The Gun Thread

Old video, but this is just melodious.

3D-printed gun blueprints given go-ahead by US government

I wonder what effects this will have on broader enforcement of ITAR and the online market for guns and equipment.

One of the last things we needed to become fully loosed in the wild.

You know what is funny?

With the right blueprints and a 3D printer capable of printing quality metal parts, there is nothing preventing from someone with enough material to print things like an M60 on their own house or automatic versions of rifles and carbines.

It's funny in a very uncomfortable way.

It would be stupidly expensive though.

Surely, it wouldn't stop any yahoo with a deep wallet from making his own Machinegun but it will be probably very far from the reach of the nuttjobs who shoot up malls and schools.

However, it doesn't stop from any criminal group or someone with very loose morals from getting a 3D printer and making their own handguns and small arms to avoid things like background checks and sell them without any sort of restriction.

The thing is, I don’t think something like that is currently as simple as buying a 3D printer. Maybe in 20 years, but for now you’d need to essentially be running your own high end machine shop/workshop to have that kind of manufacturing capability, which puts it outside the reach and skill range of most yahoos and criminals.

The main thing to worry about is people printing 80% or complete lowers for A Rs. The upper and all the other operating parts aren’t regulated because only the lower is considered the firearm, if you can print that you can buy the rest of your gun on amazon.

Edited by archonspeaks on Jul 19th 2018 at 9:14:11 AM

There are metal 3D printers that already make every single component needed to assemble a firearm.

As long as you make each individual component and assemble them after you are done, you can make your own handgun.

As of now, the costs of printing your own firearm with 3D Metal Printers is prohibitively expensive, however in the upcoming years that might not be the case.

On the other hand the plastic handguns being 3D printed are crude, easier to make and fairly dangerous to both user and whoever it is pointed at.

Though I should expect to see at least some underground workshops using 3D printers to assemble machined guns in the near future.

Check out the shop they have, though. That printer is the size of a room, and they have an extensive workshop setup as well, which they had to use to complete the tooling on the gun. Not to say it’s impossible, but it’d probably be cheaper, easier and quicker to just buy black market guns. The whole “criminals 3D printing entire weapons” thing is totally overblown, we won’t see those kinds of printers become available enough for it to be an issue for a while.

That's not even "3D Printing" as most people think of it that's just straight up a manufacturing workshop the dude didn't need to get a permit for.

TBH a more imminent concern for me would be people making the parts needed to convert a semi-automatic rifle to a fully automatic one off a 3d printer.

...

Because AFIAK they aren't all that hard to do if you have the mateirals to do so.

Right now, you can buy 80% receivers and build the gun for less than the retail price of a new, complete gun (provided you can learn how to assemble it from component parts.) And I don't just mean AR-15s, either; you can get 80% receivers for a Colt 1911 or a Glock pistol, too.

You’d probably have to do the entire receiver. An auto sear won’t even fit in a civilian lower, and it’s similar for A Ks.

Not with that attitude

Archon: Actually it isn't all that difficult to modify either AR or the AK family into full auto. You have to have a few parts and tools and know what your doing but it is not only possible but has been done. They aren't very common modifications at least in the US. Of course it is also possible to easily screw up so there is that.

Edited by TuefelHundenIV on Jul 19th 2018 at 6:01:30 AM

I can’t speak to the AK as accurately but I’ve worked on an auto AR and you have to do a decent amount of remodeling for an auto sear. It’s basically impossible to do by hand, you need a millling machine.

Edited by archonspeaks on Jul 19th 2018 at 4:47:25 AM

You don't actually need a milling machine. You can do the same job with a drill press and a bit of patience and the right set of bits.

That was how those yahoo's in the Holly Wood shootout got their four converted full auto weapons. They had three Norinco AK's and one Bushmaster XM-15.

In addition to the auto-sear, there are a number of other parts you'd need to obtain (bolt carrier, hammer, trigger, disconnector, selector switch), because the AR-15 parts are distinctly different from their corresponding M-16 parts. They deliberately redesigned the AR-15 that way, to make it more difficult to convert.

Of course, the quick-and-dirty way is to simply disable the disconnector, making it full-auto only. But this is really unsafe, because it could fire the cartridge before the bolt is fully closed and locked — which can result in a ruptured shell casing spewing burning powder and metal fragments out the ejection port.

Edited by pwiegle on Jul 21st 2018 at 11:37:06 AM

The parts are the more difficult step. It isn't that hard to tweak the receivers internal dimensions with some common tools. Crafting your small parts is the most difficult part.

Which is exactly why a 3d printer making conversion parts is probaly more of a threat then making a whole automatic weapon.

It let's you source those parts easily, and you don't have to worry about as many stress factors on the weapon, because a lot of it would have been traditional built

TFB proudly presents a MAC-11 concealed in Thomas the Tank Engine.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Jul 26th 2018 at 3:19:11 AM

...

Yeah, OK, that was worth a click. And exactly as weird as I thought it would be.

Its not a real mac-10, just a plug fire cap gun.

That you-tuber is Japanese, and while I know from experience you can get a gun contrary to popular perception, I also know there is no way in hell your getting an actual mac-10... even without the whole "Automatic weapon" thing, there are only 500 handgun licensees in the country... and the number is fixed.

Are magazines being located in the side, as seen with the MP35◊ still a good idea?