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Uncategorized Tuesday, October 2nd 2012 at 8:35 am

Group Attempting to 3D Print a Gun Somehow Surprised When Their Printer is Confiscated

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It’s hard to imagine that a group that’s trying to build a fully-functional weapon via 3D printing and then distribute those schematics would be surprised to find themselves constantly facing roadblocks, and yet the Wiki Weapons Project certainly appears to be genuinely shocked that the company that leased them a 3D printer has now confiscated it. Officially, Stratasys stated “It is the policy of Stratasys not to knowingly allow its printers to be used for illegal purposes.” Then they sent people to grab the device.

This isn’t even the first spat of trouble that the Wiki Weapons Project has run into during its tenure. Their Indiegogo campaign to raise $20,000 was shuttered by the fundraising site in August. Cody Wilson, the project director, and the rest of the scattered team then turned to the Bitcoin pseudo-currency in order to raise the rest. Roadblocks seem to be a common theme here.

Stratasys was only doing what the company found to be in their best interest, which is not to be associated with a DIY gunsmith operation. It doesn’t help that the legal area occupied by 3D printing objects like guns is a murky one. If Stratasys had somehow been drawn into a legal dispute over leasing their printer to the Wiki Weapons Project, it’s hard to say what the outcome might have been.

For now, can’t we all just agree that 3D printing guns is probably not something that’s going to remain legal?

(Wired via The Verge, image via Pal Joakim Olsen)

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  • http://twitter.com/johncfarrier John Farrier

    “For now, can’t we all just agree that 3D printing guns is probably not something that’s going to remain legal?”

    No, I think that it has a good chance of remaining legal. Gunsmiths will just have to buy their own printers instead of leasing them.

  • constitutionintatters

    Making guns is not illegal, please do your research.
    The specs for those gun parts are available everywhere.
    But I do look forward to our gun overlords that you seem very willing to put in place.

  • NoThanks

    The issue isn’t that you can get or make these parts, its that you can produce a firearm without serial numbers, or parts of a firearm that are federally mandated to be stamped in a way to help identify the weapon and who it’s registered to. Even on shows like Sons of Guns, Red Jacket has to have certain items that they make conform to laws and have serial numbers and various other stamps on them.

  • toodles

    And the 3D printer is quite capable of putting serial numbers on any potentially controlled parts. These laws also become less clear when dealing with prototyping weapons that are supposed to be destroyed after experiments instead of mass produced and sold. Essentially this company is claiming they took away their printer because they know the INTENT of the user (which is not to become an arms manufacturer but successfully develop components that work and can be printed).

  • Nathan Gambino

    You only have to serialize a gun when you are selling it. I could make a rifle from scratch for my own use and not put a serial number on it till i get sick of it and decide to sell it.

  • Winston Smith 3rd

    I dont think legislation will come anywhere close to the speed of innovation happening in the 3d world, this isn’t something even close to the radar of any politician I know of! Besides the second amendment was written in a time when most people created their own guns so its going to be a difficult argument that a home shop guns smith should be prevented from building their own.

  • Anonymous

    Your ignorance of the laws is truely educational in itself. Good luck with that.

  • Anonymous

    The “legal area” is not “murky” at all, it’s black-letter law. You might try actually researching the subject rather than attempt to skate by on ignorance.

  • Toby

    I can’t see any possible, effective way to stop people printing gun components. We’re just going to have to get used to it.