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General Category => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: sky otter on May 06, 2013, 04:27:07 pm

Title: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: sky otter on May 06, 2013, 04:27:07 pm

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/first-3-d-printed-gun-fired-its-digital-blueprints-make-6C9790795

Helen A.S. Popkin   –   4 hrs.
First 3-D-printed gun fired, but its digital blueprints make bigger bang

With a shot heard round the Internet, the first known 3-D printed gun is a reality. But the bigger ruckus comes from the gun's digital blueprints, now available for free download by any shooters who want to build their own.


Cody Wilson, the polemic face of the not-for-profit 3-D gunsmith Defense Distributed, fired the organization's latest prototype at the opening of a 28-second video posted on YouTube Friday. "The Liberator," as the weapon is provocatively titled, is a 16-piece firearm made almost entirely of ABS plastic, with a metal firing pin and an embedded metal shank meant to provide enough metal mass to comply with the 1988 U.S. Undetectable Firearms Act.

Blue and white, and bearing more than a passing resemblance to a Star Trek phaser, the .380-caliber pistol fires with a single "pop" in Wilson's hands. Apparently, the design works, though this version was rendered unusable after firing six rounds.

 
 Eight months into its mission to create and distribute the computer-assisted design (CAD) for a 100-percent 3-D printed gun, Defense Distributed is about as close to this goal as it can legally get. That is, provided laws don't change to make what the group is doing illegal.

Even now, Defense Distributed's latest success — though it may be a rather costly and cumbersome way to obtain a firearm, especially one that tends to self destruct — has gun-control advocates on the move. This was predicted by Wilson, who has long said that his group’s ultimate goal is not to build arms, but to test constitutional rights.

"I think this isn't a project about firearms, it’s a project about political equality," Wilson recently told NBC’s Nightly News.

Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas in Austin, is federally licensed to manufacture and sell guns and gun parts, as long as they're not fully automatic. Not only is it legal for Wilson to make "The Liberator," but distributing its plans for others to make it is also legal, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

"An individual who wishes to manufacturer a firearm for his or her personal use does not need a license, as long as it isn’t for an automatic firearm," an ATF spokesperson told NBC News.

But the fact that the gun can be homemade and is largely plastic — and therefore harder to spot via metal detectors — has made it the center of a new debate in Washington.

 WNBC
Sen. Chuck Schumer, speaking in support of the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, shown with an image of a 3-D printed gun from Defense Distributed.
 On Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., endorsed a bill, entitled the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, that would bring the 1988 law up to date by banning 3-D-printed guns that "have no metal and could therefore slip through a metal detector." Under the law, it would be a crime to build such a weapon.

"We're facing a situation where anyone — a felon, a terrorist — can open a gun factory in their garage, and the weapons they make will be undetectable," Schumer said at a conference. "It's stomach churning." Schumer said his bill would not restrict the use of 3-D printers for other purposes.

Schumer was speaking in support of legislation, proposed in the House of Representatives Friday by Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., that bans "homemade, 3-D printed, plastic high-capacity magazines."

"When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science fiction. Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms," read Israel's statement.

 Defense Distributed
Plastic parts were 3-D printed for "The Liberator" handgun.
 On a technical level, enforcing the ban could be challenging. Firmware locks for 3-D printers and takedown protocols for CAD files for firearms have been proposed by some, and scoffed at by others.


"Every one of those measures is a nonsense and worse: unworkable combinations of authoritarianism, censorship and wishful thinking," author Cory Doctorow wrote in criticism of Israel’s initial proposal. "Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns. And all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3-D printers."


It's legal for most Americans to buy guns, and it's also easy for many people to acquire guns illegally, too. Industrial-level 3-D printers currently capable of producing "The Liberator" can cost upwards of $10,000, and require some training to operate. They may never put guns into the hands of people who otherwise wouldn't be able to obtain them, but they still may become tools for nefarious acts.

"This technology is emerging so quickly that few law enforcement officials know what a 3-D printer is or understand how it can be used," Jim Bueermann, former Redlands, Calif., police chief who is now president of the non-profit Police Foundation, told NBC News.

"I think we are going to see some very creative, technologically astute examples of criminal acts that are enabled by this technology," he added. "This is one of the unintended consequences of the democratizing of the Internet."

— With additional reporting by Suzanne Choney

Helen A.S. Popkin is Deputy Technology & Science editor for NBCNews.com and TODAY. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK55GSbSWQ0[/youtube]
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: robomont on May 06, 2013, 04:49:28 pm
can make a safe one from fiberglass and resin.
or a piece of ironwood.
i have been wondering when the prints would be out.they timed the release of this.i wouldnt trust that dude.

i think hes from austin.in the end they want 3d printers regulated.
more gov up our butts.
if they leave us alone.in twenty years there will be one in every home.
the trick is to buy one now before they get regulated.2-4000$ i think.
make your food without cooking or going shopping.make almost anything.the nerds are working out the bugs now.
you put dead uncle in the shoot and a boiled lobster and french fries comes out the other end.
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: sky otter on May 09, 2013, 06:45:03 pm


well if you didn't get the blue prints.. too late now


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/3d-gun_n_3247443.html

3D Gun Blueprints Removed From Defense Distributed, After 100,000+ Downloads
The Huffington Post  |  By Alexis Kleinman Posted: 05/09/2013 5:03 pm EDT  |  Updated: 05/09/2013 5:03 pm EDT


.Controversial wiki-weapon venture Defense Distributed removed the blueprints for a 3D printable gun from its website on Thursday on the State Department's order.


