> "zip guns"
This helps people make a fully automatic machine gun, an AR-15, not a single-shot gun.
Or just buy a drone, strap something light and sharp to it, and just nodedive it into the target.
For $1,200 you could set up as a company making little things for others, earn enough to pay for the machine and then benefit from it yourself.
What I would do with such a machine is to solve the problem of bike accessories and mounts. i.e. every light has a different mount, as do GPS devices, and cameras, and bag attachments. Yet you could manufacture some common clamp, and then adaptors for each thing. Perhaps standardise around something like the GoPro bracket for an even wider market (it would allow flashes and other accessories to be mounted using existing GoPro segments).
There's so many things you can do.
And they make a gun! Who cares about guns! It's all the other stuff that make this awesome.
If you read the whole article, this is specifically designed to mill and drill the lower receivers of AR15, from a piece of aluminum stock called the "80 percent stock", which is a non-functional metal part that is only missing a few holes.
If you have grand ideas about bike accessories and other metal objects, you can buy a proper CNC mill which is a bit more expensive than this. Or pay for CNC machining service at your local machine shop. It's not super expensive.
It is a tiny cnc mill. I have one and I love it. I mostly make wooden arty thinks, but I did successfully mill an aluminum car part for some friends.
I'm also probably on some weird list now for visiting a site to see about home made guns.
Much like bike accessories we're always buying things like phone holders, fan holders, or CB radio handset holders. But these things never attach to the dashboard well because they depend on suction cups or clips to the vent grate (which aren't standard anyway).
All car dashboards should come with a 1/4-20 inch screw thread. Maybe two, one of the driver's side and a second for the front passenger. Then to accessorize your car, you just buy a simple cellphone clip which screws in.
The nice part about 1/4-20 is that it is already used for a ton of stuff (i.e. anything tripod compatible), so there are already accessories on the market for that screw size.
You can't just sell them, you first have to license every patented clamp and mount. And I guarantee you, 99% of them are patented.
The pressure-bearing parts, like the barrel or the bolt, are much harder to manufacture, at least for rifles. Most European countries will therefore regulate these, but they won't necessarily regulate ancillary parts like receivers or stocks. AFAIK, a full-auto AR receiver, which is highly regulated in the US, is treated as nothing more than a chunk of metal under UK law (as long as you don't illegally assemble it with a barrel and other parts).
[I was wrong; according to the 9th report of the Firearms Consultative Comity, Annex D, receivers are controlled as "component parts"]
So for example, a farmer (without a firearm licence) tired of people stealing created a trap, a thick cardboard tube, hung on a string pointed at the doorway, set to ignite and shoot shrapnel when the door was opened.
The farmer winds up forgetting about his trap and sets it off injuring himself. He was charged with having an illegal firearm because even though it was something he built himself, it was still similar enough to a gun to be considered one.
Funny, that. The US has a similar on the books with regard to drugs - the Federal Analog Act -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Analog_Act - if some compound is "chemically similar" to a schedule I or II drug, then it can be treated as if it were also on those schedules.
In the 18th century, relatively low-cost and reliable rifles became available, and this fundamentally changed the balance between established governments and small armed groups. This changed contributed to the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the downfall of the Mughal Empire (where small regional rebellions suddenly became more viable and central control began to break down).
This period eventually ended in the 19th century, when is debatable, but once you had a gatling gun, a professional heavily armed force could mow down lightly armed forces without large casualties.
Chances are this development will be the final word (and certainly it has not had a huge impact yet, so maybe my speculation is premature), eventually there will become some expensive but exceptionally effective weapon only large governments can afford or supply, but 3-D printers making guns could have serious effects on the course of politics and warfare within the next few decades.
As the old curse goes, may you live in interesting times...
It is my understanding that the important part of arming a group of people is quality/reliability of the weapons. I was watching an interesting History channel episode of some series (back when they were good) about the horrible gun that was the Chauchat. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauchat Basically these guns didn't have interchangeable parts and would often jam. The narrator said that the Americans who received this gun would basically throw it away once they encountered an enemy gun.
