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3D Printed Guns?

RJKarl said:
you dson't need "proper guns" to kill one person
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no one said you did, you can kill one person with a knife, or your car keys. The point was that 3D printers aren't really making it easier to make a rudimentary gun, as it is, it's actually pretty easy if you have some idea of what you're doing.
the point was that you aren't going to have people walking around with fully automatic weapons because of 3D printing
 
i agree with this, but i still wonder whatever they make those "plastic" guns out of, if that material can be loaded into a 3d printer or is expected to be possible any time soon? because mass produced guns that don't trip metal detectors have been around awhile and i have to assume they're not made of metal.
 
There was a panic at one time that the Glock was a "plastic gun" that couldn't be detected by a metal detector. While it was spectacular and free marketing for Glock, it was not true. Many cities, like New York, tried to ban them. That started to fall apart when it was discovered that the police chief carried a Glock as his service weapon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glock

I have never heard any other rumors or stories about plastic guns.
 
i did not literally mean plastic. are there not already mass produced guns out of a non traditional material that allow them to pass metal detectors? that's what i was attempting to ask.
 
That is a common belief. However, there are no guns made of any such non-detectable material.

There was a guy claiming at one time that he was developing such a gun but it never materialized and his company went out of business, because it couldn't be done.
 
Just because it's not possible now with the early generation of 3d printers available to the public, doesn't mean the technology won't catch up to the idea in the near future.
 
Exactly. Debates now are about the future.
 
Yeah, in the future I'm gonna use 3D to make a sweet Lambo. Can't wait.
 
dmcheatw said:
guns that go through metal detectors...what are those made of?
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I think this highlights the problem, by the time you can make 3-D printed guns, the great Clint Eastwood is likely to have moved on to a better place.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Just because it's not possible now with the early generation of 3d printers available to the public, doesn't mean the technology won't catch up to the idea in the near future.
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I don't think the printing technology is what you have to be worried about
It's all about materials
If a non-metallic material comes along that can be used to make a functioning gun then you have something to "worry" about. It's unlikely that that specific material would be able to be "printed" and maintain the proper characteristics, but if it could then there is something else to worry about, but that's a gigantic step forward.
Take steel for instance....all steel isn't created equally. The crystalline structure of steel is changed during the melting, cooling and even during forging that gives steel the proper characteristics for whatever function you want to use it for.
Take a knife for instance. You don't just pour molten steel into a dye and voila, you have a knife(....well, I guess you could, but it'd be a really shitty, brittle knife that wouldn't hold an edge), you have to heat treat it, quench it, forge it, heat treat it again...and probably several other steps before it becomes a knife. The point being, if somehow a 3-D printer could print steel, it's not simply a matter of putting little bits of metal in the shape of a knife. For a gun it wouldn't be much different (yet it would be more complicated), you don't just have some kind of metal being put into place, it has to be a specialized metal, formed in the right environment and in the right way....something that I seriously doubt 3-D printers will ever be able to do....at least on a scale that would be available to every Tom, Dick and Harry.
Same goes with any "futuristic" non-metallic gun worthy material. It's very likely not going to be something that you can put together the way a 3-D printer would whilst still maintaining the necessary properties, as it's going to be something formed under very specific conditions that likely require very expensive, sophisticated systems, machinery and know how.

All that being said, there's nothing wrong with debating the future, but you don't want to get to far ahead of yourselves
 
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Of all the things that folks in the US have to worry about, 3D printed guns are among the last. Because of the availability of mass produced guns in this nation, for the foreseeable future, it is always going to be easier and more practical for someone to steal a gun or buy a gun off the street than to make one using a 3D printer. Even if 3D printing makes a massive leap forward in the next two decades, it will still be easier to lay hands on a mass produced firearm than to print one. The availability of designs for IED's online is a bigger issue, IMO, than 3D printed guns.

Places in Europe without the ready supply of firearms have a much more well founded concern regarding 3D printed guns than America does.

Just my two cents
 
Centerfire rifle and pistol cartridges generate anywhere from 30K to 60K CUP, good luck getting that pressure past any printed material for any protracted length of time. Brass and steel, and has been that way for a long time.
 
I just wanted to update this thread to say that, after looking into it this technology it is not going to be feasible for quite awhile due to many reasons, some of which you all pointed out to me. The idea is both fascinating and terrifying, and I thank Cody Wilson (the guy in the OP documentary) for bringing it to my attention and for those who contributed to the thread.

Printing a clip is definitely doable right now, but it's a real long way from a kid printing all the parts and assembling a firearm of any practical value.

Assassins will probably be the first to use this technology, but not for some time, and even then only in limited applications. This is my two cents anyway.
 
Do you have to register a gun if you print it?
 
i don't think so ONW.

this is definitely something the government agencies need to be gameplanning for now, because one day this will be possible to print up the entire package...such a thing as bioprinting already exists apparently, so one day you may be able to print the bowl and the soup too lol. but yeah for now the sky isn't falling was why i updated the thread.
 
Good luck getting around pressure. A 3D printed gun might as well be a 3D printed hand grenade going off in one's face. Until some printed material can withstand 30K to 60K CUP pressure, forget it. I reload handgun and rifle cartridges, and shotgun shells, and every reloading manual I have lists CUP limits. Even the military has yet to come up with a better solution than brass inside steel...
 
What's your take on 3D printed hand grenades?
 
My point was i would never fire a 3D printed firearm with combustion taking place under my nose and right eye. I would think that manufacturing actual grenades without a license would be against the law...
 
eh, some polymer or whatever could be invented tomorrow and that would invalidate your argument. but for now you are right, which is why i did post 54. you know, bamboo were the first firearm barrels. is it just the barrel that has to bear the force of the explosion? if so i could also see a scenario where there becomes a market for just the barrels, with the rest being printed.
 
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