Makerbot Cracks Down On 3D-Printable Gun Parts

Sparrowvsrevolution writes in with a story at Forbes about Makerbot deleting gun component blueprints on Thingiverse. "In the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut shootings, the 3D-printing firm Makerbot has deleted a collection of blueprints for gun components from Thingiverse, its popular user-generated content website that hosts 3D-printable files. Though Thingiverse has long banned designs for weapons and their components in its terms of service, it rarely enforced the rule until the last few days, when the company's lawyer sent notices to users that their software models for gun parts were being purged from the site. Gun control advocates were especially concerned about the appearance of lower receivers for semi-automatic weapons that have appeared on Thingiverse. The lower receiver is the the 'body' of a gun, and its most regulated component. So 3D-printing that piece at home and attaching other parts ordered by mail might allow a lethal weapon to be obtained without any legal barriers or identification. Makerbot's move to delete those files may have been inspired in part by a group calling itself Defense Distributed, which announced its intention to create an entirely 3D-printable gun in August and planned to potentially upload it to Thingiverse. Defense Distributed says it's not deterred by Makerbot's move and will host the plans on its own site."

Comments

Re:Except that it is a felony

[Anonymous Coward]

Not true. You are allowed to make the serialized part (the lower receiver, in the case of an AR-15) so long as it's not for sale. I've milled several out of aluminum for custom target & hunting rifles with the full blessing of local law enforcement and BATFE offices.

Re:Defense

[Nidi62]

My girlfriend's father's Zastava M48 (a post-war Eastern European copy of the Mauser 98K) and my family's Lorenz rifled musket were both designed for military use. In fact, both are more powerful than an AR-15 (the first shoots 8mm Mauser, the second is .54 caliber). The only difference is, these guns don't look "scary"; wood furniture instead of plastic, no pistol grip (they both have bayonet lugs; in fact many mid-century military firearms such as Mosin Nagants are actually sold WITH the bayonet, and only cost about $100 depending on the market). Hell, a decent marksman with a bolt-action rifle could do a lot more damage than this kid did. This is all a knee-jerk reaction based solely upon looks, not capability.

And actually, yes, there are numerous hunting variants of AR-15s. Most come with 5 round mags, have no front sight, and have a different barrel and furniture and don't look at all "tactical"