Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson claims he has attained his stated goal
of 3D printing a working handgun. There's no footage of it firing yet,
nor details on how many rounds it fires before the plastic is worn out.
And although this is a fascinating provocation, it is not (yet) a
game-changer, especially in America where traditional guns (capable of
firing thousands of rounds without melting down) are cheap and easy to
get. You can even "3D print" a gun by asking different CNC shops to cut
and overnight you all the parts to make up a working gun, breaking the
job down into small pieces that are unlikely to arouse suspicion.
All sixteen pieces of the Liberator prototype were printed in ABS
plastic with a Dimension SST printer from 3D printing company Stratasys,
with the exception of a single nail that’s used as a firing pin. The
gun is designed to fire standard handgun rounds, using interchangeable
barrels for different calibers of ammunition.
Technically, Defense Distributed’s gun has one other non-printed
component: the group added a six ounce chunk of steel into the body to
make it detectable by metal detectors in order to comply with the
Undetectable Firearms Act. In March, the group also obtained a federal
firearms license, making it a legal gun manufacturer.
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