1. Welcome! Please take a few seconds to create your free account to post threads, make some friends, remove a few ads while surfing and much more. ClutchFans has been bringing fans together to talk Houston Sports since 1996. Join us!

[NEWS] US Government shuts down 3D gun manufacturer

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by SwoLy-D, May 9, 2013.

  1. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2001
    Messages:
    37,617
    Likes Received:
    1,448
    [NEWS] US Government shuts down 3D gun manufacturer - :eek:

    [​IMG]
    Thursday, May 9, 2013 - Citizen Warrior by Tiffany Madison


    DALLAS, May 9, 2013 - The revolutionary concept of 3-D printed firearms has been building momentum for months now. Online observers, innovators, investors and the generally curious celebrated as the first completely 3-D printed handgun became a reality. Since the blueprint for “The Liberator” hit the web, the file was downloaded thousands of times in just a few days.
    Today, the government shut it down.
    [​IMG]
    Cody Wilson, the 3-D gunsmith, law student, and founder of the non-profit innovation outlet, Defense Distributed, broke the bad news in a tweet to his followers.


    Read more: http://communities.washingtontimes....shuts-down-3d-gun-manufacturer/#ixzz2Spyum6NI

    According to an earlier interview, Wilson received a letter from the US Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance, Enforcement Division (DTCC/END) which demanded the group remove the content in question from public domain.
    The complaint reads that the “DTCC/END” will review the data Defense Distributed has released to ensure compliance with “Category I of the USML” (United States Munitions List). Apparently, releasing the files possibly violated the ITAR, or International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
    Though Wilson is not legally restricted from privately manufacturing firearms, apparently sharing emerging technology without a license or written approval from the government is unlawful. Commodity Jurisdiction determination requests were solicited for ten of Defense Distributed’s file types, including “The Liberator.”
    The website files are down and the site’s banner states, “DefDist Liberator Pistol: This file has been removed from public access at the request of the US Department of Defense Trade Controls. Until further notice, the United States government claims control of the information.”
    “The Liberator,” is a 16-piece plastic firearm crafted by 3-D printers. A metal firing pin and embedded shank bring the weapon in compliance with the 30-year old Undetectable Firearms Act. Most downloaders do not have the software or equipment to produce a working gun with the files, but curious minds inquire. The download rate is likely to further explode, and is available all over the Internet.
    But this move by federal authorities did not come as a surprise for firearm advocates.
    Prior to Wilson’s receiving this letter, persistent gun control proponents Rep. Steve Israel, (D-NY) and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) supported the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act which would attempt to ban all plastic 3-D printed guns and high-capacity magazines.
    According to Israel’s website, “The Undetectable Firearms Act that Rep. Israel is introducing makes it illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy, or sell any firearm that is not detectable by metal detector and/or does not present an accurate image when put through an x-ray machine. The reauthorization would extend the life of the bill for another 10 years from the date of enactment.”
    “[These firearms] have no metal and could therefore slip through a metal detector,” Chuck Schumer stated. “We’re facing a situation where anyone — a felon, a terrorist — can open a gun factory in their garage, and the weapons they make will be undetectable.” There was no mention of the fact that without ammunition a gun is nothing more than a paperweight.
    In response to calls for bans, the Internet scoffed at legislative attempts to stifle inevitable technology. Cory Doctorow highlighted the futility of attempting to stifle online information or enforce bans on technology.
    “[Will they implement] Firmware locks for 3D printers? A DMCA-like takedown regime for 3D shapefiles that can be used to generate plastic firearms (or parts of plastic firearms?). A mandate on 3D printer manufacturers to somehow magically make it impossible for their products to print out gun-parts?”
    Every one of those measures is nonsense, and worse: an unworkable combination of authoritarianism, censorship, and wishful thinking. Importantly, none of these would prevent people from manufacturing plastic guns, and all of these measures would grossly interfere with the lawful operation of 3D printers.”
    Technical drawings for building guns have been in the public domain for centuries, and that information is protected as free speech. Bureaucrats with proven, fundamental ignorance of the Internet establishing restrictive bans and rules regarding online information distribution sets a dangerous precedent.
    According to Forbes, Wilson intends to explore legal exemptions for non-profit public domain releases of technical files. He asserts that the Internet, as the last truly free expressions of speech and the most robust information-sharing network in human history, counts as a library under ITAR’s statutes.
    Wilson feels that government harassment is a sign he is doing something good for society by challenging outdated regulatory practices. “The blueprints have already moved beyond the DefCad.com database, seeded several times on the file-sharing site Pirate Bay. It’s in the fabric of the Internet.”
    According to Wilson, the organization’s ideal goal is to test constitutional rights. “This is the conversation I want,” he says. “Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the Internet and 3D printing? I think this isn’t a project about firearms, it’s a project about political equality.”
    Wilson predicted that they would come after his creation, but that they could not stop its proliferation. Now, only time will tell if he is correct.
     
