The Ghost Gun Crackdown Is Quietly Threatening the Future of 3D Printing

They’re doing this because the number of self-created guns recovered from crime scenes has increased significantly over the last five years. I made a video about it recently, if anyone’s bored.

Calling it a ‘crackdown’ is a little silly though, and just the kind of overdramatic bullshit one would expect from American gun nuts.

It’s two state-level laws that aren’t even fully in force yet, and won’t work anyway, thanks to US gun law being a patchwork of fifty different fiefdoms’ opinions, many of which are unilaterally unenforced by local sheriffs on purpose anyway. Hell, guns are so absurdly legal in my state that they keep coming up with ways to make them extra-legal so that the gun lobby will keep the bribes flowing.

Too many people are coming up with ways to repair or enhance items that don’t enrich the OEM.

These laws are the DMCA of the physical world. This is stage 4 malignant capitalism, where they claim their true dominion over us all.

Play by the rules: You exist, they make money off your existence, nothing changes.

(european here) i can imagine that the gun religion in usa directed by nra and big manufacturer needs to have someone to blame to divert eyes from lack of real legislation over guns and what best to blame that a growing sector that could potentially affect their share of market in future. They could be scared from the fast development of 3d printing and the crazy power of innovation a community can achieve, they could be left behind just by the lack of innovation.

Another way to say this: blocking consumer 3d printer is a way to reinforce their dominant position by ensuring there is not other path than going threw them and making sure their market share don’t drop because of new technology growing/changing fast while diverting the real issue USA has with guns.

For the same reason that it would be better to regulate polluters than to expect individuals to recycle their waste en masse. Regulating this at an individual level is demonstrably less effective, given that the recovery of self-created guns used in crimes has increased significantly in recent years.

Whether anti-gun 3D-printing algorithms will even work isn’t certain yet, but I’m all for giving it a try and forcing people to risk acquiring said weapons via legit manufacturers and shops which may be more traceable or risk the black market.

You can make single shot weapons from pretty much 100% plastic with just like a nail as the firing pin. But those aren’t really effective weapons at all, and you can make a better shotgun with some pipes from the hardware store.

Even if you could make fully functional firearms with 3D printers, this is still stupid. 3D printers for hobbyists were originally all hand built with common electronic parts and if more states pass regulations like this, DIY is going to be the new trend again where everybody builds their own printers instead of buying one and it’ll just get easier and easier and the government won’t be able to regulate that at all.

And, honestly, I’m all for that future, and sort of excited for it. The regulations are moronic and dumb, but just like digital surveillance and information suppression laws like age verification, it’s just going to make the darknet and none regulatable things more popular, which is great, in my opinion. I yearn for the day where the commoner gets online and Tor or I2P is their first choice of connection. Where the government has no control over the citizen and what they think, do, or say online or in their own private life.

Its a silly strawman.

I remember when the news talked about ghost guns that they’d always bring up this CNC machine that would build AR lowers, the part that is legally “the gun”. I’m pretty sure it was the ghost gunner.

I read into it and got on forums. There was a poster who bought the machine and, because of legal reasons, had to get his friends to come push the start button so that they were making their own guns and not the poster making guns for others. Apparently, he got visited by the ATF, but basically got told he’s walking a fine line.

I can make my own ghost gun with a hand drill and a template you can buy online. a motivated person will always be able to find a way to do things, but its actually easier to just find someone to sell you a cheap illegal gun if you’re gonna commit a crime than to go through the whole trouble of building one yourself.

I dunno why they don’t just outlaw manufacturing your own firearms without a license…

Yeah the supreme court is getting ready to fucking undo assault rifle bans next year, this shit ain’t lasting.

Amazing how they ISPs can just block sites based for states and how sites can block certain areas but these rulings their location jurisdiction.