Instead, the real key can be found in the words "well regulated" in the US 2nd Amendment.[1]
"[t]he adjective 'well-regulated' implies nothing
more than the imposition of proper discipline and
training."
The professionals will win even if they aren't "heavily armed". Because they are trained and they're not simply a disorganized mob.
In the USA, most of these professionals can be found in "a well regulated militia", which nowadays we tend to call by a slightly different name, the National Guard. [2] Every state has one, they're full of veterans of the Gulf Wars and of Afghanistan, and they're not simply "weekend warriors".
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Amendment_to_the_United_... [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_%28United_States...
This already exists. Ubiquitous air presence via unmanned drones armed with air-to-ground rockets, missiles, or guided bombs.
Sometimes I feel like libertarians and NRA types seriously believe that they (a bunch of angry right-wing hunters or whatever) could actually throw off what they feel are the chains of oppression emanating from Washington, if only they could be sufficiently organized and motivated to rise up together.
Any serious armed rebellion in the United States would be deftly crushed. I'm not convinced that a peaceful/political rebellion would not be crushed also.
The System exists to perpetuate itself.
Your other comments aside, this actually isn't too far outside the realm of possibility for sufficiently motivated and skilled independent manufacturers. What militaries really have a monopoly on is superior supply chains and logistics. The advanced weaponry is icing on the cake.
Either way, I'm glad Defense Distributed is moving the ball forward on this issue.
Edit to add: This company makes plastic ones that a drill, chisel, and Dremel are enough to finish, no CNC machine necessary. http://www.ammoland.com/2014/02/ep80-ar15-rifle-lower-at-hom...
Besides the 6 months it takes to learn to make one that won't blow up in your face when you pull the trigger?
Alarmist drivel.
"OMG someone can make an unregistered gun and kill someone with it!" is hyperventilating drivel. Far, far easier to just buy/steal one. Anyone interested in making one won't be interested in throwing their lives away (arrest/incarceration/execution) by abusing it. Anyone who IS willing to throw their lives away by abusing one won't find any advantage/interest in making one from scratch.
It is trivial to put together a lower receiver. You can do it with a hammer and a roll pin punch (and you really don't need the punch).
There are numerous vids on how to assemble a lower receiver and how to mill out an 80%. You could even buy a polymer and carve it out with a knife, if you felt so inclined to do so.
before i owned one, i had the notion that it was dangerous. but it's a real-world (i.e. you literally bet your life on it) modular weapons system - you don't make the modules (barrel, etc.), you just snap or screw them together. the gun was designed to be taken apart and reassembled in the field by people without a high school education, much less any kind of gunsmithing ability.
i know it sounds hard to believe when you don't know anything about it (i was the same way), but it's true. when you start researching, it's incredibly confusing for about 20 minutes but then it just clicks in your head. it's a very basic weapon.
This thing could be really nice for hobby projects (not gun related, that is).
It might be adaptable something else but it wasn't designed for that.
"Like any computer-numerically-controlled (or CNC) mill, the one-foot-cubed black box uses a drill bit mounted on a head that moves in three dimensions to automatically carve digitally-modeled shapes into polymer, wood or aluminum."
CNCs use drill bits for drilling, but not cutting. They use a carbide router bit. Look like a drill bit, but isn't. His machine might use a drill bit, but it's not the norm and "any CNC" doesn't.
CNC routers, or mills, divide into those that cut steel and those that cut everything else, not "polymer, wood or aluminum". From this article, I can't tell nearly as much as I'd like to about this machine, and I do this for a living.
Craftsmanship, experience and raw materials only are needed.
http://www.80percentarms.com/products/0-billet-ar-15-lower-r...
You can't sell all the ingredients, tools and instructions to build a meth lab ("Breaking Bad in a Box"!) so what's so different with a gun?
People have been building 80% lowers for years, without any background check, as the ATF does not consider it to be a weapon. All one needs is a drill press. Should we outlaw drill presses because they can be used to make a gun less then 1% of the time. Despite all of the other uses of a drill press?
Also the difference between a gun and your meth example is that meth manufacturing is illegal in all capacities. The private manufacturing of a firearm is not considered illegal, as long as you do not sell that firearm that you have created.
