Can you print out a gun that successfully works? The answer is yes if you have a 3D printer at your disposal. Back in May digital gunsmith, Cody Wilson fired the world’s first digital gun, which then went viral. Now a man in Canada made his own and claims it’s the world’s first 3D-printed rifle.
The man, who is known as Matthew, was able to shoot 14 shots out of his.22-caliber rifle, which he refers to as “Grizzly.” In fact this isn’t his first time on the 3D-printing scene. Matthew decided to return with a rifle that had a thicker barrel.
After Matthew shot off his 3D-printed rifle fourteen times, the barrel cracked considerably. During his first go around, Matthew was hesitant about pulling the trigger with his hand, and instead pulled it with a piece of string. This time around he’s using his hand.
In order to reload his gun, the expert 3D-printer gunsmith has to physically take the barrel off and use a stick to dislodge before he loads a round.
While the thought of a 3D-printed gun both looks and sounds pretty amazing, there comes a cost, and a pretty messy debate that follows. Cody Wilson had posted a blueprint on how to make the printable gun online, so now anyone can essentially carry weapons.
So what does this mean in terms of the law? The Defense Distributed website reads :
“The specific purposes for which this corporation is organized are: To defend the civil liberty of popular access to arms as guaranteed by the United States Constitution and affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, through facilitating global access to, and the collaborative production of, information and knowledge related to the 3D printing of arms; and to publish and distribute, at no cost to the public, such information and knowledge in promotion of the public interest.”
Do you think the availability of these new guns puts us in a dangerous situation?