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First Working 3D Printed Gun Made

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Here is an article. So now there's been a working gun (mostly) made with a 3D printer. The creator says he will put the plans online for free.

After being asked about the possibility of guns falling into the wrong hands the creator is quoted saying: "I recognize the tool might be used to harm other people - that's what the tool is - it's a gun. But I don't think that's a reason to not do it - or a reason not to put it out there."

The printer cost him $8000. It didn't say how much the materials cost. Anyway, with how technology works it will probably become easier and cheaper with time to make one.
 
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  • Seen Aug 25, 2015
Um wow I do not see this as a good thing at all 0_o

anyone with one of these printers and the right materials will be able to make a gun.
 

BraveNewWorld

The Breaker
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10
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I foresee a trend...

Step 1: Buy 3D printer
Step 2: Retrieve durable gun model online
Step 3: Get materials to create guns
Step 4: Print guns in basement
Step 5: Travel to inner city
Step 6: Exchange guns for drug money
Step 7: ???
Step 8: Profit!!!
 
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As interesting as the development is, I sort of feel this guy needs to be shot with one of his own gun... it doesn't have to be fatal but it does have to get the point across.

The last thing the world needs right now, are easy-to-make weapons and whilst I realise that it is expensive right now, it won't be long before a cheaper simpler method for producing the weapon is devised.

Furthermore; if your creation is going to pose a threat to society - and you know for a fact it probably will - it is never a good idea to put it on the internet.
 

Archenoth

The arch foe
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  • Seen Nov 6, 2020
To be honest, I don't think that this will really change a lot.

I can understand the hostility towards the guy, but the limiting factor for most human hostility is not the availability of weapons. As a matter of fact, we have an incredible overabundance of guns as it is.

The people that should never hold guns usually have other means of accessing them anyway. And there are also many other lethal things anyone could easily create from items laying around a house, or even in garbage if the person in question is homeless.

Which also raises the point, if you have access to a 3D printer to print off a gun, chances are you have the funding and capability to easily get your hands on a gun via legitimate means without too much trouble anyway.
 
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The thing that dosent sit right with me is this guy's attitude. He knows he's giving people the means to harm others and knows that people could use this to make working guns to harm people, but he dosent care.
 
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To be honest, I don't think that this will really change a lot.

I can understand the hostility towards the guy, but the limiting factor for most human hostility is not the availability of weapons. As a matter of fact, we have an incredible overabundance of guns as it is.

The people that should never hold guns usually have other means of accessing them anyway. And there are also many other lethal things anyone could easily create from items laying around a house, or even in garbage if the person in question is homeless.

Which also raises the point, if you have access to a 3D printer to print off a gun, chances are you have the funding and capability to easily get your hands on a gun via legitimate means without too much trouble anyway.
The biggest concern about this is that plastic guns aren't detectable by metal detectors. The guy who made this gun put a piece of non-functional metal in the gun because the law says he has to and he's purposefully putting himself in the spotlight so it would be dumb not to follow the law, but anyone else out there who might want to make a gun in private could skip that step and have an untraceable gun that they might be able to slip onto an airplane or into a big stadium or worse.
 

KriegStein

Nuclear Reactor
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The biggest concern about this is that plastic guns aren't detectable by metal detectors. The guy who made this gun put a piece of non-functional metal in the gun because the law says he has to and he's purposefully putting himself in the spotlight so it would be dumb not to follow the law, but anyone else out there who might want to make a gun in private could skip that step and have an untraceable gun that they might be able to slip onto an airplane or into a big stadium or worse.
Eventhough the gun wouldnt show in detectors the bullets would. Since you cant make those from plastic. (functional ones)
 
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Eventhough the gun wouldnt show in detectors the bullets would. Since you cant make those from plastic. (functional ones)
Not yet you can't, but point taken. It's not an immediate danger. I do wonder if a plastic gun with a single bullet in it would show up on all kinds of metal detectors though, or if being encased in plastic would somehow negate the effectiveness of the detectors.
 

KriegStein

Nuclear Reactor
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Not yet you can't, but point taken. It's not an immediate danger. I do wonder if a plastic gun with a single bullet in it would show up on all kinds of metal detectors though, or if being encased in plastic would somehow negate the effectiveness of the detectors.

If detectors could be fooled that easily there would be more shootings. Hmm. The only lethal thing that he can make with a 3d printer would be a plastic paper knife. When 3d printers can mold metal, then we have a serious threat.
 
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$8,000 plus material to make a gun? I'm pretty sure unintelligent criminals would much rather prefer buying their weapons on the black market for much cheaper, or stealing them for free like they already do.

It's an interesting technological advancement, but will never get to be mainstream or producing anything of a threat to the market or our safety beyond where it already is currently.
 
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$8,000 plus material to make a gun? I'm pretty sure unintelligent criminals would much rather prefer buying their weapons on the black market for much cheaper, or stealing them for free like they already do.

It's an interesting technological advancement, but will never get to be mainstream or producing anything of a threat to the market or our safety beyond where it already is currently.

What if they just steal a printer and the materials? Why go through the effort of stealing a gun when you can steal something that makes multiple guns?
 

