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Australian Police Move To Make 3D Printed Guns Illegal

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-way-mate dept.

lukehopewell1 writes "'Untraceable, undetectable, cheap and freely available.' That's how Australian police have described the 3D-printable gun known as The Liberator today as they announce that they will be seeking to make the download, construction and possession of these weapons illegal. In their tests, Police printed the 15 parts required to assemble The Liberator in 27 hours and assembled it within 60 seconds with a firing pin fashioned out of a steel nail. The two guns were test fired into a block of resin designed to simulate human muscle, and the first bullet penetrated the resin block up to 17 centimeters. NSW Police Ballistics division confirm that it would be a fatal wound if pointed at someone."

22 of 551 comments (clear)

  1. Make metal ilegal too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's also used to make guns...

    1. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by batwingTM · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A creative enough person could kill another without a weapon, and a weapon could be made from many ordinary household objects.

      But this gun is only a gun, an unliscenced, unregulated gun that has proven to be less safe than an actual gun.
      I see no problem which what the police are saying here, but it is a very difficult thing to regulate.

      --
      Leg Godt!
    2. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Nerdfest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I see a problem with making the downloading of plans illegal.

    3. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by ozmanjusri · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My Black and Decker drill has never exploded, which is what the NSW police are warning people about.

      As you'd expect from today's Slashdot, the title and summary of TFA are deceptive.

      --
      "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
    4. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Squiddie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're talking about the country that tried to ban small breasts and looks to China as an example of sound internet policy.

    5. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by kasperd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The police aren't banning 3D printing. They're not banning the material used in 3D printing. They are banning 3D printed guns.

      I see a problem with the police banning anything in the first place. That decision should be made by democratically elected lawmakers, not the police.

      --

      Do you care about the security of your wireless mouse?
    6. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by viperidaenz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No they're not. 3D printed guns are already banned, they're just reiterating it.

    7. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably because it didn't happen. The US also bans images of "under age" people having sex, even if they are over age, or drawn. It was just stated in Australia that "small breasts" could be one indication that someone looks "under age", which is better than the US where there are no guidelines at all, and if Florida thinks your porn made in California is offensive, you'll be extradited and tried and convicted in Florida. The US is worse in every way, but we pretend otherwise because it makes us feel better.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    8. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Squiddie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Okay, but kiddy porn is abuse. Not the same thing. It's fucked up that kids (15-17) get prosecuted for sending/receiving nudes, though. And I think I will stay away from your kids anyway. They'll probably try to steal my candy and video games.

    9. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by dan_in_dublin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      guns dont kill pepole is nonsense and anyone who believes it is a victim of gun lobby PR. snappy one liners may be easy to remember but that doesnt mean they correspond with reality it's obvious that killing from a save distance by pulling a trigger is different than swinging a blunt instrument at close range where the first blow may miss, the victim has a chance to defend themselves or bystanders can intervene Put apart from the obvious flaws; if it were true then every country would have more or less the same homicide rate but the means of murder would be different. The homicide rate in the us is 2011 was 4.8 per 100,000. In Ireland 1.3 per 100,000. Note that in Ireland there is not an additional 3.5 homicides by blunt instrument because people cant get guns.

    10. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by BlueStrat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      A creative enough person could kill another without a weapon, and a weapon could be made from many ordinary household objects.

      But this gun is only a gun, an unliscenced, unregulated gun that has proven to be less safe than an actual gun.
      I see no problem which what the police are saying here, but it is a very difficult thing to regulate.

      There's no need to regulate. In fact killing another person is already illegal.

      But, you don't understand! This is completely different! This is killing somebody with something built with plans downloaded over the internet!! On a computer!!!

      Works for US patent submissions, right?

      What in the world are they gonna do when the next-gen version of a firearm is invented and the plans widely released/distributed, and that can be made cheaply, quickly, and simply with common materials, and possibly doesn't even use "bullets" as we know them at all? Maybe some sort of electromagnetically-accelerated "micro-needler" or "micro-flechette" weapon, or something accelerated-plasma-based? "Give me a phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range."

