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You Can't Print a Gun If You Have No 3D Printer
FatLittleMonkey writes "You may recall Cody Wilson's project to create a 3D printed gun, mentioned previously on Slashdot. Well, the Defense Distributed project has suffered a decidedly non-technical setback, with printer manufacturer Stratasys revoking the lease and repossessing the printer (presumably prying it from plastic models of Cory's cold dead hands). According to New Scientist, the manufacturer cited his lack of a federal firearms manufacturer's license as their reason for the repossession, adding that it does not knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes." Homemade firearms are not (in the U.S.) per se illegal on a federal basis, though states have varying degrees of regulation. It would be helpful if anyone more conversant with firearms law than me can point out what law or laws this project might be breaking.
if you're going to print gray-area items, print them quietly, and announce after your beta is complete.
What's next, refusing to sell printers to people because their for / against gay marriage? This is a tool and he was using it for legal purposes. What the manufacturer did was no different than any other kind of censorship. Deplorable.
Hmmm.... reminiscent of the desire to suppress printing presses in order to inhibit revolutionary movements.
No, you don't. You only need a license if you are manufacturing arms FOR SALE. People make homemade guns for fun all the time.
False:
Q: Does the GCA prohibit anyone from making a handgun, shotgun or rifle?
With certain exceptions a firearm may be made by a non-licensee provided it is not for sale and the maker is not prohibited from possessing firearms. However, a person is prohibited from assembling a non-sporting semi-automatic rifle or non-sporting shotgun from imported parts. In addition, the making of an NFA firearm requires a tax payment and approval by ATF. An application to make a machine gun will not be approved unless documentation is submitted showing that the firearm is being made for a Federal or State agency.
[18 U.S.C. 922(o) and (r), 26 U.S.C. 5822, 27 CFR 478.39, 479.62 and 479.105]
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/general.html#gca-manufacturing
You Can't Print a Gun If You Have No 3D Printer, How Can You Print a Gun If You Have No 3D Printer. You, Yes You Behind The Bike Shed, Stand Still Laddie!
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
How is a 3D printer any different than a lathe, grinder or a milling machine?
If you read between the lines of Stratasys' statement, the company's president clearly says:
"For the love of god please don't give us this kind of press. If we don't shut this down now I'm going to have Homeland Security on, over and in my ass. Don't ever use gun and printed in the same sentence again. My hands are too delicate for jail. Why are you doing this to me?"
It's against federal law to make a machine gun. In Tennessee, as long as he doesn't break any federal laws, he can do whatever he wants without the federal license, but he cannot he doesn't sell what he produces. If he keeps it personally, he isn't even required to put a serial number on the receiver. If he wants to sell it at a later time, however, he's required put a serial on it, and he also may invoke the wrath of the ATF. It's said that you can sell a reasonable number of homemade firearms per year without requiring the manufacturer's license, but I believe that reasonable number is arbitrarily set by the ATF agents.
Disclaimer: I've never made my own firearm, and if I did, I certainly wouldn't sell it; between the risk of federal prison and liability if it blows up, if I had to get rid of the thing, it would be destroyed.
Wired seemed to have a better write-up of potential legal angles:
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/3d-gun-blocked/
Regardless of legal angles, though, Stratasys made it clear that this is not what they want their machines used for, and that is that. If he bought it, it might be different - but he was basically just renting it. I'm sure he can get a different 3D printer to work with.
No you don't.
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/firearms-technology.html#commercial-parts-assembly
Q: Is it legal to assemble a firearm from commercially available parts kits that can be purchased via internet or shotgun news?
For your information, per provisions of the Gun Control Act (GCA) of 1968, 18 U.S.C. Chapter 44, an unlicensed individual may make a “firearm” as defined in the GCA for his own personal use, but not for sale or distribution.
The first thing you should print when you get a 3d printer, is another 3d printer.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If you are leasing a color copier or press. They will pull the copier if your using it to print counterfet money. This is not censorship at all.
When all 3d printers are outlawed, only outlaws won't care because they will still have ready access to guns through illicit channels
...or something to that effect
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
They're only trying to manufacture the lower receiver; everything else (barrel, bolt, chamber, whatever) is just a "gun part" that you can buy off the Internet or whatever easily.
