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Did you click the link on the parent site?
http://thehomegunsmith.com/

Did you notice the giant UK flag at the top?

It's very likely that this site isn't hosted in a location where a US court has much jurisdiction. Contrary to popular belief, Americans are not the only people interested in firearms.

I'm guessing no one told the OP of this tread that you can download free PDFs of all metal machine pistols off of the web off of random public and open websites. Such as http://thehomegunsmith.com/

The second amendment has never applied to exports.

True enough. But let's also not forget that the US State Department has tried to regulate CAD and other 3D printer files posted online just like firearms in order to have them taken down. Even though just raw information on how to build a gun conventionally is still legal. Hell, you can still get all of PL Luty's how-to guides over at http://thehomegunsmith.com/

Yeah, I've been waiting to see someone build:

  - a firearm w/ a magazine of one capacity in a particular caliber, but a larger capacity when used w/ a smaller round
  - a child's toy which has a part which just incidentally happens to be the same size / shape as a lightning link: http://thehomegunsmith.com/pdf...
  - a cap pistol whose cylinder could easily be replaced w/ a sturdier 3D printed one which used steam pipe fittings to sleeve each chamber

&c.

http://thehomegunsmith.com/pdf/BSP-SMG_Book.pdf

Machining can be done with a file, this is largely how Khyber pass guns are made.

Give it up already.

This, cheap weapons can be made in back yards with rudimentary tools. They can be mass produced without much machining at all (Al la the STEN linked to earlier, it was mostly pressed from sheet metal).

However quality firearms are not so easy to make, guns like the Sten which were very cheap to manufacture tend to have a lot of problems (the STEN had a lot of loading/feed issues, especially if held by the magazine).

So if you just want to get a cheap, no-nonsense sub machine gun you can easily do it from unskilled labour in a impromptu workshop. If you want a SMG that will work no-matter what, it's a bit more difficult.

http://thehomegunsmith.com/pdf/BSP-SMG_Book.pdf

Machining can be done with a file, this is largely how Khyber pass guns are made.

Give it up already.

It sounds like the police have never heard of PA Luty. http://thehomegunsmith.com/ check out some of the designs folks. You could make a MACHINE GUN that would be fully functional from nothing more than parts you bought at a hardware store. It would cost you about 200 bucks or so in tools and parts.

the 3D printed version is likely easier to make

Not at all.

Never mind just being able ot figure out how to download and print 3D models, there's also assembling the pieces...

All more complex than even a complex ZIpgun

I live in Britain, where handguns are banned and to get a crippled rifle or shotgun you need to jump through a lot of hoops.

I can see this causing a lot of problems

Those frightened of 3D-printed guns in Britain should be much more worried about people making Sten sub-machine guns.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten

You Brits were making them like gangbusters in WW2 precisely because they required almost nothing in the way of machining, special/expensive/high-quality/tight-tolerance parts or materials, skills to make, etc etc. Probably still plenty of old original manufacturing templates, jigs, etc scattered about that anyone interested could buy quite cheaply.

Same minimal requirements are needed to produce something like the International Ordnance MP2: http://olegvolk.net/gallery/d/37779-2/international_ordnance_MP2_0068.jpg

Just check this site out: http://thehomegunsmith.com/

Those are all much greater real-world, practical threats than some geeks 3D-printing a plastic gun that's as likely to kill/maim the shoot-er as the shoot-ee.

Strat

That would be dumb -- every hardware store selling pipe nipples in this list would need an FFL? (Plain pipe may not seem like finished barrels because they need chambered, but they would be suited for a revolver or such.)

When I first heard of 3d printing I was really impressed and thought of lots of practical applications for this new tech but for some reason I never thought of weapons. Once I heard of that I thought that this crosses a line. I certainly don't want it where someone can just go home and print a gun.

In the US, anybody can legally just go home and build a gun -- but of course it takes time to get the skills, most people would rather spend money than time, so they buy one instead. In other parts of the world, or for certain types of gun, that's illegal, but still very possible, and yet few people bother. Few people bother, even when it is legal, so why do you think they will just because a 3D printer is involved? For the most part, people who want guns already buy them (legally or black market), while people who don't want them won't buy or print them, because they don't want one!

And then I read about ammo being printed: http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/01/14/gunsmiths-3d-print-high-capacity-ammo-clips-to-thwart-proposed-gun-laws/

Understand that that's not ammo, that's a device to feed ammo. You still have to buy your ammo at the local Walmart, and if you live somewhere building your own gun is prohibited, I'd expect ammo sales are restricted as well. (If not, shouldn't it be?)

This is the first time a new tech that could very well become commonplace in the home has given me pause.

First new tech, in your short lifetime, sure! But do very old techs, such as hand drills and files, also give you pause? Because people make guns with those all the time. And it doesn't take near as much skilled work as you might think.

And short of making 3d printers illegal, what could be done even if desired?

