Here We Go Again

[Less]

Modern Technology, what else is it going to be blamed for?

Deary me, reports in various papers that the 'British' FBI, the National Crime Agency, are to clamp down on 3d printers.

The reason? Gangs of criminals are trying to reproduce guns.

OK I don't want extra guns on the street but hang on, let's look at the expense.

Cheapest decent printer capable of getting close to producing accurately, no doubt in the thousands, time taken to program the thing to make the gun...

...and so on.

From what I understand from the same hyperventilating press, in several of their other panic attacks, a gun including ammunition can be bought for far less than a third of these printers.

So surely while they are designing the gun let them get on with it, it keeps them off the streets and everyone needs a hobby, they still need to get ammunition and no doubt the dealer in guns isn't going to be undercut supplying ammo for replicas? He'll want his maximum profit.

[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by Less

Modern Technology, what else is it going to be blamed for?

Deary me, reports in various papers that the 'British' FBI, the National Crime Agency, are to clamp down on 3d printers.

The reason? Gangs of criminals are trying to reproduce guns.

OK I don't want extra guns on the street but hang on, let's look at the expense.

Cheapest decent printer capable of getting close to producing accurately, no doubt in the thousands, time taken to program the thing to make the gun...

...and so on.

From what I understand from the same hyperventilating press, in several of their other panic attacks, a gun including ammunition can be bought for far less than a third of these printers.

So surely while they are designing the gun let them get on with it, it keeps them off the streets and everyone needs a hobby, they still need to get ammunition and no doubt the dealer in guns isn't going to be undercut supplying ammo for replicas? He'll want his maximum profit.

More crap from the newspapers, plastic guns, who the ell in their right mind would fire a plastic gun. The most commonly available ammo is 9mm & that generates a chamber pressure of 17 tons per square inch. One good thing if it were true we would see a lot of one armed criminals.

[DtheP47]

Originally Posted by Less

Modern Technology, what else is it going to be blamed for?

Deary me, reports in various papers that the 'British' FBI, the National Crime Agency, are to clamp down on 3d printers.

The reason? Gangs of criminals are trying to reproduce guns.

OK I don't want extra guns on the street but hang on, let's look at the expense.

Cheapest decent printer capable of getting close to producing accurately, no doubt in the thousands, time taken to program the thing to make the gun...

.

The Straight Dope has a fun read on this topic Less.

The Straight Dope: Is it possible to make an undetectable nonmetal gun?

[Gordon Booth]

BBC News - Working gun made with 3D printer

I knew I'd seen it somewhere. Latest on BBC is someone in Wythenshawe has been caught trying to make one.
I don't think I'd be keen on firing one but if the barrel just screws in you could change it for every shot to cut down the risk of it bursting in your face and taking your head off.
I certainly wouldn't want one pointing at me- even the little .22 cartridge would cause a lot of damage.
Biggest problem would probably be the ammunition- getting it and the fact that it's metal and would show on Xray.
This guy was trying to make gunpowder( to get round the ammo problem?). Now doing that really is dangerous, he must be a fool or mad. A good way to blow yourself up, never mind the gun.

[Barrie Yates]

Originally Posted by Gordon Booth

BBC News - Working gun made with 3D printer

I knew I'd seen it somewhere. Latest on BBC is someone in Wythenshawe has been caught trying to make one.
I don't think I'd be keen on firing one but if the barrel just screws in you could change it for every shot to cut down the risk of it bursting in your face and taking your head off.
I certainly wouldn't want one pointing at me- even the little .22 cartridge would cause a lot of damage.
Biggest problem would probably be the ammunition- getting it and the fact that it's metal and would show on Xray.
This guy was trying to make gunpowder( to get round the ammo problem?). Now doing that really is dangerous, he must be a fool or mad. A good way to blow yourself up, never mind the gun.

There are many materials classed as plastic but many are not what you see around the house. There is also ceramics which are in some cases stronger than steel - so add together plastics (Kevlar, carbon fibre etc) with ceramics and I suppose it is possible to come up with a strong enough material. Caseless ammunition has been around for a long time and easy enough to use a ceramic caseless round. I did read somewhere in the past that the US military had carried out tests on such weapons.