Should We Print Guns? Cody R. Wilson Says "Yes" (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on Wednesday September 5, 2012 @04:05AM from the freedom-is-in-the-eye-of-the-beholder dept.

The Wiki Weapon Project and its idea of making guns with 3D printers has already been mentioned on Slashdot. It has also been written up on Forbes.com and a lot of other geek and non-geek sites. Note that when some Wiki Weapon proponents talk about making "guns" with 3D printers, they may be talking only about lower receivers or other static parts, not barrels, firing pins or other parts that must be machined to close tolerances and are subjected to a lot of stress when the gun fires. But low-cost 3D printing and low-cost CNC machining technologies are both advancing at a rapid rate, so thinking about the intersection of firearm manufacturing and open source is both worthwhile and timely. There's been a strong debate about this topic on Eric S. Raymond's Armed and Dangerous blog that's worth reading. Also recommended: The Home Gunsmith.com and CNC Gunsmithing. Astute Slashdot readers will, no doubt, recommend many more. Meanwhile, this video is about licensing, distribution, and legal matters, not the actual manufacture of firearms. There's a transcript (we're finally doing transcripts of selected videos) below the video for those who prefer to read instead of watch.

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If you outlaw printing guns by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-05 04:09 · Score: 4, Funny

Then only outlaws will have printed guns.
Re:Guns are an extreme case, but not the only case by NoSleepDemon · 2012-09-05 04:58 · Score: 4, Funny

The thing about being social skills is that they're extraordinarily easy to learn. Go work in a coffee shop for a year and boom, you have all the skills you'll ever need. On the other hand, all that hackneyed, uninspiring haiku stuff that goes hand in hand with programming, tinkering, writing music and so on is actually much harder to learn. And will make you a bunch of money.

So while you're off fucking chicks in high school / college and enjoying the 5 or so years of your life where you mean a damn, the geeks are busy toiling away in their caves creating something cool. At about the post University level they emerge, get gym memberships, get jobs that require social contact and end up with the *really* good looking girls who were also socially awkward in school that would never have banged you in a million years.

So while you're rotting at the local pub, do spare a thought for those sex starved voyeuristic creeps, and their nice cars, big houses and sexy, intelligent wives.