Nov.18, 2013
Senator Charles Schumer is raising concerns about the spread of technology to create 3D firearms.
As the technology to print 3D printed guns advances, a federal law that banned the undetectable guns is about to expire. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says he's seeking an extension of the law before it expires Dec. 9.
image: ATF
He said the technology of so-called 3D printing has advanced to the point anyone with $1,000 and an Internet connection can access the plastic parts that can be fitted into a gun. Those firearms can't be detected by metal detectors or X-ray machines.
Schumer says that means anyone can download a gun cheaply, then take the weapons anywhere, including high-security areas.
The Democrat is pushing the extension along with Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Bill Nelson of Florida. The effort was announced Sunday.
The technology has recently advanced to create handguns capable of shooting several shots, rather than just one, before it ceases to function. Schumer also says the guns can now be made with all plastic parts, and no metal.
A blueprint for one such firearm was recently downloaded more than 100,000 times, Schumer says.
Last week the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) joined its counterparts in Austria, Germany, and elsewhere in purchasing 3D printers and testing 3D printed guns. The ATF used the blueprints from internet to print the plastic gun on a 3-D printer.
The ATF published a series of videos of the tests on YouTube showing what looked like a Liberator model of a 3D gun exploding upon being fired. The ATF's testing showed that the weapon, while not quite as powerful as most guns, could penetrate several inches of soft flesh as well as a human skull.
'The bottom line is, the penetration results demonstrated that the Liberator is a lethal weapon,' Earl Griffith, chief of ATF's firearms technology branch told the Huffington Post.
Another model, created with the popular ABS polymer and an advanced printer, could fire as many as 8 shots without any problems.
"We are looking at a world in which anyone with a little bit of cash can bring an undetectable gun that can fire multiple bullets anywhere — including planes, government buildings, sporting events and schools," Schumer said. "3-D printers are a miraculous technology that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, but we need to make sure they are not being used to make deadly, undetectable weapons."
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
Maybe you also like:
- NASA preparing to launch 3D printer into space in 2014
- 3D printed prosthetic made for band student (video)
- 40 Chinese students create a race car using 3D printed parts
- Own a slice of Norway created on a 3D printer
- Personalize your chocolate bar with Piq Chocolates and 3D printing
- Handy technology: ESA uses 3D printing to test EVA glove
- Luis' first pancake made on a Delta 3D printer (video)
- Mixee Labs launches new 3D printed molecular jewelry line
- How to use 3D printing in lost-wax casting of custom lugs for a bicycle frame
- Deka lets you create your own, custom 3D printed Bluetooth headsets
- How to make a 3D printed digital camera at home
- Skanska uses 3D printed cladding on its £50m London building
- Intel launches open source eBook for 3D printable 21st Century Robots
- Bow & Drape partners with Shapeways to launch custom 3D printed metal accessories
Chuckie Shoomer never misses a chance to exaggerate things, tell lies, and run to the nearest camera to stoke his ego. Standing between Chuckie and a camera is like standing in front of a charging rhino.
Max Rafferty wrote at 11/19/2013 7:35:42 PM:
"Another model, created with the popular ABS polymer and an advanced printer" What printer would that be? The weapon pictured doesn't appear to have any of the typical layer striations produced by desktop 3D printers. ABS or not, those regular weak points are going to be a primary concern for a viable multi-shot firearm, and no one is going to be able to produce one without them with "$1000 and an internet connection".
Dan wrote at 11/19/2013 9:19:56 AM:
"3-D printers are a miraculous technology that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing, but we need to make sure they are not being used to make deadly, undetectable weapons."// Yes, yes, in the same way, as you do everything possible to be convinced that any rubber glove, the linen clothespeg, a plastic tube of suitable diameter and any piece of plastic which can serve brisk, won't be used for the same purposes. That is - in any way you aren't convinced of it. And it not so strongly also disturbed you :) You want to prolong the law on prohibition of undetectable of the weapon? - ok, certainly USE of such things has to be defined in the law as a crime. But here such increased concern of rather three-dimensional printers meanwhile looks, to put it mildly, as "obscurantism of lazy and not so clever legislators and representatives of law enforcement agencies".
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
