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Worthless: 3D printing is nothing but a nerd fad that won't leave hobbyist workshops.

6 (3%)

Unimportant: 3D printing will become common but won't be useful for much other than tiny full plastic objects.

8 (4%)

Minor Importance: 3D printing will function as a light industry that will coexist with existing manufacturing methodologies.

43 (21.4%)

Moderate Importance: 3D printing will challenge and slowly replace a large number of existing manufacturing businesses.

104 (51.7%)

Major Importance: 3D printing will completely flip the table on conventional manufacturing and quickly destroy existing business for anything you can make with them.

20 (10%)

Critical: 3D printing will disrupt conventional ideals of work and money so much that they collapse and are replaced in a paradigm shift.

20 (10%)

Total Members Voted: 199

[forsaken1111]

Well, no one's posted about the Liberator. The first ever FULLY 3-D Printed firearm. The Defense Department ordered it taken off of Defense Distributed's website and it has since disappeared from there. Look up the video on YouTube if you want to see history changed forever. I'm so glad there are people smarter than me out there.

It isn't fully printed, a firing pin is still required.

The firing pin is a 10 cent nail you can get at any hardware store.

There's nothing stopping you from buying a metal tube and making a single shot gun as it is though.

And this is the heart of the argument. Printing a gun at home is no different from MAKING a gun at home, and making your own gun is completely legal in most of the US so long as you do not attempt to sell it. The problem is that the printing of guns represents a much lower barrier of entry, so they are afraid more and more people will be printing weapons and are seeking to legislate some kind of restriction around printing guns.

I think its a bad idea personally. Not because printing guns is good, but because if you treat the printing of objects differently from making objects it sets a bad precedent.

[stabbymcstabstab]

Those printed guns are pieces of crap, I could go buy a small welding kit and a cheap firearm for less then 8000 dollars and melt the gun  barrel down after I use.

[Mech#4]

While I don't like the idea of people with little experience in guns being able to make them more easily at home. They'll probably learn their lesson if the gun explodes in their hands, sending bits of plastic everywhere. Only after the fact will it seem like a bad idea of course, humans tend to lack foresight in such things.

[forsaken1111]

Those printed guns are pieces of crap, I could go buy a small welding kit and a cheap firearm for less then 8000 dollars and melt the gun  barrel down after I use.

Buy a 'cheap' firearm for '8000 dollars'... or print a one-shot gun for 3 dollars worth of plastic from a printer which only costs a few hundred dollars.

I don't see your point. Misunderstood the post.

[10ebbor10]

The printer used for the gun cost 8000 dollars. Nobody's sure if it works with cheaper printers.

[forsaken1111]

The printer used for the gun cost 8000 dollars. Nobody's sure if it works with cheaper printers.

Ahh I see. Well that doesn't change anything. As time goes on, better printers will become cheaper. If the plan requires a printer of a certain 'fidelity' then that just delays the issue until such printers become common, which they will.

[ChairmanPoo]

I don't know to what extent it lowers the entry far beyond mcgyvering one from scratch. The 3D printed item will still require assembly, after all. It just saves a couple of trips to the hardware store.

[10ebbor10]

What worries me more is the possibility of more complicated designs. For example, when the materials become more durable, it becomes possible to print out your own shortrange missiles.

The Palestine Qassam is a really simple one, and not that hard to build. It's however very inaccurate, a result of the fact that they rocket nuzzles are not canted, and hence, the rocket doesn't spin. (Spinning = stability). A 3D printer can do those things quite easily.

[10ebbor10]

Can do so already. It's quite expensive, heavy, and large.

[forsaken1111]

I knew that a gun would be made eventually, but still, I'd prefer it if they had brains and, rather than uploading it to the web, didn't in the first place.

It would get out eventually, you know it would. The first person to buy the 'restricted' plans would be able to upload them and then its in everyone's hands.

[Lagslayer]

I knew that a gun would be made eventually, but still, I'd prefer it if they had brains and, rather than uploading it to the web, didn't in the first place.

It would get out eventually, you know it would. The first person to buy the 'restricted' plans would be able to upload them and then its in everyone's hands.

+1 to forsaken1111. It's basically a form of internet censorship, meaning it's basically unenforceable without something akin to the Great Firewall of China + SOPA + CISPA.

[Scoops Novel]

How is the Great firewall by the way? Are there readily available circumvents?

[Aklyon]

How is the Great firewall by the way? Are there readily available circumvents?

Probably.

[misko27]

Hey, I got a question. What about all our regulations? Do all of them now go out the window now that anyone can do anything? Anyone, no matter how, say, bigoted, or stupid, or racist, or downright terrible? Could a man now bomb a mosque, with nothing to stop him until he does it? Could we stop Domestic Abusers from obtaining guns? Known Felons? Or even something as simple as a person at suicide risk? All the abuses of power this affords is mind-boggling.


Someone needs to explain to me how utopia works given reality.

How is the Great firewall by the way? Are there readily available circumvents?

Probably.

I have seen and used workarounds. Yeah.

[Starver]

How is the Great firewall by the way? Are there readily available circumvents?

Probably.

I have seen and used workarounds. Yeah.

There's always IPoAC.

See RFC1149 for details of the version that was successfully implemented.

RFC2549 extends this, but so far has not been attempted, SFAIK.  The bulk transfer method mentioned early on would probably be quite easily stopped by a determined Chinese fire/wall implementation, however.