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3ders.org has an article on the conclusion of a trial in Japan of a man for making a 3D printed gun.
Earlier today, a verdict was reached in the infamous 3D printed gun trial that was being held in the Yokohama District Court in Tokyo, Japan. Presiding Judge Koji Inaba found the 28-year-old Yoshitomo Imura, a former teacher at a local college, guilty of violating laws controlling firearms and swords. For printing at least two workable guns using a 3D printer, Imura was sentenced to two years in prison.
Since Imura's arrest in May, a number of Japanese distributors of 3D printing technology have organized a '3D printer Promotion Council' to both educate people about the possibilities of this technology, but also to warn consumers of its dangers. They are currently looking into possibilities to avoid such events in the future, including better cooperation between the industry and the government and a blacklist of design data.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 20 2014, @06:21PM
From your link
In Japan, you can put your 9-year-old on a two-hour train ride by herself to Disneyland Tokyo and not worry for a second about her safety.
And you can do that in most other places too (for example, probably not in Syria). I walked either 2km or 1km to a bus stop to go to school as a 7 year old. So what is a big deal now? Boogeyman behind every bush? Or paranoia on behalf of parents? Our world today is safer than it was in the 1950s or 1900. In Japan kids go to school or bus by themselves not because it is "safer in Japan". They do so because maybe society is not as paranoid as in some other places, where kids can't go to school without giving them a ride as the 500m walk is "too dangerous".
Take places like Senegal, as an example. Do their kids get chaperoned to school too?
Perceptions, not reality is what this is about.
The same thing with guns. For some reason, there is a perception that guns are there to protect you. There is nothing further from the truth. Guns kill. Every statistic is against the idea that guns protect lives. Fortunately, it seems that Japanese know this and hence have strict gun controls that clearly prevented many massacres. The same situation exists in China where gun control saved many lives. Just look at number of stabbings in both of these countries - in US those most likely would have been shootings with many more deaths.
As to a verdict of 2 years, it is not just for printing a gun. It is also for distributing and thereby deeming to promote printing of other such weapons.
Imura reputedly also disclosed data about 3D printing guns online, which weighed heavily against him. The judge said that these actions encouraged imitation and that he therefore bore grave criminal responsibility.