Well, the same thing they did about the drills and files -- pass laws restricting what sort of weapons you can make, and arrest anyone you catch breaking them!

e.g.
http://thehomegunsmith.com/pdf/Expedient-Homemade-Firearms-Vol-II-PA-Luty.pdf

No machine shop required, though it'd probably do a better job. As to the morality. Go argue with anyone living under an oppressive regime. Iran, iraq,

Thank you for this. I do not own and do not expect to own an AR15 but I may make one of these just so that I can violate Federal law in yet another way (if it is in fact true that possession of the part is illegal. If not I won't bother). And no, I won't make it out of ABS on a "3D printer".

We all wish this was a utopia where this was true, however it couldn't be further from it. Criminals will always have access to firearms readily no matter how strict the gun laws are.

____

If all else fails, you build them yourself. http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/

Hi there, pario.

- Guns exist; they're not (theoretically) hard to make: see http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/ for one guy's detailed description (PDF) of how to construct a 9mm semi-automatic pistol.

- People willing to kill others (or threaten to kill others) in order to rob, intimidate or rape them are probably not interested in legal niceties.

- As someone else has mentioned, in the American tradition, liberty is itself a desired end, not only a means to other aspects of happiness. Governments the world over tend toward tyranny (though some have survived pretty peacefully for a long time with very little in the way of an armed citizenry -- goes to show how complex the world can be), and discouraging -- or at least delaying -- the slide into tyranny is why the Second Amendment exists.

Are you by chance in Camden? If you'd like to go shooting in a safe, friendly environment and perhaps get a different perspective on why people are adamant about maintaining their right to self defense against both small time (mugger) criminals and big league (government) criminals, let me know by email (timothylord gmail com) -- after finals are over, several of my fellow law students and I are likely to revisit a shooting range in Philadelphia; you must pay for a training session, but I'll buy you a box of ammunition :)

Cheers,

timothy

There is something of an open source firearms movement. Firearms fulfill a basic human need, namely that of self-defense. They're also not difficult to make from scratch. Links: Instructions for a primitive home-made subgun: http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/ . And here's a whole forum of people who are actually having fun building and shooting their own guns: http://www.homegunsmith.com/ . Fortunately it's legal in most of the US to build an "ordinary" firearm for personal use without any paperwork.

May well soon? What kind of fantasy are you constructing? The British people are far more liberal than us Americans. They especially would never stand for that kind of political censorship.

http://thehomegunsmith.com/lutydefensefund.shtml

A Threat to Freedom of Speech in England

by Philip A. Luty
homegunsmith05@yahoo.co.uk

Originally appeared in The Libertarian Enterprise

On Friday, February 25th 2005, members of the Luty family were arrested and charged with "Conspiracy to Manufacture Firearms" by British police.

Due to the information shown on thehomegunsmith.com website, police raided and searched three addresses belonging to the Luty family. They were looking, apparently, for "prohibited firearms".

At one address the police seized a computer, numerous copies of "Expedient Homemade Firearms" Volumes I and II, and various CDs containing gun design drawings. Nothing illegal was recovered. Land belonging to the Luty family was also searched. Nothing illegal was recovered.

Edward Luty (my 75 year old father) who is suffering from cancer, was arrested at his home and "dragged" to the police station in handcuffs. His home was ransacked and searched. He was charged with "Conspiracy to manufacture firearms". After a period of two to three hours in a cell, the police realised how ill he was and released him. His home now resembled a bombsite due to the mess created by a heavy handed police search team. He was left with nowhere to sleep.

His crime??... to be related to the author of thehomegunsmith.com website.

John Luty (my brother) was stopped and arrested (at gun point) by around twenty police officers while driving home from work. He was arrested and charged with "conspiracy to manufacture firearms" and his home was also ransacked and searched. Nothing illegal was recovered. His crime??... to be related to the author of thehomegunsmith.com website. [This is his Bail Sheet!, an Adobe Acrobat file (.pdf), 126, 285-bytes in size.]

A great deal of wanton damage was caused to property during these searches, apparently in revenge for failure to locate anything more dangerous than a collection of books and CDs!

This is a direct challenge by the British authorities to our non-negotiable rights of Freedom of Speech and Artistic Licence.

Silencing Free Speech

The voices of many ordinary people are effectively silenced these days by a combination of "political correctness" and anti-freedom of speech laws. Legislation governing how we speak about such subjects as religion or a person's race, being just two examples. Words and phrases that have been used for centuries, without malice, are now insipid in peoples mouths, and said to cause "offense" by those very same "speech police" who, on the other hand, turn a blind eye to the violence, foul language, and sexual references blasted daily through our TV sets. A phenomenon that really does cause offense to many people.

On the subject of firearms ownership, we are witness to television advertising standards "watchdogs" banning or censoring advertisements from our TV screens because it contains a fleeting glimpse of a gun, perhaps used as part of a comic type sketch within the advertisement. Such advertisements are banned because they are said to "offend" a tiny handful of people, yet millions of others like myself see no problem.

We are witness to certain sections of the press who refuse to accept advertisements for legitimately owned firearms (even airguns) because they may "offend" some unsuspecting hapless individual who may stumble across the add, and end up being traumatized by the experience!

We are witness to people who advertise and sell sporting type knives being prohibited from calling their knives a more colourfully descriptive name, because it may cause "offense".

This is just a tiny sample of the endless list of infringe