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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."

13 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 c0lo · · Score: 5, Informative

      I see no problem which what the police are saying here, but it is a very difficult thing to regulate.

      No need of additional regulation, in Australia is already forbidden to make/assemble guns without a license. The actual point they were trying to get across:

      “My greater concern is that someone would do this, make one, and then suffer the consequences and kill themselves [after a catastrophic failure]. They don’t want to shoot someone, they’re just fascinated [by 3D printing]. If we didn’t alert someone to what happened to us, we would be considered negligent.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    3. 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.

    4. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Dave+Emami · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Expelling a projectile with enough force to penetrate a human being to the depth of 17 centimeters"

      I hate to point this out, but my *cock* does that....and talk about unforeseen consequences.....Hope it's not the next thing they want to make illegal.

      Only if you equip it with a high-capacity magazine, or modify it to fire more than one shot per pull.

      --

      "The Greens lynched a hacker in Chicago. Last month, but I think the body's still hanging from the old Water Tower."
    5. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Khyber · · Score: 5, Funny

      A ban on anything smaller than a B-cup, for fear of usage as 'child' actors in pornography.

      None of us at the porno shops were fooled by their official excuse.

      --
      Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
    6. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Squiddie · · Score: 5, Informative

      The US does no such thing. Also as for the Australia thing, it wasn't a guideline. Look: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/28/australian_censors/ The fact is that government should not be in the role of telling you what kind of pornography is good or bad. Look what happened when Japan tried that. It only became more grotesque, yet strangely arousing.

    7. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by nospam007 · · Score: 5, Funny

      “My greater concern is that someone would do this, make one, and then suffer the consequences and kill themselves [after a catastrophic failure]. "

      Think of it as evolution in action.

    8. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by HJED · · Score: 5, Informative

      There not making the plans illegal, only the actual act of manufacturing. In fact it is already illegal to build guns in Australia without a license (and our gun license system works very well) they are merely pointing out that it is illegal and dangerous.

      --
      null
    9. Re:Make metal ilegal too... by Ash-Fox · · Score: 5, Funny

      guns dont kill pepole is nonsense and anyone who believes it is a victim of gun lobby PR.

      I agree completely, It's bullets that kill people.

      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  2. Just like with porn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I remember the old days of people hosting bulletin boards on their Commodore 64's. If the sys op was kind ... or if you had something to share, you'd get to download the stash of dirty pictures in glorious 8 bit color. Then they passed laws against it and now you can't find porn on line anymore.

  3. Re:Oh, well... by c0lo · · Score: 5, Informative

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

    Nothing special about the 3D printed plastic gun: unauthorized manufacturing (or even assembling) a firearm of any kind in Australia is already prohibited (so no, this is not a case in which the police would decide what the laws are. As they aren't in control of the downloads, they can't have a say in banning the download either).

    What the TFS fails to mention: the NSW police guys seems genuinely more worried about someone hurting oneself in an attempt to fire one (the first gun printed by the NSW police exploded during tests) :

    “My greater concern is that someone would do this, make one, and then suffer the consequences and kill themselves [after a catastrophic failure]. They don’t want to shoot someone, they’re just fascinated [by 3D printing]. If we didn’t alert someone to what happened to us, we would be considered negligent.

    “Don’t try it, no matter what end of this gun you can be on, you could die. Do not download, do not manufacture The Liberator,” the Commissioner concluded.

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  4. They will need to make hardware stores illegal by Satanboy · · Score: 5, Informative

    It sounds like the police have never heard of PA Luty. http://thehomegunsmith.com/ check out some of the designs folks. You could make a MACHINE GUN that would be fully functional from nothing more than parts you bought at a hardware store. It would cost you about 200 bucks or so in tools and parts.