“Alright. One…two…”
Before “three” arrives, a shot reverberates across the overcast central Texas landscape. A tall, sandy blond engineer named John has just pulled a twenty-foot length of yellow string tied to a trigger, which has successfully fired the world’s first entirely 3D-printed gun for the very first time, rocketing a .380 caliber bullet into a berm of dirt and prairie brush.
“Fuckin’ A!” yells John, who has asked me not to publish his full name. He hurries over to examine the firearm bolted to an aluminum frame. But the first to get there is Cody Wilson, a square-jawed and stubbled 25 year-old in a polo shirt and baseball cap. John may have pulled the trigger, but the gun is Wilson’s brainchild. He’s spent more than a year dreaming of its creation, and dubbed it “the Liberator” in an homage to the cheap, one-shot pistols designed to be air-dropped by the Allies over France during its Nazi occupation in World War II.
Unlike the original, steel Liberator, though, Wilson’s weapon is almost entirely plastic: Fifteen of its 16 pieces have been created inside an $8,000 second-hand Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a machine that lays down threads of melted polymer that add up to precisely-shaped solid objects just as easily as a traditional printer lays ink on a page. The only non-printed piece is a common hardware store nail used as its firing pin.
Wilson crouches over the gun and pulls out the barrel, which was printed over the course of four hours earlier the same morning. Despite the explosion that just occurred inside of it, both the barrel and the body of the gun seem entirely unscathed.
Wilson scrutinizes his creation for a few more seconds, then stands up again. “I think we did it,” he says, a little incredulous.
Last August, Wilson, a law student at the University of Texas and a radical libertarian and anarchist, announced the creation of an Austin-based non-profit group called Defense Distributed, with the intention of creating a firearm anyone could fabricate using only a 3D printer. The digital blueprints for that so-called Wiki Weapon, as Wilson imagined it, could be uploaded to the Web and downloaded by anyone, anywhere in the world, hamstringing attempts at gun control and blurring the line between firearm regulation and information censorship. “You can print a lethal device. It’s kind of scary, but that’s what we’re aiming to show,” Wilson told me at the time. “Anywhere there’s a computer and an Internet connection, there would be the promise of a gun.”
The Latest Bing News on:
3D-Printed Gun
- Why is YouTube suggesting ghost gun videos to young people watching video games? Officials want changeon April 25, 2024 at 1:30 pm
More young people are learning how to make ghost guns online after watching videos about subjects like video games, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said.
- Gun Buyback in Germantown Collects More than 100 Firearmson April 25, 2024 at 10:19 am
More than 100 firearms were collected during a Germantown gun buyback event last Saturday, according to County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Dr. Earl Stoddard. The guns collected included 50 ...
- Manhattan DA says YouTube's algorithm pushes ghost gun content to children, youth gamerson April 25, 2024 at 7:26 am
An investigation by the Manhattan district attorney found that YouTube's algorithm is promoting ghost gun content to those most at risk of making the weapons, including children and youth gamers.
- Manhattan DA calls on YouTube to take action against ghost gun videoson April 24, 2024 at 2:57 pm
Law enforcement officials in New York City on Wednesday called on YouTube to change its algorithm to prevent videos on how to build ghost guns from being seen by children.
- The world’s largest 3D printer is at a university in Maine. It just unveiled an even bigger oneon April 24, 2024 at 2:45 pm
The university that boasts the world’s largest 3D printer developed one even bigger. And it’s poised to help tackle one of America’s biggest problems of all.
- SCOTUS to take up challenge to Biden admin's ghost gun rule that group deems ‘abusive’on April 22, 2024 at 8:00 am
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will hear a challenge to the Biden administration's regulation on so-called "ghost guns" this fall.
- Los Angeles white supremacist sentenced to federal prison on gun chargeson April 19, 2024 at 3:05 pm
A Los Angeles man with a history of associating with a violent white supremacist group has been sentenced to nearly five years in federal prison. Ryan Scott Bradford, 35, of Reseda, was sentenced ...
- Teen's fatal shooting reveals risks of 3D-printed Glock switches for gun safetyon April 18, 2024 at 3:51 pm
Jay Harris of champion defense says a Glock Switch can be made with a 3D printer for virtually no cost ... The teen also shot himself in the leg. A gun with one of these illegal devices can become ...
- Canton man arrested for multiple gun charges Wednesdayon April 18, 2024 at 8:50 am
A Canton man was arrested for allegedly possessing 3D printed gun parts and other gun-related charges on Wednesday. According to a Canton Police news release, a woman ...
- 3D-printed ‘ghost guns’ keep showing up at N.J. crime scenes, state probe findson April 17, 2024 at 4:18 pm
The State Commission of Investigation, an independent New Jersey government watchdog, held a hearing in Trenton on Tuesday as part of its probe into the proliferation of “ghost guns” and 3D-printable ...
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3D-Printed Gun
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- Maine govenor signs off on new gun laws, mental health supports in wake of Lewiston shootingson April 26, 2024 at 9:43 am
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Friday signed off on a suite of gun safety legislation approved by lawmakers after the deadliest mass shooting in state history, expanding background checks for private ...
- Why is YouTube suggesting ghost gun videos to young people watching video games? Officials want changeon April 25, 2024 at 1:30 pm
More young people are learning how to make ghost guns online after watching videos about subjects like video games, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said.
- Newport: Man in court accused of making 3D-printed gunon April 25, 2024 at 8:13 am
A NEWPORT man has appeared before the city’s magistrates' court accused of making a 3D-printed gun. Owain Roberts, aged 18, of St Michael Street, has been charged with manufacturing a weapon under the ...
- Manhattan DA says YouTube's algorithm pushes ghost gun content to children, youth gamerson April 25, 2024 at 7:26 am
An investigation by the Manhattan district attorney found that YouTube's algorithm is promoting ghost gun content to those most at risk of making the weapons, including children and youth gamers.
- Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg puts YouTube on notice for online ghost gun tutorialson April 24, 2024 at 4:44 pm
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg put YouTube on notice Wednesday for hosting tutorials on how to manufacture deadly weapons and pushing violent content about D.I.Y. guns to school kids. In a ...
- NYC demands YouTube, parent company Google to remove thousands of ghost gun tutorialson April 24, 2024 at 2:44 pm
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is calling out YouTube and Google accusing them of playing a role in the proliferation of ghost guns.
- 3D printed guns, hard drives seized from Lloydminster home after child luring investigation: RCMPon April 23, 2024 at 9:29 am
Steven Kier of Lloydminster has been charged with sexual touching, child luring, breach of probation, carrying a concealed weapon, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of firearm contrary ...
- ‘Ghost Guns’ in Lawton: city police adjusting to new realityon April 17, 2024 at 7:53 pm
The Lawton Police Department is dealing with what officials are calling the first 3D weapon they've come in contact with.
- 3D-printed ‘ghost guns’ keep showing up at N.J. crime scenes, state probe findson April 17, 2024 at 4:18 pm
The State Commission of Investigation, an independent New Jersey government watchdog, held a hearing in Trenton on Tuesday as part of its probe into the proliferation of “ghost guns” and 3D-printable ...
- Firearms cheaply made on 3D printers, guns pouring into NJ from Pa; lawmakers seek solutionson April 16, 2024 at 3:17 pm
Lawmakers in New Jersey say something needs to be done about illegal guns in the Garden State. Many of the guns are being printed at home on 3D printers, while others are flowing from Pennsylvania.
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