TV Station Prints and Fires a 3D Plastic Pistol. It Doesn’t Go Well.

We’ve been told by all the most reliable, intelligent and informed people in the both the media and politics that easily downloadable blueprints for 3D printable guns presents a clear and present danger to national security and the American way of life. In fact, the technology is such a threat that some politicians have even suggested 3D printers themselves should probably be registered or regulated.

“We now live in a world where a 3D printer cartridge has become as deadly as a gun cartridge,” @SenMarkey. “It’s the ultimate gun loophole. Why buy them if you can print them at home instead?” #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/5ejpad2nyE

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) July 31, 2018

It probably won’t surprise you to hear that all the hysteria about 3D printing isn’t really so much about guns as it is about control.

Anyway, just to see what caused all the hair-on-fire sturm und drang, Dallas’s WFAA found someone who owns a 3D printing job shop and had him print out Defense Distributed’s design for the Liberator pistol.

It took 36-hours and $10 worth of plastic to print 13 pieces that he assembled into the pistol. That convenience is what worries critics. But the quality of fully printed plastic firearms is another issue.

As for test firing the pistol . . .

Maybe when noted firearms experts like Alyssa Milano call 3D guns “downloadable death” they’re actually concerned about the people who will be holding the guns. Or not.

In any case, all of the panic over Defense Distributed loosing its dangerous plans on the world had nothing to do with the actual “threat” the guns pose and everything to do with exposing their carefully constructed gun control regimes generating anti-gun press. Plus, it got them a restraining order preventing the company from releasing their files.

Not that the judge’s laughable order means anything at all here in the real world. 3D plans for firearms are and have been widely available online for years. You can get yours right here.

Of course, the Liberator pistol design isn’t the only plan out there. You can also print a very serviceable AR lower which tends to perform well.

And if you have enough scratch, you can even print yourself a metal 1911 like the Solid Concepts DMLS at considerably higher cost.

Whatever. All of the hysterical hoplophobes tend to gloss over the fact that it’s always been perfectly legal to build your own guns at home. Whether you do it the low tech way with cheap, readily available Home Depot components or with a roughly $2000 (for now) 3D printer is utterly beside the point.

But let them keep continue sticking their bony little fingers in the ever-multiplying holes in the electronic dike. Maybe it makes them feel like they’re accomplishing something. As ever, they just can’t stop the signal.