By Anna Daniels
Will the Dawn of the WikiWeapon Threaten the NRA’s Sugar Daddy, Gun Manufacturers?
“I recognize that this tool might be used to harm people,” Wilson told Forbes. “That’s what it is — it’s a gun. But I don’t think that’s a reason to not put it out there. I think that liberty in the end is a better interest.”
“Once the file is online, anyone will be able to download and print the gun in the privacy of their garage, legally or not, with no serial number, background check, or other regulatory hurdles,” Forbes‘ Andy Greenberg noted last week.
The gun debate is about to get even more interesting. A video was just released of a 3-D printed gun, the Liberator, successfully firing a .380 caliber bullet. The gun, almost completely constructed of plastic, exploded into pieces however when a higher charge rifle cartridge was used.
The Liberator isn’t quite ready yet for prime time–staving off tyranny here at home, standing ground against kids with Skittles and bringing more blood and mayhem to our streets and homes. It’s efficacy is as yet unclear for suicidal purposes.
But the Liberator is big. This video captures the Liberator’s promise of something so big that it deserves a big heroic musical score, images of bombers in flight and a tumescent sun rise. “Fucking-A!”
Such high production values but only 53 seconds for fapping! Can we have some more, please? Yes, actually we can–the computer-aided design (CAD) file is available free for downloading! Are operators standing by if we act now, ready to throw in the ginzu knives too?
“Fucking-A.” We all know that there is going to be some real downers out there, entities who do not embrace this brave new liberty loving world in which “Anywhere there’s a computer and Internet connection, there would be the promise of the gun.”
Plastic guns are illegal. As we used to say in the olden days, that is a real bummer, but President Reagan said they are illegal, so it must be true.
Congressman Chuck Schumer is shocked by this brave new world in which plastic guns can pass undetected through a metal detector. For those of us living in illegal handgun heaven, it bears keeping in mind that metal detectors are not installed at the boundaries of the area planning communities.
Perhaps the debate about the ability of the technology to circumvent metal detectors is actually a side argument. Even though we supposedly love free markets, gun manufacturers may not be thrilled that liberty loving citizens, who think Walmart is just great because they love those low low prices, will opt for really cheap plastic guns that they can buy from somebody with 3-D printer in their garage.
Plastic guns are still sucky, but a whole lot of effort is going to be put into making them less so. Gun manufacturers will eventually figure out the competition and provide direction to the NRA. The NRA will no doubt grease the appropriate palms, bluster where necessary and pull the legislative strings necessary to assure that situation does not get out of hand.
So as they say– let the games begin!
Anna Daniels
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Plastic guns illegal? Rest assured, the NRA will go on a campaign or a rampage to get them legalized. Our Second Amendment rights demand that we have access to plastic guns along with assault rifles, bazookas, cruise missiles and every other form of armament that the fertile mind of man can invent or create.
Criminals who obtain guns illegally will obtain plastic guns just as illegally, and what about terrorists sneaking them onto planes. So what if the plastic gun explodes in the guy’s hands. It will have done it’s job either way. He was never intending to get off the plane alive anyway. 72 virgins await …
I’m not convinced that the NRA will be all in for plastic guns. I think they are shills for gun manufacturers and plastic guns can potentially become competition.
Plastic guns still use regular metal bullets, and those bullets will register on metal detectors, even if the plastic guns themselves don’t, so I think the fear about their use on a plane may be over-stated.
But, Anna, with guns being printed by 3-D printers, can printable plastic bullets be very far behind?
Methinks some kind of metal blasting cap would be necessary to ignite the gunpowder firing said bullet. Still, news of this latest step in the march of human progress (regress?) freaked the hell out of me when I first heard it last week…
Another example of technology outrunning our brains.