Power to Print - 3D Gun Printing Documentary

[curious aardvark]

the whole 3d gun debate is amusing if you live in the uk.

Sure you could print a gun - but you still need a firearms licence to buy ammunition :-)

Obviously in the us where anyone can walk into a store and just buy ammo - and guns are given away with cornflake packets, it's more of an issue.

More I suspect because you can't trace rifling or firing pin patterns than because people can make unaccurate, exploding hand guns.

That said - a piece of metal tubing, some ducttape, elastic band, small nail and some basic woodworking will make a gun every bit as serviceable as a plastic printed one.
Maybe only one shot - but how many shots do you need ?

It's pretty much a non-issue as far as I can see.

In countries like the states where some ammunition is unregulated - anyone can knock up a workable gun faster than printing one.
And in countries like the uk where you can't buy the ammunition, it's pretty much a pointless exercise.

Weirdly - black powder guns are almost unregulated in the uk. So I guess a mostly plastic caplock/flintlock/matchlock gun could be made and fired under a basic shotgun licence.
But that takes skills and resources the average criminal just doesn't have.

It's just an emotive topic - particularly for americans who seem to intertwine their whole national identity with gun ownership - one way or the other

And let's face it no one in their right mind would want a plastic barrel. Guess you could use a carbon fibre filament.
But a few bucks at a hardware store would get you a serviceable metal barrel, that could be easily reinforced.

I don't want to turn this into a tutorial on how to make a zipgun.
But it's pretty damn easy.