Activist Post

The eyes of
the world are on the innovation of 3D
printing. Naturally, whenever a new technology is created that
offers open source DIY opportunities to the average individual,
it is going to make governments and their protected corporate interests
very nervous.

Such is the case with 3D weapons manufacturing. Defense Distributed
has been offering sets of computer files for free through their DEFCAD
online library.

New York Congressman, Steve Israel, has sought to criminalize
3D weapons, and the media attention resulted in Wikiweapon company
Stratasys, Inc. seizing Defense Distributed’s equipment and
taking issue with their decentralized methods. But the genie is
already out of the bottle. After some initial stutter-stepping with
structural failures, the latest incarnation heralds the arrival
of 3D printed semi-automatic and automatic weapons.

Ars Technica explains the short history of Cody Wilson’s non-profit
gun manufacturing program:

Last
year, his group famously demonstrated that it could use a 3D-printed
“lower” for an AR-15
semi-automatic rifle—but the gun failed
after six rounds. Now, after some re-tooling, Defense Distributed
has shown that it has fixed the design flaws and a gun using its
lower can seemingly fire for quite a while. (The AR-15 is the civilian
version of the military M16
rifle.) [Source]

The results can be seen in part 3 of their ongoing video series chronicling
their development and improvement. Over 600 rounds of .223 ammunition
are fired without fail using a 3D-printed “lower” for an AR-15, with
Wilson stating that it likely could have gone to 1,000.

The ability for anyone to print a weapon could be one of the cornerstones
for widespread freedom and resistance to top-down tyranny. Lawmakers
such as Steve Israel have stated that any restrictions on 3D printing
of weapons will be very difficult if not impossible to enforce, and
the Justice Department has so far backed up their legality. As Tony
Cartalucci has stated, it renders
gun control moot; one would have to basically ban any personal
use of 3D printers.

Preventing
people from manufacturing guns, or worse yet, from possessing or
using tools that can be used to create guns, is both ludicrous and
impossible. Like with cars or anything else, laws are there to ensure
we don’t harm others by abusing any given right or implement – not
preventing us from having those rights or implements responsibly
in the first place.

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the rest of the article

March
4, 2013

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