3D Print This Poison Dart Gun If You Dare

[Brian_Krassenstein]

It’s not only an interesting design for a weapon, but Peter Alaric DeSimone makes quite the provocative commentary and response to President Obama’s recent decree to bank all sharing of gun sketches and schematics online. Skirting the legalities by producing a 3D printed airgun, Alaric quite gleefully sketches out exactly how you can make this totally legal 3D printed weapon which will evade metal detectors and can even be made to use darts bearing poison tips. Check out details about this inventive design in the full article: http://3dprint.com/80042/3d-printed-poison-dart-pistol/


Below is a look at the 3D printed poison dart gun:

[curious aardvark]

tipping your darts with poison is a serious and potentially deadly business, so take that into consideration and be not only educated about what you are doing, but smart, and above board.

Okay - I'll bite ;-)

What are the 'above board' reasons for making poison tipped darts ?

[PeterAlaric]

Okay - I'll bite ;-)

What are the 'above board' reasons for making poison tipped darts ?

I hope you don't mind me wading into this discussion (if so, please say the word and I'll butt out!)

*Further reiterating that I don't have any poison darts, and I don't plan to make any*, there are legitimate uses for poison darts. Indigenous peoples of the Amazon rainforest use them for subsistence hunting. I can think of no reason whatsoever why a licensed hunter in the United States couldn't use such a weapon to take game (assuming, of course, that doing so is legal in his or her locality). I am not a hunter myself, but I have seen bowhunting videos in which the animal is mortally wounded and runs off to die a slow and painful death somewhere. As an animal lover, I find this quite tragic. There are, on the other hand, poisons that would only temporarily incapacitate the animal, or that would kill it painlessly (and therefore more humanely). So there's one potential legitimate use for a poison dart gun like this.

Another is pest control, which is not quite the same thing as hunting. Say you live in a residential area, but you have a problem with rodents in your house, garden, etc. You could shoot them with a firearm, thus (potentially) breaking the law and endangering your neighbors, or you could quietly eliminate them with a poison dart gun.

I've been joking about the need to keep a poison dart gun on one's nightstand for "home defense", but there are obvious problems with this. I'm no expert in poison, but it's unlikely that any poison dart would put an attacker down quickly enough to prevent them from attacking you. So in practice, the defensive applications are probably quite limited, except that it's a scary gun-like object which, when pointed at someone, would probably intimidate them into leaving you alone.

As stated in the READ ME file for the gun, the fact is that the prototype was made for indoor target practice and nothing more. To those knowledgeable in airguns, there is nothing particularly notable about this gun, except perhaps for the fact that you can make it yourself. I've made no secret of the fact that the "poison" and "undetectable" keywords were employed purely for dramatic effect, and it would appear that the media bought it hook line and sinker. ;-)

Cheers,
~ Peter