I appreciate your insight, and your research alerting us to the threats, but complaining about it is not enough. The firearm threat in United States is real and cannot be ignored in the 3-D printing sphere. Rather then complaining about proposals making their way through the legislatures our community needs to propose workable solutions.
I’m thinking …
- We need to outlaw the unlicensed creation of weapons capable of firing a projectile at a specified velocity. (Serious injury would have to be the threshold)
- The law needs to be narrowly focused on the creation of weapons.
- The law must be crafted in such a way as to not prohibit open source files and machines.
- The law must be crafted in such a way as to not limit competition in the market place of machines.
- National security must taken into account. (Machines that independently report back to the manufacture should be prohibited. This is the data sharing threat relative to China.)
Just some thoughts.
For the U.S., the currently enforced regulations are here:
https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms
The relevant Amendments are the 1st and 2nd (and to a lesser degree, the 4th), and the math arguably should be:
1st Amendment + 2nd Amendment == The Right to 3D Print and Bear Arms
- Obviously, the 2nd Amendment as currently understood is not adequate.
- The right to weapons is not unlimited as the right to regulate arms is encoded in the 2nd Amendment.
- So far this year there’s been 130 days while the same time there’s been 177 mass shootings. Mass shootings in this case are defined as involving four or more people either wounded, killed or shooting. Not a stellar record!
- If we want to maintain our 3D printing capabilities we need to address these issues.
Actually the 2nd amendment is very well understood. The far left just keeps trying to redefine it so it fits their narrative.
At the federal level you can make your own firearm IF you can legally own a firearm (with caveats). There are currently only 13 states that curtail that right. Which means the majority of the states understand the 2nd amendment.
The larger problem is liberal politicians over reaching and trying to pass illegal laws. They keep getting smacked down by the Supreme Court but they just change the language and try again.
@SkipB I respect your opinion and passion on the subject but we try to be as apolitical as possible here on the forums.
The bigger picture is that by states trying to regulate 3D printing and CNC use, it will result in the users being caught in the legalese and all users will become a criminal whether intentional or not.
Politicians with no understanding of how 3D printing or CNC actually works, are trying to regulate a problem that is not a problem. Now you may disagree, but it does not change the fact that the laws that have been passed or that are currently in legislature, WILL affect the future of 3D printing and CNC on the general public who will only want to print fidget spinners and dragons.
even without the 2nd amendment, the crime numbers and stats on ghost guns would be an incredibly flimsy excuse for these laws. AI has done and will continue to do far more societal harm (not talking about the benefit, which is real, too).
still, if we take the laws at face value and presume they’re constitutional, they miss the mark by a wide margin. most ghost gun parts that functionally matter are made on a CNC. 3d printed parts are cosmetic or single/low use.
it also presumes that it’s possible to look at gcode (or even a mesh) and determine with any level of confidence (and not tons of false positives) that the component is related to a firearm.
if this continues, they will come for both the software that drives and type of fabrication as well as other types of fabrication machines next. this will result in the effective ban of open source slicer / cad software as well as open design fabrication hardware.
First they came for “just these” firearms, and you did not have one those, so OK!
And now they come for your 3D printer - “Wait I wasn’t going to do that!”
But when you start down the road of “Pre-Crime”, all men will need to be castrated because we might commit a crime.