"#DEFCAD is going dark at the request of the SOD Department of Defense Trade Controls," Defense Distributed's founder Cody Wilson Tweeted Thursday morning. "Some shapes are more dangerous than others."

The link to download the blueprint has been replaced with the following: "This file has been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information." The state department said that the blueprints may violate U.S. export controls.

The government's move came just days after the "Liberator," as the gun is known, was first successfully fired on Sunday, and the video of someone shooting the gun quickly went viral.

And the order may have come too late. The blueprints for the gun were downloaded about 100,000 times, according to Forbes. And there's nothing to stop those files from being shared again and again.

Defcad had a little help from Kim Dotcom. All the downloads from defense distributed were hosted on a Kim Dot Com's new file-sharing web site Mega.

The government "controls exports of sensitive equipment, software and technology as a means to promote our national security interests and foreign policy objectives," the State Department's website explains. Since these guns could be downloaded and printed abroad, the government views them as a potential risk.


It's worth noting that most people who downloaded the blueprint probably don't have the capability of manufacturing the gun at home. As Forbes notes, Defense Distributed used an $8,000 printer to make their gun. That device is not widely available.



Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Eighthman on May 10, 2013, 04:58:43 am
Has anyone noticed that the plans (or the version I saw) was written in English and Chinese?

I wonder what that portends?
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Anthra on May 10, 2013, 05:45:59 am
Everyone is making a big deal over the plans, the least significant part of the story.
 
Think about this; it is possible to build wholly plastic guns of reasonable caliber, a 38 is nothing to sneeze at. Plus it shows that a aterial as simple as ABS lastic can withstand the chamber pressures at least ver a short term, making it a viable material for "throw away" firearms.
 
A few weeks ago I learned about some folks who made the lower receiver of a "M-16"; the plastic device lasted for 5 shots. I decided to do some research;for only a few thousand re One can get a printer that prints in; Stainless Steel, Tool Steel, and a variety of other metals. How reliable, and long living would a Stainless M-4 be?
 
If you has a printer and a few simple 3D tools, how long would it take for you to learn how to design a firearm?
 
By the way; the curret BS over this, the "export restrictions", are the only way to control this for now, but pay attention, they will find a way to make a printer, or 3D image illegal.
 
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Somamech on May 10, 2013, 11:55:35 am
Yeah true that!

Right as I speak a commercial grade machine is "3D Printing" those plan's LOL

Check the web for CNC Gun smithing  ;D

I know fully why the web is all tissy fit over this... marketing. 

People have been able to make guns in a precise manner with CNC machines for Decades :D
 
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Somamech on May 10, 2013, 11:58:55 am
Quote
One can get a printer that prints in; Stainless Steel, Tool Steel, and a variety of other metals. How reliable, and long living would a Stainless M-4 be?

Not quite... You need some good coin to buy one of those machine's, let alone the operating cost's ;)

I do have a Titanium bottle opener with my name on it.  They aint cheap, and wont see the desktop anytime soon ;)
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Somamech on May 10, 2013, 12:02:38 pm
This is what the masse's can afford for home, if you have a steady supply of income ofc :D

http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx?hp_bn_cube

3d printing now aint so exciting is it when the reality of the technology is presented :D

Inspiring though it may be and I will give it that :)
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Somamech on May 10, 2013, 12:10:53 pm
Like I said regarding CNC and REAL materials that can handle an explosive load :D

CNC Milling an AR-15 lower from scratch.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAdnZ6xsWtU[/youtube]

CNC Machines are way more Cheaper REAL Option for this kinda activity!  (and this guy aint been taken down)

 
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Eighthman on May 10, 2013, 02:30:53 pm
Another mystery:  According to the Guardian (UK news) the country that has the most downloads so far is Spain.  If I was a Eurocrat, I'd be concerned.
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: stealthyaroura on May 11, 2013, 01:01:02 pm
Yeah true that!

Right as I speak a commercial grade machine is "3D Printing" those plan's LOL

Check the web for CNC Gun smithing  ;D

I know fully why the web is all tissy fit over this... marketing. 

People have been able to make guns in a precise manner with CNC machines for Decades :D
 

Exactly som, with a little skill in metalwork you can soon fabricate a firearm and you don't even
need the CNC or lathe for a weapon that will fire rimfire .22 or 12 gauge! and don't forget the
custom loads in 12 gauge.heck i could knock a centerfire 7.62 weapon if i really wanted to.
Yes i would need the lathe there ;)

A pipe of the correct diameter for the round,a simple trigger mechanism,a fold away metal stock if you want one and quicker than you can say HEY PRESTO you have your throw away weapon (if you choose to chuck it)


I think the problem with the debate over 3D printed guns is the fact they can get past the
metal detector.As for reliability there a long way off,i have seen the AR recivers and there 6 shot
wonders then just broken.This offering is just the same,unreliable.
Title: Re: YIKES ..!!!...First 3-D-printed gun fired
Post by: Somamech on May 13, 2013, 10:24:09 am
Right with ya there Stealthy!

I may take back what a little about what I said about marketing though as over the weekend here in OZ some kid got his limb's blown off with a silly prank.  It's not the first time and won't be the last time LOL

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/australian-teen-loses-fingers-homemade-bomb-blast-article-1.1341863

I must admit that is a GOOD idea to get rid of that File... but you know what pack rat's are like, they will find a way to find more really bad ways to make explosions  ;D

The cops apparently come over from time to time to test stuff here... Like 3d printed Key's etc.  Honestly 3D printing has made everyone lose their marbles.  Apart from two technologies (like SLS and SLM) 3d printing is only good for prototyping and that's it!