Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by CoolHand on Tuesday October 03 2017, @04:08PM   Printer-friendly
from the gotta-have-guns dept.

The Ghost Gunner has been updated to allow the CNC milling of a much more popular and accessible form of firearm: a handgun:

For the past five years, Cody Wilson has applied every possible advance in digital manufacturing technology to the mission of undermining government attempts at gun control. First he created the world's first 3-D printed gun, a deadly plastic weapon anyone could print at home with a download and a few clicks. Then he started selling a computer-controlled milling machine designed to let anyone automatically carve out the body of an untraceable AR-15 from a semifinished chunk of aluminum, upgrading his provocations from plastic to metal. Now his latest advance in home firearm fabrication allows anyone to make an object designed to defy the most basic essence of gun control: A concealable, untraceable, and entirely unregulated metal handgun.

On Sunday, Wilson's gun rights advocacy group, Defense Distributed, announced a new release of software for his computer-controlled milling machine known as the Ghost Gunner. The new code allows the 1-foot-cubed tabletop machine—which uses a spinning bit to carve three-dimensional shapes with minute precision—to not only produce untraceable bodies of AR-15s but to carve out the aluminum frame of an M1911 handgun, the popular class of semiautomatic pistols that includes the Colt 45 and similar weapons. Wilson says he plans to follow up soon with software for producing regulation-free Glocks and other handgun models to follow.

Wilson's goal now, he says, is to do for small arms what Defense Distributed did for AR-15s when it first released the $1,500 Ghost Gunner milling machine exactly three years ago to the day: Give people the ability to make a lethal weapon at home with no regulation whatsoever.

M1911 pistol.

This story came out before the mass shooting in Las Vegas, on the third anniversary of the initial release of the Ghost Gunner, just in case you were wondering.

Also at Ars Technica:

"It's a certain type of person who builds and enjoys an AR-15—that's a lot of gun, and most people don't feel the need to have a big ol' battle rifle," Wilson says. "But we believe lots of people are interested in the conversation about an untraceable, concealable handgun. It's been on the roadmap the whole time for this project. It's just always been a question of how we get there, and it ended up being very, very difficult—kinda like the brass ring of the project, if you will."

Previously: 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


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:13PM (4 children)

    by crafoo (6639) on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:13PM (#576672)

    Try to get a modern printer without yellow-dot serialization built in.
    They will drop the full police state onto 3D printers. They will require state-signed software. They will make every attempt to regulate this.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:25PM

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:25PM (#576676)

    IIRC there are already libre 3D printers, and likely CAD software as well.

  • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:30PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 03 2017, @05:30PM (#576681)

    The yellow-dot serialisation is based on compliant manufacturers.

    Nothing prevents you from building your own printer - and any attempt to regulate that in the US would fall at the first judge that laughed it out of court. Would it be identical to, say, a top-of-the-line Xerox? No. Doesn't matter. The use case that they desperately claim is their reason (forensics around counterfeit cash) simply doesn't cover all cases for printing.

    Worse yet, this is the sort of regulation that would fall under strict scrutiny. Given that the right to keep and bear arms has been identified as a fundamental, enumerated, individual right, there's a clear path to using both the first and the second amendment to prevent the government from preventing private individuals from building their own mills, and using them as they see fit. Or even just machine shops.

    But I'm sure you're about to explain how licensing and regulating machine shops to the point of banning private ownership is going to happen any year now ...

  • (Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday October 03 2017, @06:49PM

    by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 03 2017, @06:49PM (#576727)

    The problem with controlling 3d printers is that they can be used to partially replicate themselves. They can print upgrades and replacement parts for themselves.

    --
    SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday October 04 2017, @12:07AM

    by Bot (3902) on Wednesday October 04 2017, @12:07AM (#576856) Journal

    > Try to get a modern printer without yellow-dot serialization built in.

    I know one, she's a monochrome laser printer. If I spot a yellow dot i'll get suspicious.

    but seriously, what if you suck the yellow ink out the cartridge and replace it with water, or maybe nitroglycerine for the lulz?

    --
    Account abandoned.