Hey all,  Recently Cody Wilson printed his first 3D printed gun - >  http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/cody-wilsons-fully-3d-printed-gun-works-alarmingly-well

Hey all,

Recently Cody Wilson printed his first 3D printed gun -> http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/cody-wilsons-fully-3d-printed-gun-works-alarmingly-well

What are everyone’s thoughts on this?

So what? People can make guns with a lot of tools. I personally dislike guns, to put it mildly. But I see no news in this. I also have a lathe. All the weapons I can build with that! But I don’t.

How can you not see news in this? This has started a large debate on government regulation and whether or not 3D blue prints for guns should be available to the public. This is HUGE news. And unlike other ways of building weapons, with 3DP all you have to do is download the blueprint (and own a 3D printer) and print the gun, right from your home! You don’t have to go out and gather materials and spend months assembling it. You can literally have a gun made at the click of a button, if you have the proper blueprints and machine.

@Ty_Hooper Again - so what? It becomes “news” because of all the hype. For those into 3D printing there is no news and no surprise. We all knew and know this is perfectly possible.

Well, I politely disagree. The entire 3DP community has reported on this and it’s huge news. Maybe not in Europe, but in North America this is seen as a huge deal. And it’s not “hype”, it’s a huge breakthrough in the capabilities and societal ambiguities 3D printing is creating. If it’s not news to you… don’t read it. But I’m sure other people in this community would enjoy this story. Thanks!

I strongly agree with Jan Wildeboer, at least in Europe where amunition is not distributed freely it is not that simple to produce a gun, even with blueprints. So to get something dangerous you would actually have to go out and find some channel to buy amunition. or assemble it yourself somehow…
I still dont get why we dont see that this Cody Wilson guy is just a dangerous kind of troll and we keep feeding him.

automated production with a mill… might even produce guns that dont inherit the risk of exploding in your face.

True.

I was thinking more along the lines of what this meant for the capabilities of 3DP, but good point @Gareth_Owen . I, myself, am not a gun enthusiast by any means, but I do think this adds an interesting elements to the gun control debate in the U.S.

@Felix_Reitberger : That’s a really interesting view point. I guess it’s just not an issue in Europe (or parts of it anyway). It’s absurdly easy to get ammo in the U.S., I suppose that’s why it’s such an bigger deal down there. Thanks for the input though! I take it you’re not a fan of Cody Wilson?

@Felix_Reitberger : When you say that you think Cody Wilson is a troll do you mean that he’s just seeking attention by doing what he’s done?

More great points. Also, your point about manufactures dreading 3D printing: Do you think that 3D printing is eventually going to become affordable and advanced enough to replace traditional manufacturing methods, or will it only be useful in certain fields (medical, military, etc)?

@Ty_Hooper I think it is wrong to ask “Will it replace traditional manufacturing?”. IMHO in its current state it is about decentralizing and democratizing access to small scale, individual production. That’s the sweet spot. Instead of shipping millions of the same object from A to B 3D printing allows for a local production of individual objects - in a global context based on openly sharing. That’s really powerful when you think about it.

True, I never thought about how well CD burning worked out. Thanks for all the great insight. Would you have any problem if I quoted you for an article I’m writing, or should I just use “anonymous internet user” or something along those lines? Thanks!

@Ty_Hooper if you want to quote me, no problem in using my full name. But I cannot speak for the others that contributed too :wink:

Thanks everyone! @Jan_Wildeboer @Gareth_Owen for all of your insights. I’m really liking Google + (I’m relatively new), people on here seem to actually want to have discussions, which is great. I’m going to add you both to my circles, if that’s okay?

tl;dr
Not news, just hype.

@Ty_Hooper I think our reaction is mellowed because we’ve (members of this community) dealt with this issue a few times already, and we’re constantly talking about the effects of 3D printing. Weapons have been around since the dawn of humanity, and as time has progressed they’ve only gotten easier to manufacture.

Laws don’t stop people from doing bad things. They only provide a governmental response when people do those bad things. It’s why illegal things still happen. We don’t want to see laws made in reaction to 3D printing, they would be misplaced. Ideally, we’d see laws that react to gun manufacturing. In the United States, we already have those, and they tend not to be the ones addressed when someone does something horrible with a gun.

All in all, I don’t anticipate that we’ll see any crimes committed with a gun from a hobby printer, at least not for 5 years, and even then I would be surprised. The printers aren’t there yet, and a person trying to print a gun for a malicious act would have to be focused on printing the gun rather than committing the act. It would be the act of an individual trying to prove a point. Anyone else would buy a more reliable gun either legally or illegally because of cost and ease-of-access (Yes - it’s easier to buy an illegal gun than print one - now and for a while yet.)

@Aaron_Eiche Thanks for input Aaron. Yeah, I’m a noob here, I’ll work the ropes until I get the hang of it! However, I am really glad that there is discussion and most of it is constructive.

Since we are already beating a dead horse, do you have any thoughts on Cody Wilson, 3DP guns or 3DP in general?

@Ty_Hooper yes, I am no fan of Mr Wilson.
I think the discussions we should have about 3d printing and self replicating machines are lot more non trivial then…
What can we do with this tech that will raise a lot of attention? Lets print guns!

I think 3D printed guns is just another way of asking a basic question about human (or rather, and individual’s) behavior. Trying to distill that question down, I think the question is:
“If it’s easier for a person to be violent, will they be violent?”

The question isn’t about tools of violence (words or weapons), it’s about members of our society. It isn’t fair for me to say that meeting the material needs of all of society’s individuals would solve all violence problems, but I think it’s a good start. That’s where I see 3D Printing offering the most good. 3D printing extends the equalizing influence of the internet into the real world. It’ll take some time, but I see the 3D printer of the future solving a lot of problems:

  • Distribution of goods will be a matter of data transmission
  • Competition will increase because barriers to entry are reduced significantly.
  • On-demand variation will enable customers to make a product meet their needs.

And I see 3D printing as more than just ordered laying of plastic. Eventually, I think the printer will eventually be an assembly machine. You give it feed stock for everything it needs (Plastic, electronics, metal, cleaning materials, etc), and does the assembly. It could be that instead of Star Trek’s replicator assembling something, we have a swarm of nanobots doing it.

Anyway - 3D printing is cool :slight_smile:

It needs a bigger magazine. Also, an autonomous, laser-guided, artificially intelligent turret to house it in.