  2. GanjaRocket

    GanjaRocket Member

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2012
    Messages:
    3,557
    Likes Received:
    106
  3. Northside Storm

    Northside Storm Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2007
    Messages:
    11,262
    Likes Received:
    450
    the internet will invite more regulation on itself to be honest, governments are salivating over using bigdata to enforce and chomp at things---they're gonna say it's because of the guns or the child p*rn or the theft of software, or what have you, but they're gonna try to move on the Internet.

    unfortunate. The distinction here is that the state has a very rational reason to regulate this proliferation as they do with software theft and child p*rn, but I think they'll step on the areas where they don't have a rational interest anyways. This kind of s**t is inviting trouble. Real-world trouble that ends up with people who shouldn't be having weapons having weapons, which the government will use as an excuse.

    I myself think that insofar as there are economic punishments applied to the gun making process---perhaps a huge Pigovian tax on the base material, then there is no problem in terms of limiting weaponry without resorting to a ban, but of course, the American government rarely thinks in terms of limitations, they will tend to think in terms of force.
     
  4. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

    Joined:
    May 20, 2002
    Messages:
    14,502
    Likes Received:
    1,831
    I remember hearing on either NPR or BBC Radio late night, some law enforcement official saying that criminals already knew how to get guns, that the appearance of some metal in the 3-D guns made them still detectable and that the volume wasn't high enough yet for them to be fully scrutinized. But I can see some Solicitor or General Counsel advising the Feds to make a move before the highest profile 3-D gun designers lawyered up, or worse, patented or trademarked anything and forced the government to possibly rule or prosecute on their behalf.
     
  5. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2007
    Messages:
    30,840
    Likes Received:
    14,338
  6. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2007
    Messages:
    30,840
    Likes Received:
    14,338
     
  7. NotInMyHouse

    NotInMyHouse Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Apr 1, 2008
    Messages:
    3,644
    Likes Received:
    1,022
    Kind of the point of posting the blueprints to the web in the first place. Pop something on the web for a few hours and the genie has left the bottle never to be put back in. The examples are endless and this is just another drop in the bucket.

    Maybe that proves Northside's previous point. They are coming for the internet.
     
  8. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 3, 2002
    Messages:
    55,906
    Likes Received:
    47,607
    Post reported to Homeland Security.
     
  9. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2001
    Messages:
    43,148
    Likes Received:
    25,188
    Genie's already out of the bottle with the sheer number already out there. A tax now only makes the black market more competitive, though a similar outcome would happen with an outright ban.
     
  10. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2001
    Messages:
    37,617
    Likes Received:
    1,448
    Don't know what the backlash will be.

    He's a manufacturer and has been told not to make stuff that... what, SHOOTs? "Take it up with..." means people already asked him "WTF, man?!!?"... maybe.

    So... I wonder if Uncle Sam wasn't getting a 'cut'. :eek:
     
  11. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2007
    Messages:
    30,840
    Likes Received:
    14,338
    He's not a manufacturer, he's a designer, a creator of intellectual property which he has released onto the internet for free.

    With 3D printing everyone is their own manufacturer, and there's no way to shut that down.
     
  12. CrazyDave

    CrazyDave Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2002
    Messages:
    6,027
    Likes Received:
    439
    Question:

    They say it has/needs a metal firing pin and embedded shank, but the senators are saying it has no metal or can't be detected. Which is it?
     
  13. Baba Booey

    Baba Booey Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Messages:
    2,516
    Likes Received:
    822
    This guy wanted attention. Now he's got it. I hope it is everything he dreamed of.
     
  14. magnetik

    magnetik Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Aug 2, 2005
    Messages:
    5,570
    Likes Received:
    490
    They're going to have a hard time stifling 3D Printing..

    Defense Distributed Files are already on Piratebay and a lot of other places so good luck to that.
     
  15. fallenphoenix

    fallenphoenix Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2009
    Messages:
    9,821
    Likes Received:
    1,619
    wake me up when i can 3D print drugs ;)
     
  16. Baba Booey

    Baba Booey Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Messages:
    2,516
    Likes Received:
    822
    I am sure you can get high smoking whatever chemicals are being used in those things. You might die after one month, though.
     
  17. SwoLy-D

    SwoLy-D Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 20, 2001
    Messages:
    37,617
    Likes Received:
    1,448
    That's what the article said. I'm using their words.

    Besides: "founder of the non-profit innovation outlet, Defense Distribute" is how the site drescribes him. :cool:
     
  18. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 1999
    Messages:
    61,252
    Likes Received:
    28,756
    Image once we get TRUE replicators :D

    Rocket River
     
  19. Commodore

    Commodore Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2007
    Messages:
    30,840
    Likes Received:
    14,338
    [​IMG]
     
  20. Baba Booey

    Baba Booey Contributing Member

    Joined:
    Jul 25, 2012
    Messages:
    2,516
    Likes Received:
    822
    Careful what you wish for!

    [​IMG]

    This little buggers will rule the planet.
     

Share This Page

  • About ClutchFans

    Since 1996, ClutchFans has been loud and proud covering the Houston Rockets, helping set an industry standard for team fan sites. The forums have been a home for Houston sports fans as well as basketball fanatics around the globe.

  • Support ClutchFans!

    If you find that ClutchFans is a valuable resource for you, please consider becoming a Supporting Member. Supporting Members can upload photos and attachments directly to their posts, customize their user title and more. Gold Supporters see zero ads!


    Upgrade Now