Lokhlan

Formerly "Tendo"
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As worrisome as this development might be to some, I'm not particularly concerned about printable handguns being untraceable. A few things to consider:

Regardless of the six-ounce slip of steel inserted into the gun per the Undetectable Firearms Act, plastic guns use real bullets (as mentioned above) and require a nail to be used as the firing pin - which is traceable. You can't substitute a metal firing pin for a plastic one, the gun simply wouldn't fire without the force of the metallic nail impacting the real bullet.

Besides that, the barrel of the plastic gun can only take so much abuse before it's unusable anymore. The designers know this which is why they designed the gun to have interchangeable barrels. Additionally, the more you use the same barrel, the less accurate it'll become making the gun less desirable to any nut job out there wanting to commit mass casualties.

With all the mass hysteria in the media regarding printable plastic guns you'd think we have a real emergency on our hands, but we don't. For these guns to be usable they have to be detectable.
 
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Ragetendo

The Angry Italian
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These guns are steaming piles, You could make a more reliable gun in your garage for a faction of the price. Hell people make guns in prison lol So I don't see anything changing, this story is just to show "hey look what technology can do now".
 

Sir Codin

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I agree with Ragetendo on this. If you have the right know-how, you can make something equivalent to an AK-47 with nothing more than a box of scraps...and you don't even need the cave. So already this whole concept of a 3-D printed gun reeks of impracticality. And as...what's his face - the guy with the post below Bugsy - pointed out, the gun may be plastic, but the bullets it uses are still metal, so good luck getting it past a metal detector.

Cracked.com recently got on this. I know it's a humor site, but I feel they've still made a few good points:

http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/...age&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

Let's see:

- Terrible accuracy
- Wimpy bullet
- Can only fire once before reloading
- Terrible durability
- Also, look at. Just...look at it:

Wiki_Weapon.jpg


If someone brandishes this on me, I'm more likely to laugh my ass off than feel threatened. I understand and agree with the right to bear arms, but if you're going to be arming your revolutionary league with these things, the only chance you have of overthrowing Big Brother is if his army keels over and dies from laughing after seeing your men armed with these ludicrous pieces of junk.
 
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Mr. X

It's... kinda effective?
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Go ahead, dismiss this technology as stupid or novel. You'll join a long list of people who dismissed other technology - Such as the car - as the same.

Technology evolves. It's crap at first, outperformed by older more established technologies. But then the technology advances. Greater understanding of the new technology allows things to be added to it, to remove it's flaws. Interest in the technology spurs advancement of other technologies that would benefit it.

Back in the day people said the same thing about the Internet. The cord that was first used to connect the first two computers in what was the test of Internets most basic use? It was massive. It weighed a lot. And the speed was terribly slow. I'm talking single digits, in bits. Basically, it was inefficient as hell. And by your logic it was impractical. Useless.

Ask yourself this - Can you imagine a world without Internet? Without this once stupid, novel, impractical technology?

3D printing will advance. Technological advancement is inevitable. Sure, this technology seems impractical now... But what about a year from now? Two? Five? A decade?
 

Sir Codin

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Technology evolves. It's crap at first, outperformed by older more established technologies. But then the technology advances. Greater understanding of the new technology allows things to be added to it, to remove it's flaws. Interest in the technology spurs advancement of other technologies that would benefit it.

3D printing will advance. Technological advancement is inevitable. Sure, this technology seems impractical now... But what about a year from now? Two? Five? A decade?
In that case, maybe one day people can print a bullet-proof vest or armor for cheap. Of course, then they'll be making 3-D printed armor-piercing rounds. Great, back to square one.

Great, you know, you've got me curious about this now. If one day they'll make 3-D printing guns more practical, you gotta wonder what else you could make with a 3-D printer for cheap.
 
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Mr. X

It's... kinda effective?
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Scientists are already experimenting with printing body parts.

Edit - As far as I know, this would work in conjunction with cell injections. Print out the shape, inject living cells to form around it.

3D printing is a great technology, but most people are looking to what it, by itself, can do. They ignore what can be done if combined with other technologies. It's a bit pricey... Well, a lot pricey,... right now but I'd be intrested in seeing what can be made with a combined 3D printer/laser cutter (Whatever it's called - You upload the specs, put metal/wood/whatever inside and a laser cuts out the design from it. I can't remember the name of it, but I remember seeing one while touring a metal fab class)

2 - NASA is funding research into a 3d food printer as well.
 
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10,769
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They've already done a lot with 3D printing. There's someone out there who had a bladder printed, and that was a decade ago. I went to a show a little while ago that had a bunch of things on display that were made with these printers and while you and I can't afford some of the fancier printers, there's a whole lot of crazy stuff that's being made with them by us regular people. Like prosthetic limbs:

Spoiler:


Back to the topic at hand, it doesn't matter that these guns only fire once. That's still potentially lethal. And even if bullets are metal, I don't think there are many places that do a background check on bullets like they do on guns. So if you're unable to buy a gun legally you could print one then go to Wallmart or wherever and buy some bullets legally.
 
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