Owning and/or making your own "AR15 lower" is legal (your local jurisdiction may vary, but for point of discussion...). Meth 100% isn't.
The legal nuance addressed by this machine is: if you (as private individual, or as industry manufacturer) make an "AR15 lower" for sale, you must register the manufactured part with the government ... but if you make it for your own use (to wit: not for sale), you don't have to register it.
Those wanting "unregistered guns" could make an "AR15 lower" out of a block of steel, at home, for personal use, and be completely legal. YES, you can sell a CNC machine, block of steel[1], tools, and instructions to build a gun.
Surprise: guns are legal in the USA, and you're allowed to make one for yourself without registering it (some jurisdictional limitations may apply, but the general point is absolutely true).
[1] - Hobbyists strained the limits of what constitutes "make" and "block of steel" (what if it's cut to the exact outer dimensions? what if I drill a hole? how close to the final shape constitutes "not made"?); the government ruled that doing 80% of the work required to convert a block of steel into an "AR15 lower" was as far as you could go and the object still not legally considered an "AR15 lower" (any farther and it may be incomplete but close enough to be considered a gun). This machine takes an "80% AR15 lower" and finishes the work.
Meth should be legal and sold out of liquor stores to anyone 21 or older anyway. And while I don't condone tweakers cooking it in the trailer park, I see no reason why one shouldn't be allowed to do that chemistry if they're careful and take proper precautions.
I don't know if this is actually true. The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the second amendment, but its a bit of a stretch to say that includes manufacturing of arms.
It's not like Wired has never talked about general purpose CNC mills before.
It's nothing like that. This specifically designed to drill holes in gun parts and do only that.
CNC mills and metal 3d printers do exist but they are quite a bit more expensive than this.
Why aren't we limiting the sale of bullets (explosives)?
edit: Chris Rock said it best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db0Y4qIZ4PA
Except for some "slave states" as I've taken to calling them, you can buy ammo mail order, often with a statement of age or perhaps a photocopy of your drivers license. Powder, bullets, cases and primers by mail, although there may be limits to the amount of powder you can hold before the BATF wants a license, safe(r) storage, etc. And similarly your local fire department prefers or may demand limits.
And this stuff is stable, lasts a long time. My father has several 25 pound casks of powder he or his father bought before or after WWII that he's still reloading from, and ammo manufactured in WWII is still being used (although a lot of it has corrosive primers, requiring much more thorough cleaning).
When I grew up in Australia where there is basically no guns. I used to walk on streets even on a drunken Friday / Saturday night without fear.
I moved to the US a few years ago and since then every corner I turn, I see people and I worry.
I don't worry about getting robbed. No. I worry about a gun fight somewhere and a stray bullet hits me. I worry that someone drunk might hold me at gunpoint and at a moment of misjudgement he/she shoots me.
It is pretty hard to get killed by being punched. On the other hand, it is pretty easy to lose your mind for a second and shoot someone
I hate this project, because now the barrier to entry of owning a unregistered gun is so much lower
You vastly over exaggerate the issue here, this level or paranoia needs medical assistance.
Gun laws will not make people safer, making an already illegal act; using a gun against someone/something; even more illegal solves nothing.
We have a major problem with drugs. There is too much money in this because of the illegal nature of it. From the use and sale of drugs to prosecution, treatment, and imprisonment. The establishment has too much to lose to give it up and those in that system have too little to lose to not resort to violence.
Fix the drug laws, find good work for those who have too much idle time, and then we can work on the culture of violence that pervades many inner cities.
As a simple supporting point, home invasions while the tenants are currently at home is much higher in Canada where firearms are significantly less common. In America, burglars make sure noone is home before breaking into it. This has been correlated to gun ownership and castle doctrines.
Take a look at a state like New Jersey. Guns are illegal there for all intents and purposes. Does nothing to keep cities like Camden off the most dangerous cities in America list though.
As it turns out, criminals don't really care where they can legally bring guns and will happily walk past a "NO GUNS ALLOWED HERE!" sign.
When gun grabbing legislation is passed, it only hurts law-abiding people, not criminals. Criminals will still get and use guns whenever they'd like.