A 3D-PRINTED handgun that is said to be a world first, which anyone can make, has reportedly been fired successfully.Vision: Storyful,
- Blueprint for plastic gun can be downloaded free online
- Users can create the gun if they have the required 3D printers
- Experts say making the gun at home may be illegal
- 3D printable handgun successfully fires
IT looks like a toy, but the 3D gun dubbed The Liberator has already been downloaded over 100,000 times though experts say the plastic weapon may be illegal.
Downloads for the plastic gun, released online on Monday, allow it to be put together by anyone with a 3D printer in the privacy of their own home and the number of people accessing the files have exceeded maker Defense Distributed's expectations, Forbes Magazine reports.
"This has definitely been our most well-received download," developer Haroon Khalid told Forbes. "I don't think any of us predicted it would be this much."
3D GUN PRINTED HANDGUN SUCCESSFULLY FIRES REAL BULLETS
The weapon was originally built by Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old law student at the University of Texas, using a Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer he bought on eBay for $US8000 ($A7835).
A look at The Liberator 3d printable guin being fired. Picture: defcad.org
3D printers use computer-aided design files to spray thousands of thin layers of polymer plastics, ceramics and even molten metals to form complex objects. The second-hand printer used by Wilson was a relatively sophisticated model that's about the size of a refrigerator and utilises a special process to harden the plastic to the level needed for weapons.
Everyday users though can download all the files they need to create The Liberator themselves from Defense Distributed's website for free. While the gun blueprint files are held on the company's website, the organisation's files are hosted in part on Kim Dotcom's Mega storage site.
Some argue that the high cost of the 3D printers required to create the design released by Wilson on Defense Distributed will prevent many who download the free files from actually making a gun, However, the blueprints have also been uploaded on filesharing sites such as Pirate Bay, so the downloadable gun may well be in the hands of many more than the 100,000 cited by Defense Distributed.
Gun enthusiasts though may well find themselves in hot water though if they create The Liberator as downloading and working the files isn't illegal in the US, but making the gun is according to a report on popular technology news website Mashable.
A look at the plastic parts which form The Liberator. Picture: defcad.org
There is are disclaimers on the Defense Distributed website which clearly state the non-profit organisation isn't a licensed gun manufacturer and members of the public shouldn't print or create a firearm from the designs that is capable of firing bullets as this clearly violates US gun laws.
"Because of the public profile and interest over this kind of activity at the moment, you WILL be made an example of. You WILL go to federal prison, and you WILL never be able to own a firearm again," reads the disclaimers written by Wilson in a forum on the group's website.
The US Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told Mashable that The Liberator would be illegal if the gun couldn't be detected, which it currently isn't if users follow the blueprint without modifying it.
The legalities of the project though seem to interest Wilson on other levels. The 25-yera-old, who founded the non-profit group Defense Distributed last year to develop the so-called "Wiki-weapon" talks about his project in the same virulent anti-government libertarian terminology that animates much of the pro-gun crowd.
In a conversation with a Forbes magazine reporter who covered the historic shooting of a prototype of the gun, Wilson described his DIY weapon as a technological tool that would make governments irrelevant.
"This is about enabling individuals to create their own sovereign space ... The government will increasingly be on the sidelines, saying 'hey, wait'," said Wilson, a self-described crypto-anarchist. "It's about creating the new order in the crumbling shell of the old order."
"I recognise that this tool might be used to harm people," he continued. "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," he said.
This white plastic gun represents a dream come true for American hardline gun advocates - a cheap weapon available to all without undue government interference. Wilson's comments reflect the ideology of the pro-gun movement which sees weapons as the ultimate guarantor of personal freedom over tyranny. This ideology was on stark display at the annual convention last weekend of the National Rifle Association, the 4.5-million- member gun advocacy lobby which played a key role in defeating the recent effort in the Senate to pass a law expanding background checks for gun buyers.
"Our feet are planted firmly in the foundation of freedom, unswayed by the winds of political and media insanity," the NRA's executive vice president Wayne LaPierre told the 70,000 members in attendance.
That rhetoric will be on display again over the July 4 US Independence Day at a so-called Open Carry March in which 1000 activists plan to march with loaded rifles on Washington DC, where city laws ban the carrying of loaded weapons.
Organiser Adam Kokesh, a Marine veteran, said on the event's Facebook page that participants will be told to surrender without resistance should police attempt to arrest them.
On a Twitter post however, he advocated a different approach: "When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery."
As the new weapon can be made nearly invisible to metal detectors, and can be put together by anyone with a 3D printer, US gun control advocates see it as a potent new threat to the safety and security as it allows anyone to make a weapon with no serial number and no need to register it with the government.
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