Great, an interest in 3D printing marks you as a potential terrorist

Andy Burns snipped-for-privacy@andyburns.uk wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net:

I suppose the challenge will be 3D printing the ammunition. That said I'm sure a frequent poster here might suggest the making of soft nose projectiles with car body filler.

AIUI the usual problem with '3d printed' guns is because a 'gun' is defined as the bit which holds the trigger mechanism, and the 'gun' is the controlled part. The actual explodey bit is in the barrel, which needs to made of metal (or ceramic or whatever). In the US you are allowed to buy barrels as spare parts, but you aren't allowed to buy the 'gun' part without controls. But the 'gun' doesn't need to handle the explosion, so you can make that out of polymer (as many mass produced guns are). Hence you can '3d print a gun' by printing the plastic bit and fitting a 'spare' barrel.

I'm not sure if that applies here, or whether the other parts are also controlled.

"It's not a barrel, hofficer, it's just a piece of threaded pipe..."

Theo

A decent .22 air rifle is legal to buy, and can be adapted...