A California state senator, Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), said he intends to introduce a bill which would prohibit 3D-printers from crafting plastic guns. Yee, stoking the ire of 3D printing enthusiasts, is not alone in his quest.
Politicians across the country, from Washington D.C. to San Francisco have raised concerns over commercial 3D printing and cheap 3D printers, saying such technology, now capable of crafting parts for a gun, could make undetectable firearms widely available to felons and the mentally unstable. But while secretly crafting parts for a plastic firearm is technically feasible, the price, and technological limits of commercial 3D-printers, doesn't mean such manufacturing will be common anytime soon.
3D printers "print" three dimensional objects by repeatedly layering heated plastic to construct a three dimensional object. Printed objects can vary from whole bowls and cups to parts for more 3D printers drones and, now, guns. But 3D printers aren't cheap: personal models can go as low $2,000, and aren't capable of layering the right type of plastic in a fine enough pattern to craft a useable gun.
The move to ban firearms crafted from 3D printers has hit a fever pitch after 25-year-old Texas native, Cody Wilson, successfully fired a gun dubbed the Liberator. Only a nail, used as a firing pin, and a six inch metal rod, included to comply with firearms regulations, weren't printed.
Wilson has said the project was meant to render laws restricting access to guns moot, and to illustrate the power of 3D printing.
But the printer used by Wilson was industrial in nature, costing $8,000. Even then, the first Liberator pistol survived only few shots before succumbing to the forces of firing a bullet.
"While I am as impressed as anyone with and I believe it has amazing possibilities, we must ensure that it is not used for the wrong purpose with potentially deadly consequences," Yee said in a statement.
According to CBS Sacramento, Yee is considering a variety of avenues to restrict access to 3D printed guns, all of which revolve around restricting access to 3D printers by requiring background checks, serial numbers or registering printers.
Other legislators, such as D.C. councilmember Tommy Wells, have also expressed strong interest in regulating 3D printed guns. Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) has repeatedly tired to pass the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, which would renew a ban on plastic guns, but he has been unsuccessful so far.
"But the proposed bill makes no attempt to regulate who can and cannot purchase said gun factory; 3D printers are still available for anyone to use," Tim Murphy writes for Mother Jones. "Likewise, while the guns are printed from files that are posted online, there is no restriction in the bill on what kind of 3D printer files you can post online."
And there lies the problem with regulating 3D printers and their respective design files: the barriers to obtain such designs are practically nonexistent - provided a would-be printer knows where to look - and are incredibly difficult to restrict on an Internet driven by an open-source ethos. Similarly, regulating 3D printers poses its own problems; such as who'd be allowed to own one and how any restrictive law would be enforced.
Most U.S. citizens can make their own firearm, whether it be manufactured from a traditional metal mill or a 3D printer, provided they aren't sold.
