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Trump says public availability of 3D-printed guns 'doesn't seem to make much sense'
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is "looking into" the availability of plans for the 3D printing of guns, writing on Twitter that he had already been in touch with the NRA on the issue.
"I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to NRA, doesn't seem to make much sense!" the president wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning.
After a years-long legal battle, Defense Distributed, a Texas-based group, has announced plans to release instructions on Wednesday for guns that can be created by a 3-D printer, including a handgun and parts for a semi-automatic assault rifle. Although plans were not supposed to be available until Wednesday, instructions have already begun to appear online for download, CNN reported Tuesday.
From Defense Distributed's still barebones website:
August 1, 2018
Defense Distributed relaunches DEFCAD after reaching a settlement agreement with the US Department of State, concluding a multi-year federal lawsuit. The age of the downloadable gun formally begins.
The DEFCAD website is now up (as of July 31) but files supposedly can't be downloaded until August 1.
Even our resident Trump supporters/enthusiasts can bash him for even thinking about encroaching on our digital gun liberties.
Also at The Hill.
"U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday afternoon that bars Cody Wilson from sharing 3-D gun print files online August 1.
The order provides time for Democrats to continue pressing President Trump to intervene and prohibit future publication of files all together."
Previously: Landmark Legal Shift for 3D-Printed Guns
Related: The $1,200 Machine That Lets Anyone Make a Metal Gun at Home
Japanese Gun Printer Goes to Jail
Suspected 3D-Printed Gun Parts and Plastic Knuckles Seized in Australia
FedEx Refuses to Ship Defense Distributed's Ghost Gunner CNC Mill
Man Who Used CNC Mill to Manufacture AR-15 "Lowers" Sentenced to 41 Months
Ghost Gunner Software Update Allows the Milling of an M1911 Handgun
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @09:39AM (17 children)
Well, that or the plastic gun buyers get slugged with ever greater carbon taxes until buying multiple use weapons become economically viable again, but that's a win for environmental policy as well.
Hmm .. maybe plastic guns was why Mel Gibson had so much trouble finding petroleum products in the apocalypse ...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @12:01PM (16 children)
Defense Distributed is also working on printed metal guns. It's just not as feasible as plastic printing for most people.
While a plastic gun might be able to make it through a metal detector (which may be an attractive quality to some), a printed metal gun wouldn't have a serial number, and you wouldn't have to be subject to a background check or put on some watchlist as you might from buying a normal gun.
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(Score: 5, Informative) by VLM on Wednesday August 01 2018, @01:19PM (3 children)
For a variety of complicated legal reasons "a gun" in the USA is legally the lower receiver, "the hand grip". So if you want to propagandize that you've made a completely plastic gun, thats pretty easy when the barrel is two pounds of steel pipe, the breech block bolt apparatus is a pound block of steel, etc. Since the invention of interchangeable mass produced parts a couple centuries ago its been a battle to define "Whats a gun".
A pretty good SN automobile analogy is if I told you a piece of the dashboard with an engraved VIN number is legally a car. Which it is. Of course people talking about cars usually mean the whole 4000 pound thing, or have images in their head of engines and transmissions. In the propaganda sense of this story, YES I can 3-d print a Ferrari. What I'll do is 3-d print a plastic copy of the frame with an engraved copy of a real Ferrari's VIN number, then I'll legally register it and bolt the other 3999 pounds of aftermarket "not-a-car" unlicensed unregistered parts on to it, and ta da, I've 3-d printed a Ferrari.
Likewise the other side is also lying in that a "semi-automatic assault rifle" is a misnomer, there are no non-automatic assault rifles. OR they're playing the propaganda game of redefining something we don't like as an assault rifle.
Another "big lie" in the propaganda is there's been STL files of guns and gun parts floating around since consumer 3-d printing was "invented" a decade ago. This is kinda like how the internet existed for decades with millions of users before legacy media did its gatekeeper thing and decided it officially existed. Likewise I don't believe the stories about "plans already released" because there's been plans released in the 00s for 3-d printing. Most I've seen are pretty shitty handguns; make a crappy 1970s era homemade zip gun and epoxy it to a 3-d printed ergonomic handgrip. Its "printing a gun" in the same sense that hiring a general contractor means "I built a house" or my daughter bedazzling some glitter beads on some jeans from the store means she "made her own jeans".