      I must say I have a fundamental problem with a government declaring that, under threat of death or imprisonment, I'm not allowed to defend my family, my community, or myself, and with being denied the current and essential tools for that defense. Police do not protect. They draw chalk outlines and *hopefully* find and arrest the suspected perpetrator(s) after the crime/violence has already occurred.

      The right to personal self-defense and to the commonly-employed and current tools used to exercise that basic right to defend your life, that of your family, and of fellow-citizens, are primary and essential human rights. Without them, all other rights are meaningless. How does one exercise a right when dead? How free can one be if they have no legal ability to defend their right to continue living?

      To remove the ability of people to defend themselves and their families is to make them a slave to anyone stronger, multiple attackers, or anyone who is armed. It gives the elderly, older children, and women a force-equalizer against a large and powerful male attacker. A rape whistle does no good when you're grabbed by the throat and being strangled. Likewise, the police are no help when a deadly threat is imminent and officers are minutes away at best.

      I'll just leave this here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa-lNiIDsFM

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    11. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by TheCarp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > if it were true then every country would have more or less the same homicide rate but the means of murder
      > would be different.

      I wouldn't expect that at all. You don't think the local homicide rate is effected by local policy? by local culture? by local socioeconomic conditions? How about remote ones?

      I think you are spending far too much time looking at how people can kill eachother and not enough at why they do it. Guns don't spontaneously kill people, and thats the whole point and its absolutely true.

      Bad policy and socioeconomic circumstances kill people. The drug war, which funds gangs that kills people.

      > The homicide rate in the us is 2011 was 4.8 per 100,000. In Ireland 1.3 per 100,000. Note that in Ireland there is
      > not an additional 3.5 homicides by blunt instrument because people cant get guns.

      1.3 to 4.8 IN 100,000 are virtually the same number. Thats not a big difference. Compare it to what actually kills people and, I wonder why you waste your time on this issue.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    12. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by kramulous · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We have millions of registered guns in Australia. We like our huntin' too. But handguns and automatic weapons have never been a part of the culture.

      Agreed. I'm all for free speech and everything but I don't want a gun culture society. We've seen what that becomes with the US. Americans don't see it but everybody else thinks it is madness. Guns are just not necessary in modern day to day living.

      I support the NSW police, aka government, on this one 100%. Make the possession of printing instructions for a weapon of this type illegal (as is the possession of certain types of images) but not the printer itself (images in general).

      --
      .
    13. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by TheCarp · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably? Actually this doesn't jive in any way with my experience with guns nor does it seem to be the case with any gun owners I have seen or talked to. I think there is too much guessing what other people are thinking and too much sensationalist media.

      The vast majority of gun owners would rather not ever have to shoot anyone, regardless of whether they are able and willing if needed. In fact, the only times I have ever heard a gun owner say anything like that it was more "God forbid I ever have to use it, it would be terrible, but, if it comes down to someone elses life or my family, I will do what I have to".

      The only exception to this that I have run into have been a couple of people who were embroiled in actual gang culture, but they are hardly the norm, nor are they anyone who is going to even be inconvenienced by the law.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    14. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Killing stuff is very useful. Chances are you wouldn't be here if not for tools and entire industries dedicated to the task.

      Guns are simply another gadget that allows for self-reliance.

      Most people that like to be hysterical about firearms are insulated from the conditions that make them most dangerous.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    15. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Teancum · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't think you have a clue what life is like in America if you think the "gun culture" is really that bad. Drive-by shootings and gun violence is incredibly rare, and in fact the incidence of it happening has dropped compared to the past in spite of (not because of) gun control laws that may or may not exist in various parts of America.

      Don't go believing the utter distortion and lies you hear in news reports and Hollywood movies. They are intentionally distorting trivial things that ordinary people living ordinary lives rarely experience. In America, you might see some guns if you happen to go over to a neighbor's house and they show you their gun collection, if you happen to go hunting with them, or as a side-arm for a security guard or police officer. That is about it. Drive-by shootings are reported in the news because they are rare things, not because they are everyday happenings.

      I think you would find life in Wyoming (a state with very relaxed gun control laws) mostly no different than you would find in NSW for the most part, other than the accent of what people are speaking and perhaps a slightly warmer and humid climate in Australia. You would certainly see about the same number of guns in ordinary commerce and work life for most of the same professions.