Assuming you're talking about the contest, that is incorrect - the idea is to have a 100% printed gun that can fire at least 1 round of .22 caliber ammo without catastrophic failure.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
But I could get a 3D printer if I had a gun. What a farking quandary!
In space no-one can hear your vuvuzela.
I doubt very much this is any move against Cody Wilson on a censorship/anti-gunownership level. Far more likely Stratasys went "holy crap someone could sue the living daylights out of us for making guns without a license"
Think about how litigation happy we are in the US - imagine someone using a 3D printer to print something dangerous, and getting hurt. Especially imagine if it's a little kid. It doesn't matter that the printer manufacturer in a logical, sane world is clearly not responsible - they'd be utterly destroyed in the current court climate. This probably hit Stratasys in the face and their legal team said "FULL STOP GUYS"
Yea, like how every time someone gets shot and killed during a criminal action, another gun manufacturer goes under due to being sued as an accessory to the crime.
Or, you know, you're obviously clueless, and should avoid speaking on topics you know nothing about.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Even toy guns?
If it meets the requirements to be considered a firearm, then yes. Use something non-explosive (compressed gas) or don't fire a projectile and you won't run afoul of the authorities.
The real answer is... it's complicated. In some States you can make your own firearms with some limitations- they can't be distributed at all, personal use only, usually you can't use them for licensed sporting activities like Hunting, can't be a machine gun or military-grade weaponry, and stuff like that. Regardless of what you're doing, if you announce it publicly then you should expect a visit from the ATF and they'll explain the rules to you in precise detail. But possibly not quite as nicely.
An automatic rifle is not a machine gun according the the law, afaik. They are a separate class of weapon.
I believe that an "automatic rifle" means an auto-loading rifle which is the technical term for a "semi-automatic" weapon - i.e. the vast majority of rifles legally sold for civilian use in the modern area.
A "machine gun" is a fully automatic weapon and those are illegal for private individuals to own, period, unless they're made before 1986 and you've paid for a Federal "tax stamp," which I believe is $200 (I imagine they're still illegal for private citizens to own in certain jurisdictions; obviously, Kalifornia comes to mind). Corporations as well as certain manufacturers and dealers, however, can own fully automatic weapons made after 1986 but obviously certain rules apply.
The technical term for a "sawed-off" shotgun is an SBS (short-barreled shotgun) which is a smoothbore longarm with a barrel less than 18" in length (or, I believe, a total length - including the stock - of less than 26"). These also require a $200 "tax stamp" to the Feds.
Here's some additional useful info, from here:
"Sporting" Purposes
Here's where things get a little tricky. Some rifles, such as the Saiga line, are imported for sporting purposes in a particular configuration. Generally, that means that do not incorporate any of the "evil" features that are typically associated with so-called "semi-automatic assault weapons". Chapter 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations Section 478.11 defines these SAWs. You can read the law, here. Specific examples of these features include:
- High capacity (greater than 10 round for rifles, 5 rounds for shotgun) magazines
- Pistol grip attachment
- Folding buttstock
- Muzzle device/attachment (to include a threaded barrel capable of receiving a device)
- Bayonet lugs
If your rifle or shotgun incorporates those features, it no longer is considered "suitable for sporting purposes".
Assembling Semiauto Rifles and Shotguns
If your rifle or shotgun is subject to 922R, you must now make sure that it is in compliance with the regulations governing the assembly of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns. That is covered in Title 27 Chapter 1 Section 178.39. Click here to see the text of the law. It states :
(a) No person shall assemble a semiautomatic rifle or any shotgun using more than 10 of the imported parts listed in paragraph (c) of this section if the assembled firearm is prohibited from importation under section 925(d)(3) as not being particularly suitable for or readily adaptable to sporting purposes.
