Print and Fire: 3D printing of weapons

Let’s find out,”

Defense Distributed emphasizes that if people want to shoot guns, they’ll shoot guns, and that it is their right to do so. For the people that get hurt along the way, they are sorry.

“There’s nothing that you can say to a grieving parent, but that’s still no reason to be quiet. I don’t lose my rights because someone is a criminal,” Wilson told Digitaltrends.com.

“People say you’re going to allow people to hurt people, well, that’s one of the sad realities of liberty. People abuse freedom,” the Texas University law student told digitaltrends.com in another interview. “But that’s no excuse not to have these rights or to feel good about someone taking them away from you.”

In the Wall Street Journal, Israel was quoted calling Wilson’s project “fundamentally irresponsible.” But manufacturing a gun out of one’s home is not a new idea. In fact, gun lovers have been making their own guns for years and it has not been deemed illegal. Ginger Colburn, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms told The Economist that “pens, books, belts, clubs — you name it — people have turned it into a firearm.”

LEGAL OR NOT, PEOPLE FIND THEMSELVES GUNS

Some policy makers and anti-gun vocalists claim that 3D printed guns will lead to rampant, widespread use of the weapon, which in turn will lead to rampant, widespread violence.

Cue Helen Lovejoy’s, “somebody think of the children!”

But Wilson says that if somebody really wants a gun, they’ll find a gun whether it’s illegal or not.

“I don’t see any empirical evidence that access to guns increases the rate of violent crime. If someone wants to get their hands on a gun, they’ll get their hands on a gun,” he told Forbes. “This opens a lot of doors. Any advance in technology has posed these questions. It’s not clear cut that this is just a good thing. But liberty and responsibility are scary.”

While it might be unsettling to know that anyone can download and print a gun, Michael Weinberg, an attorney for Public Knowledge, a non-profit organization that focuses on the public’s access to information and internet believes that preventing gun control is ineffective. Weinberg fears sloppy regulation over 3D printing more than readily accessible guns.

“When you have a general purpose technology, it will be used for things you don’t want people to use it for. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong or illegal. I won’t use my 3D printer to make a weapon, but I’m not going to crusade against people who would do that,” he told Forbes.

In the same story, he also points out that a plastic gun would be less effective than a metal one.

However, so long as the plastic gun can shoot a bullet at warp speed, it seems to be effective enough.

Printing in 3D is a very expensive technology. The CBC reported that one machine can cost anywhere between $9,000 to $600,000.

Computers were also expensive at one point. It’s safe to say that this technology is a game-changer and it is likely that one day it will be a common household item. And the problem remains: Bow to stop criminals from making guns? Congressman Israel says he believes he has the solution to this problem. He says he is not treading on anyone’s liberties while trying to protect public safety. But until 3D printing becomes more widespread, Israel is merely shooting in the dark.

Source:
UNODC
CBC
The Globe and Mail
The Atlantic Wire
Digital Trends
Forbes
The Economist
The Economist
WSJ
Israel House Government
Public Knowledge
CBC