The world's first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the US.

The controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to make the blueprints available online.

The group has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.

Anti-gun campaigners have criticised the project.

Europe's law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments.

Victoria Baines, from Europol's cybercrime centre, said that at present criminals were more likely to pursue traditional routes to obtain firearms.

She added, however: "But as time goes on and as this technology becomes more user friendly and more cost effective, it is possible that some of these risks will emerge."

Defense Distributed is headed by Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old law student at the University of Texas.

Mr Wilson said: "I think a lot of people weren't expecting that this could be done."


The gun was assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the firing pin was made from metal
3D printing has been hailed as the future of manufacturing.

The technology works by building up layer upon layer of material - typically plastic - to build complex solid objects.

The idea is that as the printers become cheaper, instead of buying goods from shops, consumers will instead be able to download designs and print out the items at home.

But as with all new technologies, there are risks as well as benefits.

Personal liberties
The gun was made on a 3D printer that cost $8,000 (£5,140) from the online auction site eBay.

It was assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the firing pin was made from metal.

Mr Wilson, who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said his plans to make the design available were "about liberty".

He told the BBC: "There is a demand of guns - there just is. There are states all over the world that say you can't own firearms - and that's not true anymore.

"I'm seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have whatever you want. It's not up to the political players any more."

Asked if he felt any sense of responsibility about whose hands the gun might fall into, he told the BBC: "I recognise the tool might be used to harm other people - that's what the tool is - it's a gun.

"But I don't think that's a reason to not do it - or a reason not to put it out there."

Gun control
To make the gun, Mr Wilson received a manufacturing and seller's licence from the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Donna Sellers, from the ATF, told BBC News that the 3D-printed gun, as long as it was not a National Firearms Act weapon (an automatic gun, for example), was legal in the US.

She said: " a person can manufacture a firearm for their own use. However, if they engage in the business of manufacture to sell a gun, they need a licence."

Amid America's ongoing gun debate in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, US congressman Steve Israel recently called for a ban on 3D guns under the Undetectable Firearms Act.

Groups looking to tighten US gun laws have also expressed concern.

Leah Gunn Barrett, from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, has said: "These guns could fall into the hands of people who should not have guns - criminals, people who are seriously mentally ill, people who are convicted of domestic violence, even children."

3D printing technology has already been used by some criminal organisations to create card readers - "skimmers" - that are inserted into bank machines.

Many law enforcement agencies around the world now have people dedicated to monitoring cybercrime and emerging technologies such as 3D printers.

Ms Baines from Europol said: "What we know is that technology proceeds much more quickly than we expect it to. So by getting one step ahead of the technological developments, we hope and believe we will be able to get one step ahead of the criminals as well."

Incredible qq-ing from nanny-state science fanboys in the comments about how the guy SHOULD have built water pumps for Africa instead of Machines that Can Kill People!!

you want science? technology? 'innovation'? this was what you get, a gun in every home, beautiful

Lysenko posted:

congrats! now kill yourself with it

we will, this is my point...hopefully this wakes up science fanboys to the obvious fact that technology is encoded with destruction and every new scientific advancement brings us and the planet closer to oblivion.

the original sin wasn't eve eating an apple, it was the time some random hominid first shaped a tool.

roseweird posted:

Ironicwarcriminal posted:

Lysenko posted:

congrats! now kill yourself with it



we will, this is my point...hopefully this wakes up science fanboys to the obvious fact that technology is encoded with destruction and every new scientific advancement brings us and the planet closer to oblivion.

the original sin wasn't eve eating an apple, it was the time some random hominid first shaped a tool.



or was it possibly the first time one complex-protein-containing lipid-barrier engulfed another and its complex proteins broke down and assimilated the other? destruction is encoded in life and existence—displacing the blame onto this or that aspect of human life won't help. your original sin analogy is apt—arbitrary and mythological. technology is problematic, but also inevitable and interesting, worth taking a hand in shaping and getting excited about

i can't get exited about the ongoing destruction of the incredible biodiversity on this planet, which is what every single technological development takes us towards

roseweird posted:

Ironicwarcriminal posted:
sorry but i just find that kind of techno-utopianism quite cute

i might be more willing to believe it if there had EVER in 10,000 years been an invention or technological advancement that didn't edge us and the planet's biodiversity closer to irreversible destruction.


well, sorry, but i find this sort of apocalyptic environmentalism cute too. the destruction of the natural order is tragic, but i suspect that the technological advancement that ceases the destruction of planetary biodiversity will be the technological advance that begins creating entirely new life forms and populating the earth with them, for better or worse

i don't think the future will be utopian, but i think it will be fantastic, which tends to sound utopian

well as long as you suspect something completely implausible that goes against millennia of history

i simply, cannot understand how anybody in this day and age can honestly 'assume' or 'suspect' that we will have technology that stops destroying things and fixes it. It's like a crack addict constantly convincing themselves that the next hit of crack will be the one that makes their life turn around....unbelievable

roseweird posted:

Ironicwarcriminal posted:
roseweird posted:

Ironicwarcriminal posted:
sorry but i just find that kind of techno-utopianism quite cute

i might be more willing to believe it if there had EVER in 10,000 years been an invention or technological advancement that didn't edge us and the planet's biodiversity closer to irreversible destruction.


well, sorry, but i find this sort of apocalyptic environmentalism cute too. the destruction of the natural order is tragic, but i suspect that the technological advancement that ceases the destruction of planetary biodiversity will be the technological advance that begins creating entirely new life forms and populating the earth with them, for better or worse

i don't think the future will be utopian, but i think it will be fantastic, which tends to sound utopian



well as long as you suspect something completely implausible that goes against millennia of history

i simply, cannot understand how anybody in this day and age can honestly 'assume' or 'suspect' that we will have technology that stops destroying things and fixes it. It's like a crack addict constantly convincing themselves that the next hit of crack will be the one that makes their life turn around....unbelievable


i don't think it will fix it, i just think that eventually our response to loss of biodiversity will be artificial biodiversity, which will be a total destruction of the old natural order, but will also genuinely solve the problem of biodiversity while creating a new set of problems (the nature of which is unpredictable).

We already have artificial biodiversity and it consists of strip malls and image macros and those gay little robot dogs

Goethestein posted:

i just watched the video and the gun is a single shot .22 lmao. and they still needed a metal firing pin

i just watched the wright brothers plane and it only flew a hundred feet and then crashlanded lmao

littlegreenpills posted:

call me a luddite but i suspect guns made of metal and in a factory will generally have the edge

actually a fully 3d printed gun (no metal components) that was comparable in function to a mass-produced weapon could be really the only exception to this rule. guns are expensive enough that printing them could become economically sensible and they would allow for people to stockpile huge supplies of firearms even if they have some mental illness or criminal record that would otherwise disallow it. and between waiting periods and licenses it might even be faster.

of course, these guns would have no legal use whatsoever