Comment on NY bill would require a criminal history background check for the purchase of a 3D printer

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pixxelkick@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

So the big thing people, including lawmakers, whiff on this is you dont actually 3d print guns. You can 3d print superficial parts like the grip and whatnot, but the actual firing part of the gun is largely not 3d printable.

You can print it, and people have tried, but it usually only lasts 1-2 rounds before it breaks.

However, what you can print that is a huge deal, is the very precise jigs necessary to very easily manufacture the firing mechanisms of the gun, to quite a degree of precision. Then you use a drill or whatever to actually make those metal parts.

Basically, you can easily 3d print a gun maker, and then 3d print all the “extra” parts like grip and whatnot that attach to what you have created, in order to improve it.

Thats the actually serious part, because normally these sorts of jigs need to be extremely precise and are quite difficult to get ahold of. You need a fairly high end CNC machine to make one, or you have to buy it.

But 3d printers, even fairly affordable ones, when fine tuned by hand, do have the necessary precision to print such jigs, which makes them much more accessible for quite cheap… And once you print the jig, it becomes pretty easy to mass produce DIY guns.

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