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3-D Printed Gun Ban Fails In Senate
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from The Daily Dot:"On Monday evening, a bill aimed at thwarting the production and distribution of plastic 3-D printed weapons was blocked by Senate Republicans. ... The debate over the new legislation centered around the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act, which bans the production and distribution of weapons that skirt 'walk through metal detectors.' The act has been renewed on two occasions since its passage. It was due to expire again on the 9th of December. The House voted to renew the bill last week. The rise of 3-D printing has made this year's renewal more complicated in the Senate. Many lawmakers, particularly Democrats, feel the current Undetectable Firearms Act inadequately addresses the rising threat posed by printed plastic weapons."
It's because the summary misrepresents what it's linked article actually said. The important quote is:
On Monday evening, only days before the one-year anniversary of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Senate extended the Undetectable Firearms Act but failed to pass modifications that would address the growing prevelance of plastic firearms.
Basically the original act was extended but a modified version failed to pass.
First, let's assume that we can categorize people into two categories: honest and criminal.
A ban on "plastic" guns from a 3D printer will do exactly what?
1) It will stop the honest people from making their own 3D printed guns. These are the people who obey the law. Since these people are the ones who obey the law, who cares if they have a plastic gun? They will not do anything bad anyways. For the record, the number of guns used in crimes is something like 0.001% of the total guns out there. Similar argument for gun owners.
2) If a criminal wants to commit crimes with a 3D printed gun, do you really think that they will actually obey the law banning plastic guns? If so, you are a special kind of stupid.
So, this law will do absolutely NOTHING to stop crime with "plastic guns" that can be printed in your own home.
I should also like to point out that even a plastic gun will NOT shoot plastic ammunition. Bullets are made of metal -- and should be readily detected by any decent metal detector.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
This! I really wish I had mod points right now. This is the crux of all these gun related laws. They are presented as a way to prevent specific crimes from happening again. The stupid part is making some of these things illegal wouldn't have changed the crime that happened before. What the politicians and most of the unwashed masses don't get is making one more aspect of the event illegal doesn't magically prevent it from happening. All it does is add on one more charge. Someone who's desperate or crazy enough to commit the crime anyway, isn't going to suddenly stop because now they're violating one more law.