All materials have intrinsic limits. Anyone who has picked up a shell casing after a shot knows they can get very hot. The most basic 3-D printing materials are PLA and ABS, both of which melt and deform at high temperatures. I cannot imagine that a firearm made from these materials would last very long without losing effectiveness and function, and become dangerous to the user. Metal printing technology is extremely expensive right now so I'm not too concerned in the short term. That said, additive manufacturing will only get better and more affordable.

(July 31, 2018 at 10:54 am)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: All materials have intrinsic limits. Anyone who has picked up a shell casing after a shot knows they can get very hot. The most basic 3-D printing materials are PLA and ABS, both of which melt and deform at high temperatures. I cannot imagine that a firearm made from these materials would last very long without losing effectiveness and function, and become dangerous to the user. Metal printing technology is extremely expensive right now so I'm not too concerned in the short term. That said, additive manufacturing will only get better and more affordable.

       I was thinking the same thing, but these plans should not be easily available. We have enough of a gun problem has it is, removing guns from the culture is what is needed. Making it easier to get them is a bad idea, I would rather have a knife problem then a gun problem, you can only take so many lives with a knife.

On the other hand, this could be beneficial. The government could hack the 3D gun printing plans resulting in people printing off guns that don't work.

(July 31, 2018 at 1:33 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: On the other hand, this could be beneficial. The government could hack the 3D gun printing plans resulting in people printing off guns that don't work.

That didn't really.work very well for the MPAA. Too many copies on too many file sharing sites.

(July 31, 2018 at 1:40 pm)The Gentleman Bastard Wrote:

(July 31, 2018 at 1:33 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: On the other hand, this could be beneficial.  The government could hack the 3D gun printing plans resulting in people printing off guns that don't work.

That didn't really.work very well for the MPAA. Too many copies on too many file sharing sites.

Worst that can happen with a movie is you waste a few minutes time. Having a gun malfunction at the wrong time or blow up in your face is a whole different ball of wax.

Defense Distributed, the company at the heart of this particular case, weren't the first people to distribute gun plans online. 2d plans for AR-15's have been available to the public since before the Internet was a thing.



3d cad files for the AR-15 and others were available on the Internet before Defense Distributed and while they were in legal limbo.

https://grabcad.com/library/ar15-lower-s...s-native-1

This whole thing didn't even affect their primary product the ghost gunner. It is a mini mill purpose built to produce gun parts. It and the software required to produce gun parts has been available from them this whole time.



You don't need a 3d printer or a mini mill to make an AR lower anyway. A friggin' 2x4 will work.

You might notice someone carrying that on to an airliner, though.

These plastic things are a whole different cesspool of turds.

I like my guns same a boobs...without any plastic parts.

(July 31, 2018 at 9:10 am)RoadRunner79 Wrote:

(July 30, 2018 at 11:50 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: As opposed to one of those natural guns found in nature?

Honestly, I wasn't too worried at first, since, from my early reading on the subject, it seemed that the 3D printed gun designs out there could only be fired once before the force inherent in firing a bullet turned it into a shrapnel bomb.

Then I saw this:





And then I realised: holy shit, this actually works.

I don’t think that I’m going to trust a homemade plastic gun too much. While if someone Hong did go wrong, it may shatter, but I don’t want that to happen a few inches from my nose.

You may be a relatively sane gun owner (if I'm interpreting this correctly), but we're still going to get a shitton of idiots trying to make it, even if it does fuck up. And the NRA will do everything in their power to keep them in legal circulation and stymie any attempts to keep it in check, no matter how sensible it may be.

(July 31, 2018 at 10:14 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote:

(July 31, 2018 at 9:10 am)RoadRunner79 Wrote: I don’t think that I’m going to trust a homemade plastic gun too much. While if someone Hong did go wrong, it may shatter, but I don’t want that to happen a few inches from my nose.

You may be a relatively sane gun owner (if I'm interpreting this correctly), but we're still going to get a shitton of idiots trying to make it, even if it does fuck up. And the NRA will do everything in their power to keep them in legal circulation and stymie any attempts to keep it in check, no matter how sensible it may be.

The trouble will be that it will be difficult to stop. Besides, I thought the NRA was just in it for the money (according to some). This would seem to go against that.