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When Cody Wilson revealed the world’s first fully 3-D printed gun last year, he showed that the “maker” movement has enabled anyone to create a working, lethal firearm with a click in the privacy of his or her garage. Now he’s moved on to a new form of digital DIY gunsmithing. And this time the results aren’t made of plastic.
Wilson’s latest radically libertarian project is a PC-connected milling machine he calls the Ghost Gunner. Like any computer-numerically-controlled (or CNC) mill, the one-foot-cubed black box uses a drill bit mounted on a head that moves in three dimensions to automatically carve digitally-modeled shapes into polymer, wood or aluminum. But this CNC mill, sold by Wilson’s organization known as Defense Distributed for $1,200, is designed to create one object in particular: the component of an AR-15 rifle known as its lower receiver.
That simple chunk of metal has become the epicenter of a gun control firestorm. A lower receiver is the body of the gun that connects its stock, barrel, magazine and other parts. As such, it’s also the rifle’s most regulated element. Mill your own lower receiver at home, however, and you can order the rest of the parts from online gun shops, creating a semi-automatic weapon with no serial number, obtained with no background check, no waiting period or other regulatory hurdles.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/cody-wilson-ghost-gunner/
(Score: 3, Insightful) by krishnoid on Thursday October 02 2014, @04:17AM
I read about something similar in a webcomic [schlockmercenary.com] a while back. Considering the comic is about mercenaries, though, I doubt this bodes well. I found the attached commentary on this strip pretty interesting, though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:29AM
Most of the gun can be bought anonymously. It's the lower receiver that is being created with the CNC mill, from a blob of metal already 80% on the way to being a lower receiver. The gun isn't going to explode in your hands. Wilson is exploiting a loophole that won't likely be closed anytime soon, due to obstructionism/gun culture. Wilson is very crafty.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by BasilBrush on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:22PM
Wilson is very crafty.
He's a extremist troll. I look forward to him receiving a Darwin Award at some point.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:39AM
Why, because he'll be murdered by the government?
Fuck you.