It's the same problem with the boom in cyber crime. The internet just makes it so much easier to do these things, and makes it available to a vastly wider audience. A law saying it is illegal to make a gun is fine when it takes some metal shop skills to do it (i.e. it's out of the reach of the vast majority of people). But we are going to be rapidly approaching a time when vast amounts of people are going to be able to easily make a gun. If they government/state/society/whatever is interested in keeping gun crime/fatalities as low as possible, then they are going to have to move with the times and introduce more relevant legislation. You made the point yourself essentially, which is why I was responding. The ban on the cad files online is an inaccurate attempt to use existing laws, from your own description, and aside from that it's not going to work in the slightest as the files will just be hosted peer to peer across the world.Seth wrote:Um, er...it's ALREADY illegal to manufacture a firearm in the US without filling out a Form 1 and paying a $200 "making" tax, and by putting the required identification and serial numbers on the registered part and including a specified amount of metal so that the firearm will be detected by metal detectors.rEvolutionist wrote:I'm interested in the concept of 3D printing in general. It gets interesting when you throw guns/weapons into the mix. What's happening now reminds me a bit of what happened when internet "crime" really started to boom. There were no specific laws governing cyber crime, so police and regulators were scrambling to keep up and apply regular world laws to the cyber world. This was an inaccurate process and led to some absurd sorts of convictions while other people got away with stuff that could clearly be reasoned to be a crime. It seems now we are at that point with 3D printed guns. The regulations need to evolve to encompass this new technology. Trying to apply rules and regs from a different class isn't going to work. The next few years in 3D printing in general, and specifically in guns, is going to be very interesting to watch.
It's a pretty serious federal felony in fact.
So, since making a 3D printed gun is already quite closely regulated, why do we need more regulations?
I'm not necessarily arguing for more regulation (although, personally, that's what I would like), I'm just pointing out an interesting problem that evolving technology in whatever sphere you want to talk about presents a challenge to conventional regulation practices. And as with the cyber crime boom, regulation always lags new technologies. You don't have to get all defensive. It's simply an interesting phenomenon.
I agree with you. The internet and digital technologies present a real problem to government control. Hence why we see governments all over the world trying to enact draconian censorship and/or spying laws over the internet.The fact of the matter is that the government CANNOT control this technology. It never could, and will never be able to do so, anymore than it can prevent criminals from getting, or building, their own firearms, bombs, knives, etc., or it could prevent the Soviets from getting our nuclear technology.
They can't suppress information, no matter how hard they try, if somebody else wants it badly enough.
I can say without a doubt that when I have a capable 3D printer I will print a gun. I'm not going to jump through all the hoops here to get a gun that I know I will store safely and not go on a rampage with. Fuck that. It's going to be far easier to do it with a printer. I know it won't be the same quality or reliability as a proper gun, but I'm not particularly interested in those aspects while ever I can't afford it in both money or time jumping through hoops.This hysteria is just stupid. Few people are going to bother, and those that want to do so illegally would have done so anyway.
