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Monday, December 09, 2013

I 3D-Printed An AR-15 Assault Rifle — And It Shoots Great!

Last week, Philadelphia became the first city in the United States to pass a 3D-Printer gun ban. Some critics feel that the city was premature given the state of 3D printing technology. Others believe that this preemptive measure will help that city get ahead of creative criminals. Many lawmakers are asking themselves: how real is the threat and how realistic is it to restrict the printing of 3D guns?

Consumer 3D printing has recently been enabled as a feasible activity, with the arrival of printers ranging in price from $300-$4,000 from companies such as Makerbot, Cubify, Flashforge, TypeA Machines, and Solidoodle. But the current generation of machines are still not reliable nor easy to use and they have very little embedded systems support from computers and software. It is still considered a hobby activity, much as personal computers were in 1978 when Apple, Commodore, and Radio Shack introduced the first consumer computers.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's just crazy, technology is going to be the death of our liberties!

That Uni-bomber guy was right, he's a nut, but he was right.

When the government can't have control of it and tax it, they instantly ban it!

Anonymous said...

some people will get the wrong opinion that the gun shown was tota;;y made with a 3d printer when in fact only the blue part (lower receiver) was made on the printer..They have made some total guns on the printers but wont fair well after too many rounds shot thru them

Anonymous said...

yeah 1232, we should never worry about criminals, terrorists, or psychos being able to easily access weapons that can slide right through security

Anonymous said...

12:43 This. They're cool though, the process is amazing for building the lower.

Anonymous said...

And what law boneheads!!! do you think will stop true criminals???...NONE...CRIMINALS DONT OBEY THE LAW. 2nd amendment a balance of power between us and all branches of a upity government. Subjects we are never to be..

Anonymous said...

No criminal caught ever had a gun that was legally registered to him. Get it?

Criminals don't want a registered gun when they can have a stolen one.

Besides, stolen ones are cheaper than a 3d printer and all the labor involved in putting one of these together.