3D Printed Guns Under Fire
- 11 years ago
3D printed guns are under fire.
The blueprints for the gun that can be made on a 3D printer were downloaded 100 thousand times before the US Department of State pressured the company to remove them.
The New South Wales Police department used those blueprints, a 1700-dollar desktop 3D printer, and some pocket money on materials to make two of them.
In their testing of the homemade firearms they found that the plastic weapon is powerful enough to deliver a fatal shot. They also had one of the test guns misfire in a way that could have proven to be quite dangerous to the shooter.
Among the reasons the guns are considered to be particularly threatening is that they can’t be easily detected by common screening technologies.
The US Department of Homeland Security recently issued a bulletin saying stopping the production of the printed guns could be impossible.
As access to designs and production means become more widespread they extend further outside of the reach of current regulatory measures.
At present, the guns can be made without acquiring proper licenses. They can also be manufactured so they have no serial numbers or identifying marks.
The blueprints for the gun that can be made on a 3D printer were downloaded 100 thousand times before the US Department of State pressured the company to remove them.
The New South Wales Police department used those blueprints, a 1700-dollar desktop 3D printer, and some pocket money on materials to make two of them.
In their testing of the homemade firearms they found that the plastic weapon is powerful enough to deliver a fatal shot. They also had one of the test guns misfire in a way that could have proven to be quite dangerous to the shooter.
Among the reasons the guns are considered to be particularly threatening is that they can’t be easily detected by common screening technologies.
The US Department of Homeland Security recently issued a bulletin saying stopping the production of the printed guns could be impossible.
As access to designs and production means become more widespread they extend further outside of the reach of current regulatory measures.
At present, the guns can be made without acquiring proper licenses. They can also be manufactured so they have no serial numbers or identifying marks.