broke! Now, I agree the important part is education and not restriction. But living near the murder capital of Chicago, I find this dangerous. This isn't dangerous for law abiding gun enthusiasts such as the people on this forum. But it's dangerous in the hands of gang bangers and thugs. Honestly, 1 gun, completely(or at least practically untraceable) 6 bodies on it. A machine to produce this weapon only retails $500. That's pocket change for today's gangs to come up with.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proguns, I love going to the range. But the problem is the guys who have no intent on following the law from the get go. God I want conceal carry to pass so my family and friends can legally protect themselves.

[Venger]

Banning the printer would be akin to banning steak knives. Sure you can cut steaks with them but a non law abider could stab someone as well. These 3d printers have amazing potential for too many goods to worry about a few bads. For example a computer could take a 3d laser image of a defective heart and sent a 3d hard copy to dozens of Dr's around the world who could then combine there efforts in a real world senerio to save the patients life.

[ChicagoRSX]

Not suggesting banning the printer.

[Bawhee]

well you cant rightfully monitor what people do with it either... and honestly a gun that can fire 6 shots even though it is dangerous you still need to buy ammo and event hough gun laws in the US are a bit more liberal than over here I imagine you need a license? And if your argument is that its easy to get ammo illegally... well, its just as easy to get a gun that way... its the people that are the problem, you can find potential to hurt others in just about anything. I mean you could kill a person with a roll of aluminum foil or just your bare hands if you wanted... know what Im saying?

[Chreees]

[quote name='Bawhee' timestamp='1354832637' post='564193']
well you cant rightfully monitor what people do with it either... and honestly a gun that can fire 6 shots even though it is dangerous you still need to buy ammo and event hough gun laws in the US are a bit more liberal than over here I imagine you need a license? And if your argument is that its easy to get ammo illegally... well, its just as easy to get a gun that way... its the people that are the problem, you can find potential to hurt others in just about anything. I mean you could kill a person with a roll of aluminum foil or just your bare hands if you wanted... know what Im saying?
[/quote]

Yes, I do believe I know what you are saying.

[img]http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g341/vincentstdoon/Butters-Pic-1.jpg[/img]

[ChicagoRSX]

[quote name='Bawhee' timestamp='1354832637' post='564193']
well you cant rightfully monitor what people do with it either... and honestly a gun that can fire 6 shots even though it is dangerous you still need to buy ammo and event hough gun laws in the US are a bit more liberal than over here I imagine you need a license?
[/quote]

No sir, depending on what state you live in, you may or may not need to have a license to purchase ammo.

[Bawhee]

Wow, thats pretty stupid IMO...

[fineout]

for less money than that, criminals can buy many stolen/unlisenced guns that can shoot many more times than 6. This isnt even a conversation worth having.

[ChicagoRSX]

[quote name='fineout' timestamp='1354902892' post='564291']
for less money than that, criminals can buy many stolen/unlisenced guns that can shoot many more times than 6. This isnt even a conversation worth having.
[/quote]

first, unlicensed weapons still have a serial that can be recovered with forensic methods and traced even when the serial is ground down. And once the technology improves and the materials can withstand the explosive force of the bullet, then these weapons can put more then 6 bodies on them, what then? Will that be the conversation worth having?

[r1v3th3ad]

Can someone relink me the article? the yahoo link at first post is dead

[thehelios]

Only thing I can think of that would prevent these 3d printers from printing handguns is to have a firmware restriction with some fancy algorithms to detect if a weapon is being pushed to the printer. If it detects that the design is a weapon, it won't print it. Add some EEPROM and E-Fuse restrictions and trying to hack the firmware will lead to a now-dead 3d printer.

This of course would be hacked eventually but seeing how crazy hard its been for people to hack the firmware on the PS3, it should at least stand for some time.


Just for some back info, many Motorola phones in from 2010-2012 had a firmware block on the processor to prevent people from rooting/"jailbreaking" their phones. If the hardware detected a non-manufaturer firmware was being pushed, it would physically blow an "E-FUSE" and permanentaly brick the phone with no way back.

The same system was used on xbox 360's when they went from the 1.x firmware to the 2.x firmware to prevent people from hacking them to play pirated games. Once you updated, it blew an E-FUSE on the CPU and there was no way to go back to the older, hackable versions.

[ChicagoRSX]

[quote name='thehelios' timestamp='1355798000' post='565466']
Only thing I can think of that would prevent these 3d printers from printing handguns is to have a firmware restriction with some fancy algorithms to detect if a weapon is being pushed to the printer. If it detects that the design is a weapon, it won't print it. Add some EEPROM and E-Fuse restrictions and trying to hack the firmware will lead to a now-dead 3d printer.

This of course would be hacked eventually but seeing how crazy hard its been for people to hack the firmware on the PS3, it should at least stand for some time.


Just for some back info, many Motorola phones in from 2010-2012 had a firmware block on the processor to prevent people from rooting/"jailbreaking" their phones. If the hardware detected a non-manufaturer firmware was being pushed, it would physically blow an "E-FUSE" and permanentaly brick the phone with no way back.

The same system was used on xbox 360's when they went from the 1.x firmware to the 2.x firmware to prevent people from hacking them to play pirated games. Once you updated, it blew an E-FUSE on the CPU and there was no way to go back to the older, hackable versions.
[/quote]

I would support this. As it stands I'm not against this. I wouldn't mind if somehow in the printing procedure the owner/lease of the printer/program had to inscribe their name/some sort of serial number. I just would like to see some sort of accountability.

[thehelios]

I'm all for gun owner rights but under no circumstance should people be freely able to print their own weapons (got to love that 5 day waiting period if you don't have your CWP).

A major problem we have now is that even though the ABS plastics aren't able to handle the immense pressure of a firing round, you can still print out parts to make a semi-auto_to_fully-auto conversion kit for rifles, pistols, etc. We need to get a way ASAP to prevent the printing of these types of things.

Problem is how can a piece of software tell the difference between a firing pin and a motherboard mounting screw?