Gun Laws & Legislation

CCW Weekend: 3D Printed Guns? Don’t Panic Just Yet

(Robert MacPherson/AFP/Getty Images)

Guns and Gear Contributor
Font Size:

By Sam Hoober, Alien Gear Holsters

3D printed guns have been all over the news in the past few years, especially those involving plans devised and posted to the web by Cody Wilson. Wilson’s plastic 3D printed pistol plans have been enjoined by federal court order at the moment, resulting in his website – defcad.com – having all content removed.

3D printed guns are a sticky wicket.

On the one hand, preventing or at least making it real hard for felons and otherwise violent criminals, spousal abusers, drug addicts and the mentally ill to get their hands on a gun is a no-brainer. Granted, many of them get their hands on guns anyway but the idea still stands. Such people shouldn’t have guns, and everyone knows it.

Ostensibly, being able to 3D print a firearm makes it easier for some of them to obtain one. They can just print their own “ghost guns” and don’t even have to bother with typical channels of getting a firearm. Cause for alarm, right?

Well, maybe not as much as you’d think.

CNN and the New York Times probably won’t get into the finer points, partially because they need to conserve space but also because circumspection makes sensationalizing things difficult.

First, about 3D printing, aka rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing. The quick version of how it works is you upload plans (a computer-aided drafting/computer-aided design or CAD file) into the machine. The machine “prints” the object by stacking tiny bits of a filament feed stock onto each other until it forms a solid object.

Sounds pretty straightforward, but that’s not the whole story.

Most 3D printers only work with plastic feedstock. Some work with wood filler and metal – some even work with chocolate! – but the garden variety machine uses plastic. Now, the thing about plastics is that some are very strong (Glocks and other guns are made with a polymer, usually glass-filled nylon) but most 3D printers don’t or can’t work with a polymer that’s strong enough to tolerate the mechanical stresses involved in firearms.

Even stuff made by professional-quality rapid prototyping machines breaks easily. The industrial/professional-grade machines cost a lot of money (decent used car money in most cases; BMW money in others) and still turn out a flimsy product.

The sort of desktop models that let hobbyists print toy forks for their kids? Let’s hold those horses for now.

What about people who want to print lowers out of metal?

Well, the machines capable of doing so are significantly more expensive than printers that use plastic stock exclusively. Not “late model Toyota” expensive; “new Lamborghini” is more like it. Then you need the know-how to put the gun together and then diagnose any issues with function or fitment.

Wilsons’s other company – Ghost Gunner – will actually sell you alloy 3D printed lowers or, if you want to put down a $250 deposit ahead of a $2,000 final purchase, an actual CNC machine capable of making your own when the design is finished. You still need additional tooling (jigs, mills and drill bits capable of the work) and the CAD files, but they have those too. You would be able to mill your own 80 percent lowers for AR-15 or AR-10 rifles, or – for those with great taste – 1911 pistols.

So far, Defense Distributed produced plans for an AR-pattern lower receiver and a plastic pistol called The Liberator, in reference/homage to the cheapo pistol dropped to resistance forces behind the lines by the Allies in World War II. People have been losing their minds.

Thing about their Liberator is that it is large, bulky and a single-shot pistol. Concealment will be difficult. Wilson prints his guns using a professional quality printer; the typical civilian who owns one has a model of lesser quality. That means people could print guns, but they’d only be good for one at a time and are liable to break in the process.

So, what’s the point here?

The point here is that making a firearm with the same kind of function as a factory gun with a 3D printer isn’t necessarily difficult in theory. However, there are some significant barriers. The first is economical (costs a lot) the second is logistical (you need the right materials) and the last is practical, namely the technical knowledge in building and fitting firearms as well as diagnosing malfunctions.

Now, keeping guns away from violent criminals and so forth is obviously a good idea. Should we worry about 3D printed guns in their hands just yet? On paper, it’s potentially a problem. In the real world? It’s likely not time to gnash teeth or rend garments just yet.

Click here to get your 1911 Pistol Shopping Guide.

Click here to get The Complete Concealed Carry Training Guide

Sam Hoober is Contributing Editor for AlienGearHolsters.com, a subsidiary of Hayden, ID, based Tedder Industries, where he writes about gun accessories, gun safety, open and concealed carry tips. Click here to visit aliengearholsters.com.

 

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel