The World's First 3D-Printed Gun

MrSeb writes "An American gunsmith has become the first person to construct and shoot a pistol partly made out of plastic, 3D-printed parts. The creator, who goes by the name HaveBlue and is an AR-15/M16 enthusiast, has reportedly fired 200 rounds with his part-plastic pistol without any sign of wear and tear. HaveBlue's custom creation is a .22-caliber pistol, formed from a 3D-printed AR-15 (M16) lower receiver, and a normal, commercial upper. In other words, the main body of the gun is plastic, while the chamber — where the bullets are actually struck — is solid metal. ... While this pistol obviously wasn't created from scratch using a 3D printer, the interesting thing is that the lower receiver — in a legal sense at least — is what actually constitutes a firearm. This means that people without gun licenses — or people who have had their licenses revoked — could print their own lower receiver and build a complete, off-the-books gun." Here come the illegal shapes. Note that the legal fiction of receiver-as-firearm is true in the U.S., but may not be in other jurisdictions, and that no gun license is required in most of the U.S. to purchase or possess a semi-automatic weapon.

Comments

Twitter is down also!

[BetaDays]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/twitter-users-in-uk-us-experience-issues-site-appears-down-day-before-start-of-olympics/2012/07/26/gJQADAwXBX_story.html

Re:But ...

[cpu6502]

>>>Knowing our Congress, they'll try to ban teaching Geometry in schools. After all, you can't print illegal shapes if you don't know shapes!

Which is why we need School Choice to escape the Congress' or State Legislature's programming. You should be able to send your kid to any public or private school you wish (as is the case in the EU), and if it's private then you should be exempt from paying Public School Tax for that year (just as you don't pay gas taxes if you don't use public roads).