So. I keep harping on printable guns, right?
BAM! Functional printed AR-15 magazine. [UPDATE: Here's a direct link to the Thingiverse post.] Including an ABS spring. Its designer doesn't expect it to hold up to much use, but that's hardly the point when you're talking about the feasibility of using civilian disarmament to disarm criminals.
The article links to another designer who's uploaded a file for printing an AR's lower receiver. For those keeping score at home, the lower is the serial numbered part of an AR; under US federal law, that part and that part alone is the "firearm", subject to all the restraints on commerce and background checks that US gun control is made of. Everything else--barrels, triggers, sears, extractors--is a part or accessory, and can be sold over the counter or even mail ordered. Print this part, and you can build a functional AR around it with no records or background checks.
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Wow; 3D printing is just incredible. I'm so excited to see where it goes in so many areas.
ReplyDeleteOn a wholly unrelated note, we need a 3D printer.
ReplyDeleteNow here comes the fun part, if I rent the services of a 3d-printer, provide the files and raw materials, and run off one of these things, who is the manufacturer in the eyes of the law?
ReplyDeleteRelated case here.
ReplyDeleteYeah - I saw that. Oddly enough, also under BATFE's shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteNow, while a polymer AR-15 lower is a curiosity, a polymer pistol lower is rather more interesting, at least to me.
I think firearms printing technology is going to play out with a group of dedicated, skilled enthusiasts working diligently to push the limits of the technology to a place where they can replicate existing firearms.
ReplyDeleteAnd when they're about sixty percent there, they'll be instantly obsoleted by sumdood who hashes together a completely new, extremely spartan design that works with the strengths of the printing technology instead of forcing it to copy products designed to be made on milling machines.
We've already gotten to the 60% mark for pistols. If someone can redesign one of the plastic fantastics to take drop-in slide rails and glue-on reinforcement panels instead of mold-ins for those, fuggedaboutit. The BATFE & hoplophobes will have themselves a porcupine, breech presentation, because that signal cannot be stopped.
ReplyDeleteWe've already gotten to the 60% mark for pistols.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but while they may be 60% plastic-by-volume, that doesn't mean we're more than halfway to a functional printed handgun--the moving parts are the tricky bit. At the moment, I don't believe it's possible to print a Glock action or barrel that will function properly or stand up to a half dozen rounds (which seems like a reasonable arbitrary standard).
What I'm suggesting is that a new design with larger and simpler action components will probably be practical at an earlier step in the materials development spectrum than an attempt to directly copy an existing hendgun design.
Come to think of it, though, you may be right.
ReplyDeleteIs it possible a big, thick-walled plastic barrel assembly could contain a few .380s before rupturing? If we don't care about miniaturizing it, a bog-simple semiauto (or even manually repeating) mechanism might be possible with existing technology. The striker spring might be impossible, but the rest of the action could be designed around a spring salvaged from a commonly available product.
The biggest threat to development may be US laws regarding smoothbore cartridge arms and easily-converted-to-FA.
ReplyDeleteDamn--this is a fascinating puzzle.
Feel like setting up an experimental arms factory in PA? ;)
Until the laws change, the frame being printable is good enough; everything else is Not A Firearm.
ReplyDelete[shrug] I'm thinking in terms of visceral effect, and on an international level.
ReplyDeletePrinting just the frame will be a big deal, and may have some big real-world effects, but could just as easily move a fence-sitter to think we should be restricting more gun parts. (Expect this reaction in all of Europe.)
When a $500 home printer can turn out an endless stream of complete, functional firearms, attitudes about gun control will change worldwide. It already being a wholly ideological issue, I don't expect Europeans and Bostonites to up and embrace permitless concealed carry. But they'll pretty quickly find themselves unable to swallow the idea that gun control will limit criminal access, and that will start a fundamental change in the way the issue is discussed and understood.
They'll just regulate powder. Quite frankly, I for the purpose of causing the hoplophobes to reach for the Old Brown Trousers, a printable airgun is sufficient. The reservoir and air feed don't need to be printable, since they can be gotten at any hardware store or well-equipped sporting goods store.
ReplyDelete