(March 25, 2013 at 5:11 pm)The Germans are coming Wrote:(March 25, 2013 at 4:45 pm)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: Who will ensure that homemade guns made today on a $2000 programmable CNC will be registered?
The answer is: nobody. It's dealt with after the fact, like the vast majority of law enforcement.
Is that process also as easy as simply printing a gun?
No. What difference does that make? Given the existence of 3D printers, is it even possible to prevent someone from doing it whether it is unlawful or not?
I understand your concern, I really do. I just don't see that there's anything possible that can be done as prior restraint to prevent people from violating this sort of law. Therefore, it's not something I'm going to lose any sleep over.
(March 25, 2013 at 5:11 pm)The Germans are coming Wrote:Quote:Do you think the above have any real trouble obtaining real firearms and would need to rely on the unreliable, and very likely unsafe 3D-printable garbage?
Most criminlas and terrorist organisations dont give a damn about where their weapons come from or which qualety they have. The NSU, RAF and various other european terrorist organisations used 1960s czech weapons and sometimes even WW2 equiptment.
The Taliban even uses WW1 rifles.
In the end, the qualety isnt the determening factor, it is the prize.
OK, so price is the determining factor. Do you understand that the "gun" being 3D printed is a single part (the receiver, the part that in the U.S. at least is defined as a firearm) that (when last I checked) could be purchased for around a hundred bucks, and that you still have to obtain a 3D printer and all of the other hundred or so parts (about $750 USD worth) needed to make a working gun (many of which cannot be printed using current technology)?
Given savings of no more than a hundred dollars or so (and a gun that WILL at some point experience a serious failure), is price really the determining factor?
In other words, build your own for around $750 (+ printer consumables) and have it blow up in your face at some point, or buy off the rack for $850.
The whole point of 3D printing this shit is, as I understand it, is to be able to manufacture guns "off paper", that is, outside of authorized, legitimate channels. Unlawfully, in other words. Which the aforementioned organizations seem to have no problems doing in the first place.
