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ATF Tests Show 3D Printed Guns Can Explode

Posted by timothy on from the atf-vs-the-people dept.

Lucas123 writes "The ATF has been testing 3D printed guns over the past year and, not surprisingly, has found that depending on the thermoplastics, 3D printers and CAD designs used, some can explode on the first attempt to shoot them. The ATF published videos this week of the tests on YouTube showing what looked like a Liberator model of a 3D gun exploding upon being fired. Another model, created with the popular ABS polymer and an advanced printer, could fire as many as 8 shots. The tests were published at a time when a law passed in 1988 banning the sale of guns made entirely of plastic is set to expire next month." I hope they post the videos when they do the same tests on Solid Concepts' 1911.

6 of 233 comments (clear)

  1. do tell by turkeydance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    metal guns explode, too.

    1. Re:do tell by poopdeville · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That's nice and all, but... use Bayes theorem. If you get statistically significant results, let us know.

      That is, the summary statistics are incomplete for the kind of inference you want to draw.

      In particular, the summary statistics you give tell us that having the genetic marker makes a smoker twice as likely to experience psychosis as a smoker who does not have the marker. It does not tell us how much more or less likely psychosis is compared to a non-smoker.

      Critical thinking failure.

      --
      After all, I am strangely colored.
    2. Re:do tell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And oddly enough I get the sense that the purpose to which YOU put your abilities for critical thinking is to ensure a lack of supply of marijuana rather than determining its actual risk.

  2. of course their demo exploded by Gothmolly · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So they can show that 3d printed guns are bad and should be outlawed.

    WTF, how is this even news?

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  3. Not often by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you have a properly made gun, it takes a pretty bad malfunction to explode, and then usually they don't actually explode in any normal sense of the word, they just distend and crack. Guns are made to be reliable, since the agencies that buy them tend to value that.

    1. Re:Not often by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      If you have a properly made gun, it takes a pretty bad malfunction to explode

      No true Scotsman's gun would ever explode.