Paragraph (C) defines the following parts as "countable" under the law:
(1) Frames, receivers, receiver castings, forgings or stampings *
(2) Barrels *
(3) Barrel extensions
(4) Mounting blocks (trunions) *
(5) Muzzle attachments *
(6) Bolts *
(7) Bolt carriers *
(8) Operating rods
(9) Gas pistons *
(10) Trigger housings
(11) Triggers *
(12) Hammers *
(13) Sears
(14) Disconnectors *
(15) Buttstocks *
(16) Pistol grips *
(17) Forearms, handguards *
(18) Magazine bodies *
(19) Followers *
(20) Floorplates *
These 20 items are referred to with the term "compliance parts". There are lots of other components that go into a weapon, but there are the only ones that count in terms of complying with the law.
I never understood the hoopla about the whole gun thing... the ammo is the part that does the actual launching of the bullet, the gun is just to hold the ammo+bullet together while they're being fired.
It's kinda like putting serial numbers on hypodermic needles and making heroin legal enough to sell at Walmart.
Put simply, it's not nearly that simple. There are all kinds of strange laws which pile on top of this one law alone, and there are laws in each State which often further restrict your ability to make a firearm. Then you have to consider local ordinances- it may be legal to make a particular gun, but not if you do it within city limits, for example. Or maybe you are free to make them, but you have to take peculiar "safety" precautions... such as obtaining a hard-to-get permit from the authorities.
The best answer is that you're better off carefully examining the definition of a firearm and make something which doesn't fall under the same legal framework as a "real gun". You can do some pretty fun things with compressed gasses, for example. Magnets are also neat, if you know how they fucking work. (If you don't then you've probably spent your homework time learning to apply ghoulish facepaint instead)
You can buy all the machine tools and heat treat ovens you need, 2nd hand, and make your own real guns.
Forget the RP printers...or if you want to play, just have an RP job shop make your parts.
The Second Amendment to the US Constitution clearly specifies that "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It is clearly an "infringement" on the right of the people to keep and bear Arms for there to be Federal limits on the right to manufacture Arms. Since unconstitutional legislation is not law, there is no law against manufacture of Arms. The real question is: What to do about an outlaw government?
Seastead this.
In the context and the language of the time, ``well-regulated militia'' simply meant one trained to the firearm and other drills of the time.
Moreover, the membership of the militia is quite a bit larger than most people believe:
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/10C13.txt
The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied
males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section
313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a
declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States
and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the
National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of
the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the
Naval Militia.
and just in case someone thinks there're weasel words in section 313 of title 32:
(a) To be eligible for original enlistment in the National Guard,
a person must be at least 17 years of age and under 45, or under 64
years of age and a former member of the Regular Army, Regular Navy,
Regular Air Force, or Regular Marine Corps. To be eligible for
reenlistment, a person must be under 64 years of age.
(b) To be eligible for appointment as an officer of the National
Guard, a person must -
(1) be a citizen of the United States; and
(2) be at least 18 years of age and under 64.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 (18 USC 922(p)(1)) It shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm -
(A) that, after removal of grips, stocks, and magazines, is not as detectable as the Security Exemplar, by walk-through metal detectors calibrated and operated to detect the Security Exemplar;
A Security Exemplar is a 3.7 ounce hunk of stainless steel in the shape of whatever gun you want to test, for the purposes of calibrating metal detectors.
(This bill was passed in 1988, with a ten year sunset; it was not renewed in 1998, but WAS renewed in 2003, also with a 10-year sunset. I imagine the actions of Cody Wilson will make it an absolute certainty that it will get renewed in 2013.)
In other words, if you "manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer" a gun (let's say, one made of printed thermoplastic) which isn't as detectable by a metal detector as a few ounces of stainless steel of the same shape, you are violating this law. It doesn't look like DESIGNING such a gun is illegal per se - but you don't do design work on a 3-d printer, you manufacture, possess, etc. With a federal firearms manufacturer's license, though, or a contract from one, it IS legal to design a weapon to see if it meets the specs of the law - although this might be an exception, as no such weapon could comply with the law.
If Distributed Defense succeeds, they are liable for as much as five years in jail. If they fail... well, I don't know if "designing and prototyping" counts as "manufacturing". Actually, no, it doesn't - interestingly, the law doesn't contemplate "hobbyists designing a new type of weapons technology." So they're arguably not engaged in business (the law requires profiting from the sale or distribution) which means they're not manufacturing. So, if you're willing to put your freedom on the line, it MAY be legal to design and prototype a highly illegal gun. In the end, I think that Stratasys did Wilson a HUGE favor by forcing him to get his legal ducks in order before he moved forward with this.
