(OT) Killer application

[Tim+]

Looks like 3D printing has found its killer application.

I suppose it was inevitable but I'd rather that terrorists weren't given any more help than necessary. :-(

Tim

[Huge]

Don't be ridiculous. Terrorists aren't going to piss about with single shot rimfire .22 pistols, when the gun makers of Peshawar are turning out thousands of AK-47 clones a month.

[Tim+]

Which is going to be easier to get on to a plane?

Tim

[polygonum]

Gun.

Those 3D printers are really awkward to carry...

[ARW]

And if you run out of plastic halfway though printing..........

[polygonum]

You end up with a sawn-off shotgun.....

(So long as you are printing in the right direction. Otherwise it is a barrel of fun.)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

Or a stock in filler.

[Huge]

Do people like you really live their lives worrying about such things? How do you even get out of bed in the morning?

[Another Dave]

I'd be really impressed if they printed some ammunition.

Another Dave

[harry]

True.

[Bill]

Depends on the intended use, a 22 will kill you just as well as anything else and is much more discrete. Not all terrorists go in all guns blazing.

[Tim+]

writes

Just another idle thought, if possession of an unlicensed firearm is illegal (and I don't think that you have to have ammunition for it to be illegal), at what stage in the manufacturing process would it become illegal? When you've assembled it, when you've printed up all the bits or maybe when you press the start button?

Tim

[polygonum]

writes

I'd guess as soon as the person has shown intention (to acquire an unlicensed firearm) and started to execute the processes of manufacture.

Arguably that could be at quite an early stage. Also, arguably, even a non-viable device would be an offence - otherwise, until made and fired, it cannot be known it is viable.

[alan]

No metal parts except for the firing pin so hard to detect when going through airport security.

I think one of the US crime programmes recently featured a printed gun as a disposable weapon that was untraceable.

Just wait until the printers become £100 and the "compatible" consumables cost a few quid a pop.

[alan]

Probable feasible with a few dismantled readily available firework or shotgun cartridges.

[Tim Streater]

Gives a whole new meaning to the notion of a printer cartridge.

[The Natural Philosopher]

On the contrary, that's exactly what they do. Its called a 'spectacular' an it involves giving the media a whacking big story. A 22 in the base of the skull is not interesting. Blood strewn corpses and a huge bang, are..

half the audience is the terrorists themselves.. They get a kick out of seeing the Enemy on TV smashed to bits.

[Tim Lamb]

In my youth, starting pistol blanks were readily available and 0.22 rimfire bird scarer blanks for the really adventurous.

[Brian Gaff]

CSI and I suspect other us series have already done this disposable printed weapon thing, but I still have my doubts it would be safe and what about the bullets?

Brian

[Andy Burns]

And mine, as 6th formers we could sign for a tin of them on the school's drama 'tab' at the local gunmakers, of course none of them were ever misappropriated for experiments, no, no.