Jeezus, this must please the NRA to no end!
By Jake Edmiston
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
By the time Cody Wilson uploaded plans for the first plastic handgun to be manufactured almost entirely by a 3D printer early Monday, U.S. lawmakers had already seen footage of his “wiki weapon” in action and were expressing fears the weapon could circumvent established security methods, like metal detectors.
On the weekend, video footage online showed Mr. Wilson, 25, a University of Texas law student, firing the white handgun he had printed hours earlier on an $8,000 hand-me-down Dimension SST printer by Stratasys.
“When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction,” Representative Steve Israel of New York said in a statement. “Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms.”
Mr. Wilson, a self-proclaimed anarchist, founded Defense Distributed last year to develop a single-shot handgun that could be produced by anyone with a 3D printer, “unobservable by institutions and countries and sovereigns.”
By 6 p.m. Monday, more than 20,000 people had downloaded the files from his website. These can be inputted into a 3D printer to produce 17 out of 18 pieces of the plastic handgun, he said. The final piece, a nail, is used as the firing pin.
People in Spain had downloaded the files the most, followed by people in the United States.
A clip from a YouTube video showing a component of the plastic gun. (Defence Distributed/YouTube)
Since April, Mr. Israel has been touting his proposed legislation that would render any 3D-printing of a firearm or firearm part illegal.
“Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” he said in his statement.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York has also been speaking out about Defense Distributed, decrying the 3D-gun as “just as deadly as any [gun] you’d see in a gun store, impossible to detect, and … easily made by anyone with an Internet connection.”
Mr. Wilson said he believes more sophisticated security methods beyond metal detectors could detect the plastic gun, dubbed “The Liberator,” referring to guns dropped over occupied countries by the allies during the Second World War.
“The detectability conversation is slippery because with airport detection and imaging technologies, the metal detectors isn’t really the star player,” he said. “You know, we have the back scatter X-ray and visual imaging.”
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“When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction,” Representative Steve Israel of New York said in a statement. “Now that this technology appears to be upon us, we need to act now to extend the ban on plastic firearms.”
Mr. Wilson, a self-proclaimed anarchist, founded Defense Distributed last year to develop a single-shot handgun that could be produced by anyone with a 3D printer, “unobservable by institutions and countries and sovereigns.”
By 6 p.m. Monday, more than 20,000 people had downloaded the files from his website. These can be inputted into a 3D printer to produce 17 out of 18 pieces of the plastic handgun, he said. The final piece, a nail, is used as the firing pin.
People in Spain had downloaded the files the most, followed by people in the United States.
Since April, Mr. Israel has been touting his proposed legislation that would render any 3D-printing of a firearm or firearm part illegal.
“Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” he said in his statement.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York has also been speaking out about Defense Distributed, decrying the 3D-gun as “just as deadly as any [gun] you’d see in a gun store, impossible to detect, and … easily made by anyone with an Internet connection.”
Mr. Wilson said he believes more sophisticated security methods beyond metal detectors could detect the plastic gun, dubbed “The Liberator,” referring to guns dropped over occupied countries by the allies during the Second World War.
“The detectability conversation is slippery because with airport detection and imaging technologies, the metal detectors isn’t really the star player,” he said. “You know, we have the back scatter X-ray and visual imaging.”
Mr. Wilson, a self-proclaimed anarchist, founded Defense Distributed last year to develop a single-shot handgun that could be produced by anyone with a 3D printer, “unobservable by institutions and countries and sovereigns.”
By 6 p.m. Monday, more than 20,000 people had downloaded the files from his website. These can be inputted into a 3D printer to produce 17 out of 18 pieces of the plastic handgun, he said. The final piece, a nail, is used as the firing pin.
People in Spain had downloaded the files the most, followed by people in the United States.
Since April, Mr. Israel has been touting his proposed legislation that would render
By 6 p.m. Monday, more than 20,000 people had downloaded the files from his website. These can be inputted into a 3D printer to produce 17 out of 18 pieces of the plastic handgun, he said. The final piece, a nail, is used as the firing pin.
People in Spain had downloaded the files the most, followed by people in the United States.
Since April, Mr. Israel has been touting his proposed legislation that would render
any 3D-printing of a firearm or firearm part illegal.
“Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” he said in his statement.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York has also been speaking out about Defense Distributed, decrying the 3D-gun as “just as deadly as any [gun] you’d see in a gun store, impossible to detect, and … easily made by anyone with an Internet connection.”
Mr. Wilson said he believes more sophisticated security methods beyond metal detectors could detect the plastic gun, dubbed “The Liberator,” referring to guns dropped over occupied countries by the allies during the Second World War.
“The detectability conversation is slippery because with airport detection and imaging technologies, the metal detectors isn’t really the star player,” he said. “You know, we have the back scatter X-ray and visual imaging.”
3D printing technology is seen as one future direction for manufacturing. Typically, it takes a digital representation of an object and recreates it physically, laying down thin layers of material, usually plastics, until the digital file is literally printed in three dimensions.
A posting in a Forbes magazine blog explained the process using as “a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page.”
Components of The Liberator are seen in the company's YouTube video instructions. (YouTube/Defence Distributed)
“Security checkpoints, background checks, and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,” he said in his statement.
Senator Charles Schumer of New York has also been speaking out about Defense Distributed, decrying the 3D-gun as “just as deadly as any [gun] you’d see in a gun store, impossible to detect, and … easily made by anyone with an Internet connection.”
Mr. Wilson said he believes more sophisticated security methods beyond metal detectors could detect the plastic gun, dubbed “The Liberator,” referring to guns dropped over occupied countries by the allies during the Second World War.
“The detectability conversation is slippery because with airport detection and imaging technologies, the metal detectors isn’t really the star player,” he said. “You know, we have the back scatter X-ray and visual imaging.”
3D printing technology is seen as one future direction for manufacturing. Typically, it takes a digital representation of an object and recreates it physically, laying down thin layers of material, usually plastics, until the digital file is literally printed in three dimensions.
A posting in a Forbes magazine blog explained the process using as “a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page.”
With files from National Post wire services
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