I watched an interview with Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed. Defense Distributed is trying to create a "wiki weapon," a set of downloadable blueprints for one or more gun models that anyone can use to print one or more guns using a 3D printer. Such guns would be plastic and have no serial numbers. I had a few reactions:
1. It'd probably be relatively easy to trace such guns to the printers that constructed them, thence to the owners of those printers. Especially if 3D printers are already inscribing small identifiers in the products they produce.
2. Those printers don't produce the explosive charges required for working ammunition.
3. The NRA, which comments on everything gun-related, won't comment on this new reality. I'm sure that's because it would harm the gun industry the NRA really represents if it became popular. But of course the NRA can't admit that truth, so they're saying nothing.
4. If you're the sort of person that believes you need a gun to fight against an overbearing government, then you don't actually need to stockpile guns any more. You just keep a 3D printer nearby and a set of digital plans. That's much safer and cheaper, because you don't actually need to blow your budget on 3D printing supplies unless and until you need your gun(s). And another reason not to stockpile is that the designs are bound to get better and better, so why fight your revolution with yesterday's model?
5. If you're the sort of person who thinks you'd win an arms race against a modern government, you're naive. Wiki guns don't change that.
6. If the price of 3D printing continues to fall expect a broad group of patent holders to try to do something political, much like Hollywood has convinced Congress to extend copyright protection to ridiculous lengths. Said another way, gun manufacturers are among those who like the status quo just fine.
1. It'd probably be relatively easy to trace such guns to the printers that constructed them, thence to the owners of those printers. Especially if 3D printers are already inscribing small identifiers in the products they produce.
2. Those printers don't produce the explosive charges required for working ammunition.
3. The NRA, which comments on everything gun-related, won't comment on this new reality. I'm sure that's because it would harm the gun industry the NRA really represents if it became popular. But of course the NRA can't admit that truth, so they're saying nothing.
4. If you're the sort of person that believes you need a gun to fight against an overbearing government, then you don't actually need to stockpile guns any more. You just keep a 3D printer nearby and a set of digital plans. That's much safer and cheaper, because you don't actually need to blow your budget on 3D printing supplies unless and until you need your gun(s). And another reason not to stockpile is that the designs are bound to get better and better, so why fight your revolution with yesterday's model?
5. If you're the sort of person who thinks you'd win an arms race against a modern government, you're naive. Wiki guns don't change that.
6. If the price of 3D printing continues to fall expect a broad group of patent holders to try to do something political, much like Hollywood has convinced Congress to extend copyright protection to ridiculous lengths. Said another way, gun manufacturers are among those who like the status quo just fine.