Forget the RP printers...or if you want to play, just have an RP job shop make your parts.
Yeah, but that wouldn't be cool and hip.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
Actually, that's not strictly true. Depending upon the lease agreement you signed and whatever clauses the rental agency or owner put in there, you could potentially be kicked out for being gay or having gay sex and only a handful of states include sexual orientation in their fair housing statutes.
http://civilrights.findlaw.com/discrimination/fair-housing-laws-renters-protection-from-sexual-orientation.html
The point is, though, just like in your comparison, a lot of how legal this is depends on what was originally signed. Without having access to that signed agreement, everything else is speculation at best.
I think the idea wasn't just to print a gun, but to test the limits of a particular emergent technology and how it can be applied to the specific domain.
If the goal was just to get guns, there are shops all over the place.
Considering the number of weapons in the US, you do not need to bother, you can certainly buy about anything you might want on the white or grey market...
It is probably useless now to seriously try to reduce the numbers of gun in the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country
What you might want to do it to look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
And think about education and social contracts...
French people have about 2.5 less guns per capita compared with the US, they have comparable suicide rates (sometimes red wine is not enough), but only 10% ot the murder rate.
In other words a gun in France is 4 time less liable to kill somebody than in the US....
Or put in another form, american culture and social makeup explains approx 30 000 dead people per year, the fact that it is gun related is not the main factor.
and any shoe string added to a simi-auto rifle makes it an automatic weapon.
http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2010/01/25/shoestring-machine-gun/
Take a look at Switzerland. They have amoung the highest amount of firearms per person but the lowest gun crime rate.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
French people have about 2.5 times less guns per capita compared with the US
FTFY...For a second, I was terrified that we in the US actually had more than 2.5 guns per person! Thankfully, you provided a link.
I'm guessing this was done because the printer manufacturer is worried about the press that would hurt their buisiness, not because it's "illicit" or anything like that.
IMHO he's far more likely to be worried about being convicted on conspiracy charges and spending most of the rest of his life in federal PMITA prison if even one person who makes a gun using information from this project breaks even one tiny regulation.
The federal firearms regulations are intended to ban most weapons manufacturing and transfer except under very controlled conditions. But the federal government didn't have the constitutional authorization to write such laws - so they were written as a tax. Because they're a tax, the courts have carved out this one loophole. But the federal agencies charged with enforcing the de facto ban does everything it can to find a way to prevent the use of this loophole.
The primary agency in question is the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) - recently expanded to "and explosives (BATFE). They are notorious for their "zeal", general incompetence, extreme violence, willingness to bend the rules to make an arrest, and for prosecuting obviously failing cases until the accused is bankrupted and loses by default. They have put literally tens of thousands of people in federal prison for minor paperwork errors or claims that fender washers or pieces of muffler tubing are parts of silencers, or that dummy grenades are being made live. They have raided collectors (often licensed as "dealers" because it's WAY cheaper that way) because their own paperwork was fouled - or for no discernible reason. In one incident they threw a pregnant woman up against a wall (she miscarried shortly after) and deliberately stomped a kitten to death, just to show their power. They set up the situation in Ruby Ridge that ended with a federal sniper shooting a woman holding her baby, and in Waco where a church camp was burned to the ground - in both cases over a dispute about "a $200 tax". They are referred to as "F troop" by other federal law agencies. The "Jackbooted Thugs" ad campaign was the NRA's most effective recruiting aid.
One of their favorite tricks is to have an agent pose as a curious teenager and ask someone at a gun show how to make a gun shoot full-auto. If he tells them, they arrest him for "conspiracy to violate the federal firearms act". (First amendment? What's that?) You can bet that they'd hang similar charges on the people running a company that leased a machine to a project that is attempting to enable the general population to sidestep the same laws easily and cheaply. It looks like the operator of the company is betting that way, too.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
"In October 2007, the Swiss Federal Council decided that the distribution of ammunition to soldiers shall stop and that all previously issued ammo shall be returned. By March 2011, more than 99% of the ammo has been received. Only special rapid deployment units and the military police still have ammunition stored at home today.."