The final weirdness in the propaganda is where I live and given my (lack of a) criminal record, there's nothing wrong with my 3-d printing a gun; I can do it perfectly legally in a fully documented and government supported manner. I even have a safe to store it in once its made. I've never done it before, but its pretty easy to fully legally manufacture a firearm and people do it all the time, when doing custom gunsmithing and metalworking stuff. The insinuation in the propaganda is, of course, that its illegal to make a gun and only a criminal would ever want to, but in the real world away from Tumblr its merely gunsmithing metalworking business as usual, its just not a huge deal. I have made a boat, and those regulations also intersect state and federal law, and very hand wavy I'd say its much harder to legally make a motorboat than it is to legally make a gun if you want to follow all the laws and have all the paperwork you're supposed to have. That said, both tasks are not exactly difficult for above 90 IQ people, a couple forms here and there, some checks for fees/licenses here and there, the paperwork cost is a rounding error compared to the associated costs of the project.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday August 01 2018, @04:59PM (2 children)
The car analogy is just silly. Everyone knows you wouldn't download a car. That's just common sense, right ?
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday August 01 2018, @11:10PM
You wouldn't steal a handbag.
You wouldn't steal a car.
You wouldn't steal a baby.
You wouldn't shoot a policeman. And then steal his helmet.
You wouldn't go to the toilet in his helmet. And then send it to the policeman's grieving widow.
And then steal it again!
Downloading films is stealing. If you do it, you will face the consequences.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:31AM
Well, not sure about cars, but one can definitely download (for a relatively small fee) plans for an airplane and build it. In fact I just came from Oshkosh where around 20,000 such "nuts" were present. That's builders mind you. Visitors counted at 600,000
Making a lower receiver is a rather simple task compared to building of an airplane. Seeing 6 years old building basic airplane parts makes me think they could easily make guns as well.
BTW, all the equipment necessary to make a real metal gun is available at maker space facilities including mobile maker buses https://www.makerbus.ca/ [makerbus.ca]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 01 2018, @07:02PM (11 children)
idk why people keep acting like all guns had serials before this new danger was born. US citizens have always had the right to build their own firearms. this is just a new way to do that. tough shit, fuckheads.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday August 01 2018, @07:11PM (10 children)
I already covered that in another comment. Obviously, not all people have the skills or tools needed to build a gun. Printing one could be easier. They can pool money together with others to buy a 3D printer, and print other stuff with their 3D printer.
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(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:41AM (3 children)
It would be more convenient and practical to rent a maker facility and cnc mill the lower receiver. They could off course buy a mill. They are in 5-10 grand range new and can be found under 1000 on garage sales.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 02 2018, @01:53AM (2 children)
You bring up an interesting point. I assume by "maker facility" you mean "hackerspace" or such? They might specifically forbid making weapons in the contract you sign with them, or go completely bonkers if you do make one. I expect someone will try to do just that and an incident will make the news.
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(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 02 2018, @03:03AM (1 child)
Well, I imagine a conservative community just buying a maker bus to educate their children. A few AK47 per night can be made easily from kits available over the Internet. The kits are usually a fully capable rifles with lower receivers cut in half. While I never tried it myself, I am pretty sure i can do it (and I have friends with cnc mills). It appears to be legal as well or though I did not research it either.
Regardless, I think it did not happen yet simply because it is currently easy to buy a gun. Once liberals achieve their goal of making it hard, the gun maker movement will explode and will never end after that because people will quickly discover the wonders of cheap custom designed instruments.
This is the main reason I personally against stricter gun regulations. The technology is out there already and can't be stopped. Regulations will just force people to use it sooner.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @07:54AM
Conservative communities don't need a bus. They have garages with tools and equipment. Their children already learn how to use those. Makerbuses are for city people who never learned to build a house, repair a vehicle, weld, or use power tools.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 02 2018, @02:56AM (5 children)
If you have an iq over 80 and $10 you can build a gun from plumbing pipe.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday August 02 2018, @04:24AM (4 children)
Do you have to have an IQ over 120 to make it safe and reliable?
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 02 2018, @08:02AM (2 children)
There is no safe in guns. Period. Any gun can jam and blow up in your hand. Buy the best-rated steel tubing you can and you'll get /safer/, but it will never be /safe/. Zip guns are generally recomended as one-time use only, reliability isn't a concern. Hit the target, toss your pipe, burn your clothes, good to go.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 02 2018, @12:46PM (1 child)
And any neural network can become Skynet and take over the world, right?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday August 02 2018, @06:34PM
Not if it is bootstrapped by systemd.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday August 02 2018, @12:45PM
No, just proof test it with a hot load, and anything less powerful will be safe. And a slam fire pipe gun is likely to be more reliable than a modern semi due to its dead simple design.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek