The media is full of dire warnings about 3D Printed weapons, and everyone is calling for new laws to address the issue. It is ridiculous to treat this as anything new, when this process cannot do anything that cannot be done using other methods which are readily available. Fully functional firearms can be, and have been, constructed from back-yard castings, CNC milled parts, and even hammered out of sheet stock.
I know people need licenses to make certain parts in guns, in some states. I have to admit, as a machinist, I would not want to report everything I am working on in my garage...
Cabe, You bring up a very good point about regulation. It seems as though if all eyes are on a subject, say drugs, then the offenders become more active in trying to beat the system. So, if there is no regulation (attention), then maybe the offenders will not attempt to use 3D printers for wrong doings. It may just work.
Yes, Boston will probably result in more rules. But you have to then wonder, since we now know that the FBI provided the bomb used in the 1993 WTC crime. The paid informer, Emad Salem taped the conversation where the FBI admited their involvement. So we can expect more attacks whenever there is a push for more regulation.
Government should not regulate weapons or be involved. Not only is the genie already out of the bottle, but government is the main reason weapons are necessary in the first place. If any individual does not have the right to make weapons, then who does? Can't be the government because government only acts as an agent for individuals, and has no authority of its own. To attempt to make illegal what is so easily done, is just douible speak. It makes no sense, and it makes individuals subordinate to government, which is backwards in a democratic republic.
It's not a good thing when a government wins an arms race against the private sector it's supposed to "serve". It's also not good when laws punish the law-abiding more than the lawless. I'm having difficulty trying to think of a gun "restriction" that didn't further skew both of those imbalances.
If the social contract otherwise known as the U.S. Constitutiion were to ever become binding between its clients again, we'd find that most "laws" restricting access to guns are a violation against that contract.
Yes, there are consequences to liberty, but the consequences of not having it have been far more dire for millions of people before us.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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