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Australian Police Move To Make 3D Printed Guns Illegal
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."
I'm sure the NSW police department dosn't have a gun manufacturing licence; But since when do police obey the rules any way.
Yup a license is required and yes it's possible (probable?) they forgot to procure one first (mind they probably would get one if they asked nicely). Shame you were not a journo at the press conference.
Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
True, and it's a valid concern. I'm not about to trust my hands to these printed guns... yet. The design for such guns will improve, as will the quality and strength of 3d printed stuff in general; I think it's very likely that a design will come along that is safe and reliable enough to trust as a single-shot weapon.
By the way, if I didn't want people to have these guns, that is exactly what I'd be telling people publicly: "This gun is likely to explode in you hand, killing you, your wife, your kids and your dog. And it will kill random kittens around the neighbourhood as well."
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
It is like this: Clubs and hammers kill more people in the USA than Rifles do. However, Rifles are big, loud, scary things while hammer and clubs are not. Therefore we go after Rifles rather than the criminals.
What the government has done is said "The internet is illegal, because you can learn how to do things we do not approve of". This is tyranny.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.