SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the it-could-be-used-to-make,-well,-anything! dept.
FedEx is refusing to ship Texas nonprofit Defense Distributed's computer controlled mill, the Ghost Gunner. The $1,500 tool can carve aluminum objects from digital designs, including AR-15 lower receivers from scratch or more quickly from legally obtainable "80 percent lowers".
When the machine was revealed last October, Defense Distributed's pre-orders sold out in 36 hours. But now FedEx tells WIRED it's too wary of the legal issues around homemade gunsmithing to ship the machine to customers. "This device is capable of manufacturing firearms, and potentially by private individuals," FedEx spokesperson Scott Fiedler wrote in a statement. "We are uncertain at this time whether this device is a regulated commodity by local, state or federal governments. As such, to ensure we comply with the applicable law and regulations, FedEx declined to ship this device until we know more about how it will be regulated."
But buying, selling, or using the Ghost Gunner isn't illegal, nor is owning an AR-15 without a serial number, says Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA and the author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America. "This is not that problematic," he says. "Federal law does not prohibit individuals from making their own firearms at home, and that includes AR-15s."
Defense Distributed's founder Cody Wilson argues that rather than a legal ambiguity, FedEx is instead facing up to the political gray area of enabling the sale of new, easily accessible tools that can make anything-including deadly weapons. "They're acting like this is legal when in fact it's the expression of a political preference," says Wilson. "The artifact that they're shipping is a CNC mill. There's nothing about it that is specifically related to firearms except the hocus pocus of the marketing." Wilson, whose radically libertarian group has pursued projects ranging from 3-D printed guns to untraceable cryptocurrency, says he chose to ship his Ghost Gunner machines with FedEx specifically because the company has a special NRA firearm industry membership. But when he told a local FedEx representative what he'd be shipping, he says the sales rep responded that he'd need to check with a superior. "This is no big deal, right? It's just a mill," Wilson says he told his FedEx contact. "You guys ship guns. You've shipped 3-D printers and mills, right? You'll ship a drill press, right? Same difference."
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Wednesday February 25 2015, @08:19PM
sociopathic nightmare == politician
Thought that was obvious.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday February 25 2015, @09:22PM
If the law is so unstable that a single loudmouth can create reams of bad law, then we're only a flimsy pretext away from whatever the politicians want. They don't need a real world Cody. A fake straw man Cody without the backtalk works even better.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Wednesday February 25 2015, @10:47PM
My point is that he is taking a stick and poking the bear, so the bear looks over here and attacks. He doesn't have to poke the bear. He can leave them to fuss about medicare or something like that.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 26 2015, @06:54AM
My point is that he is taking a stick and poking the bear, so the bear looks over here and attacks.
There is no bear attack without a bear. Get rid of the damn bear. My view is that the problem here is that we don't have enough people poking the bear with sticks.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Thursday February 26 2015, @04:20PM
You can't get rid of the bear with an extreme minority who is generally looked down upon. That's just deluded.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 26 2015, @05:48PM
You can't get rid of the bear with an extreme minority who is generally looked down upon.
Remind me again why the extreme minority is the problem and not the bear? Because that remains your argument and I still don't buy it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday February 26 2015, @06:18PM
What is also ignored here is that the problem can be willfully triggered also by parties who have an interest in keeping the problem unfixed. This makes your argument futile since a ban on scary 3-D printers will happen sooner or later, unless we fix the problem.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Friday February 27 2015, @10:38PM
OK -- you explain how to fix the bear in concrete terms. I don't have any idea on how to do that. I've done protests. I've done letter writing. Showing up in person at my Rep's office. I vote neither DNC nor GOP. I do my best to avoid financially supporting those who support things against my interests. I use GPG daily and evangelize it when I can (offer private help, done public demo/installfest).
The fact is, I can't write a check for millions of dollars. As a result, my voice means absolutely nothing at all. Secondly, I'm not a reality TV star, so my voice travels almost nowhere, and if I was a reality TV star, it would sound like "arrrrr.... Got more bEER! hahaha!!"
So, how exactly, in concrete terms, do you propose we prevail over the dangerous bear, and over all the blind supporters propping up that bear?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday February 28 2015, @06:45PM
OK -- you explain how to fix the bear in concrete terms.
Well, we're seeing here the Cody way. Go over the top with more and more elaborate schemes for circumventing bad intentions and regulations. It's potentially quite effective asymmetric warfare. Cody comes up with a cheap way to bypass bad regulation. The government attempts to respond with heavy handed regulation that hurts a lot of people. People like you.Sure, you would normally be perfectly willing to slink along with the status quo,but now have to make a decision just because Cody made a CNC milling machine with effective marketing. Either curb government power or lose something important to you. Eventually, if the government doesn't curb its excesses, it'll alienate enough people that its excesses will get curbed for it.