  2. Re:Oh, well... by gandhi_2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's a sad situation when the law enforcers decide what the laws are.

    --
    THL phish sticks
  3. Re:Oh, well... by Capsaicin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's a sad situation when the law enforcers decide what the laws are.

    They don't and they can't, they are only suggesting. Deciding what the laws actually are is the job of the Murdoch press.

    --
    Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
  4. Re:Oh, well... by c0lo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because cops never lie, amirite?

    In the context of this very issue, what exactly would be the point of lying? Making/owning a gun in Australia without license is already illegal.

    BTW, I'm pretty sure Oz already has various departments for consumer protection and safety. It's not their job.

    Yeah, sure, the NSW police would better keep their mouth shut, their test and the risks they discovered are not at all relevant... after all, the police isn't meant to protect anyone, much less for protecting a consumer, they'll lie to you most of the time and they only have in mind how to bust you and spend the taxes you pay... Clearly, nothing more than a band of thugs.
    The consumer protection agencies are in charge of testing everything that can cause harm, even when it's already illegal, amirite?

    What planet are you living on? "Planet America" perchance?

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  5. Why not make killing people illegal? by hawguy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Surely it would be better to make killing people illegal and not try to legislate what people can construct at home in 60 seconds after a 3D printing is completely.

    If killing people is already illegal, then why do they think that if they make something illegal that can be done secretly and completely undetectable in the privacy of one's home is going to prevent any crime? Surely the criminal that is intent on using a gun illegally isn't going to shy away from downloading plans and printing them.

  6. amendments ..... by thephydes · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Geeze, Australia doesn't have this or that amendment to the constitution - Guys we ARE NOT a state of the USA. We have our own laws, and currently (legal) gun ownership is restricted. Frankly I believe that Australia is generally a safer place since the Howard government restricted legal gun ownership. Yes I know I'll be modded down and adversely commented on by those of you in the US who have the "right to bear arms", but frankly I don't give a flying fuck about your rights - I'm only interested in my rights and the safety of me and my family. So yes 3D printed guns should be banned here in oz. And I know that I'l get the storm of "yes but the crims and bikie gangs can get guns". Yes they can, and as far as I'm concerned they can go and shoot each other.

    1. Re:amendments ..... by Transfinite · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Geeze, Australia doesn't have this or that amendment to the constitution - Guys we ARE NOT a state of the USA. We have our own laws, and currently (legal) gun ownership is restricted. Frankly I believe that Australia is generally a safer place since the Howard government restricted legal gun ownership. Yes I know I'll be modded down and adversely commented on by those of you in the US who have the "right to bear arms", but frankly I don't give a flying fuck about your rights - I'm only interested in my rights and the safety of me and my family. So yes 3D printed guns should be banned here in oz. And I know that I'l get the storm of "yes but the crims and bikie gangs can get guns". Yes they can, and as far as I'm concerned they can go and shoot each other.

      Yup same goes for here too in the UK. Getting sick and tired of libertarian, gun loving, rednecks. Whose right to 'bear arms' has been twisted to their own selfish, self centered aims. The sheer stupidity exhibited by SOME Americans is embarrassing.

      As you have pointed out the excuses fly as to why we need even more guns, I've heard it here today

      Make metal illegal too..

      Fucking pathetic, you know there are other things make of metal apart from guns, you fuckwits. That is what you call deflection from the main argument. The others ones are;

      but but zip guns are cheaper to make

      .

      It's not about the ability of criminals or undesirables to get their hands on guns, it's about the fucked up relationship the USA in general has with guns. We have legal restricted gun ownership here, as a result less deaths caused by guns. FACT, period.

      Good guys with guns kill bad guys with guns

      This expression and the like, it's like listening to a rather unintelligent 5 year old that's been watching too many crappy movies.

      Or this absolute, classic that could only come from someone with brain damage

      An armed society is a polite society. An unarmed society is a slaughter house

      So yes I'm with you, don't want stupid pieces of plastic that can kill, ARE designed to kill. The sooner this, thick as pig shit, segment of the USA gets that into their stupid fucking heads the better.

      P.S If you are going to call me a communist, which I'm not. You might want to consider that the rest of the world has already moved on from that phase. The only nation that still seems to be obsessed this communism is America.