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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: 5, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:25AM
It's legal now (supposedly) and it can be done with other CNC mills. This one is just cheaper and faster, and smaller due to the focus on "80% lowers". I wouldn't be surprised if it could create other shapes without significant fiddling with the software.
Getting a new law to ban this could be impossible in the short term. Republicans are projected to gain more seats in the House and probably the Senate. They don't entertain the notion of gun control legislation anymore.
So Defense Distributed will continue to operate for years, while the federal government tries to harrass them with obscure or untested legal tactics, like the letter from the State Dept.
Cody Wilson thrives on confrontation. He billed this as an "October Surprise". He's working on making Bitcoin more anonymous and a decentralized Silk Road possible. I wouldn't bet against him succeeding at whatever he attempts to do.
As for customers for this $1200 CNC mill, he described it as orders of magnitude cheaper and faster for the intended purpose. The cost won't be a factor for some, and I'm sure militias and such would split the cost on a Ghost Gunner and churn out weapons just for fun/ideology stroking, and maybe profit. Wilson's legal troubles become theirs. Except as the Wired article noted, a bill to ban guns without serial numbers was vetoed by the California governor a day before this was launched. No action on the federal level, no action in what's considered the "nanny state".
This will not get outlawed. If it did, it would be outlawed too late to prevent Wilson from earning the cash he is seeking to further fund DD. To prevent Wilson's vision from becoming reality, you would have to outlaw all cheap CNC mills, all 3D printers. CNC mills are getting cheaper, and 3D printers are getting more capable.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:45AM
> I wouldn't bet against him succeeding at whatever he attempts to do.
Because the last one totally went his way. [bbc.co.uk]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @06:57AM
That was a trivial setback that delivered a great reward: publicity. He ended up using a Stratasys anyway [forbes.com].
Try again.
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(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:10AM
> Try again.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/09/state-department-demands-takedown-of-3d-printable-gun-for-possible-export-control-violation/ [forbes.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @08:06AM
US government seizes 3D-printed gun files, but still shared elsewhere [wired.co.uk]
Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun [torrentfreak.com]
Browse Other > Physibles [thepiratebay.se]
September 20, 2013: DEFCAD Launches 'The Pirate Bay' of 3D Printing [torrentfreak.com]
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(Score: 2) by cafebabe on Thursday October 02 2014, @12:59PM
There are two responses to weapon CAD files being export violations. The first is Bernstein v. United States [1995] [wikipedia.org] and the second is Arkell v. Pressdram [1971] [wikipedia.org].
1702845791×2
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:33AM
Comments like the parent assume that it is obvious that this product should be banned? Why? It's a milling machine with a program, so what?
- Laws are supposed to regulate illegal behavior, but creep more and more towards regulating intent. If killing someone is illegal, throw murderers in jail. No, let's outlaw weapons (UK) - throw anyone in jail who has a weapon. Outlaw parts of weapons (lower receivers). Outlaw the ability to manufacturer parts of guns. Etc. etc.
- The US war on drugs is similar. Outlaw dangerous drugs, then outlaw component chemicals, then outlaw components of the components. Simple iodine is now a harshly regulated chemical, even though it's primary use is as a disinfectant.
With every step along this path, the laws become less clearly enforceable and criminalize a greater range of perfectly acceptable activities. In the end, we are all criminals, living our lives at the mercy of government bureaucrats who could - any time they wish - find a reason to prosecute us. This is not a healthy society.
So...why do people like the parent just assume that milling machines like this should be banned?
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 02 2014, @07:45AM
> Comments like the parent assume that it is obvious that this product should be banned?
No, my comment assumes that laws are passed with intent and when something comes along that is specifically designed to circumvent that intent then a new law gets passed to close the loophole. I make no judgement whether or not the law SHOULD be written.
> The US war on drugs is similar.
Indeed, It is the perfect example [wikipedia.org] of how the law gets updated to deal with loopholes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday October 02 2014, @02:07PM
So...why do people like the parent just assume that milling machines like this should be banned?
Because they're "thinking" with their emotions. Emotionalism and logic mix about as well as oil and water.
We are all S/Ners here
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by BasilBrush on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:18PM
You're confusing emotion with morality.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Thursday October 02 2014, @03:50PM
I don't think so. People want to ban guns out of fear. What does gun ownership have to do with morality?
We are all S/Ners here
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 03 2014, @12:35AM
Women and women-like men.
(Score: 1) by BasilBrush on Friday October 03 2014, @01:12PM
You demonstrate your confusion well.
Hurrah! Quoting works now!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by opinionated_science on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:10PM
the founding fathers anticipated a government using fear excuses to ban weapons and included the 2nd amendment...
it is a turning point in history that the 1st amendment requires the 2nd to be effective...
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Thursday October 02 2014, @05:38PM
Amen and amen.
They lived under something oppressive, replaced it with something better and could not have done so without firearms and mortal force.
They wanted this option available in the future for when their then better system went the way all governments go.
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Friday October 03 2014, @01:31AM
And the beauty of printable weapon files that they wrap the 2nd amendment in the 1st, so that the 1st amendment protects the 2nd amendment which protects the 1st amendment which... well, you get the idea.
(Score: 2) by Sir Garlon on Thursday October 02 2014, @11:56AM
Our you could just establish a stranglehold on mercury fulminate [wikipedia.org] and similar explosives through regulation. That fancy gun replicator can't make ammunition. Just take existing laws and sed 's/firearm/ammunition/g'. (Actually it would be slightly more complicated than that because of handloading; but my point stands that making modern ammunition requires a chemical plant and therefore there is another natural point of regulatory control over production and distribution of ammunition).
From a practical point of view, I agree, the legislature is too fractious and too slow-moving to outlaw this technology. If Wilson thinks his genie can't theoretically be put back in the bottle, though, I am inclined to disagree.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 02 2014, @01:37PM
Well if industry can make these things (the chemicals), enthusiasts probably can too (mercury fulminate was discovered in 1800). And from what I can tell, rounds for the AR-15 range from $0.30 [gunbot.net] to $1.50 [gunbot.net].
Remember the various surges in gun/ammo purchases [forbes.com]? Even rumors [vice.com] trigger a flurry of ammo buying activity. Don't forget state-by-state efforts [latimes.com] to regulate guns in the aftermath of massacres.
The industry portion of the gun lobby just grows more powerful as guns and ammo fly off the shelves:
Back to the Newtown massacre. Political will to regulate guns peaked around that time, Obama and other politicians were quite outspoken on the need for new laws. The public opinion shift as measured a year later? A small bump in desire to regulate, and a large bump in anti-gun control sentiment [pewresearch.org].
The genie can't be put in the bottle fast enough, no matter what gun control regulation is being considered, and assuming the political will exists to pass it among Republicans. Rounds will be stockpiled. CAD files will become CAD torrents. 3D printers will get cheaper and escape attempts to regulate. The ideology will help to foster a cooperative black market. On Wilson's own CNC mill, I read more about it and confirmed that it could create things that aren't lower receivers. In the next couple of decades, if people can create printers that spit out ammunition or drugs, they will do it.
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