Technology

Proposal: All elected officials must install Corruption Blocking Software that scans all their communications, financial records and assets, and uses advanced Corruption Pattern Matching Algorithms to determine if they might be taking bribes from industry lobbyists, pumping up their own investments, or secretly serving special interest groups, or if they're just general nutjobs.

This is America, wouldn’t it be easier just to buy a gun? I get that 3D printers can make ghost guns that aren’t traceable but how many crimes have occurred where that is the murder weapon?

in the name of public safety

In the name of gutting small manufacturing and the ability to repair your own devices. This has never had anything to do with safety, as they can't even do the thing the bill demands. Fucking asinine

It's also pretty much a technical impossibility if you know anything about 3D printers.

3D printers can't read CAD. They aren't fed STLs or any other kind of 3D model. They're fed G-Code, which contains no geometrical details. It's a list of instructions saying "turn these 4 motors this speed this for this amount of time while heating that part to this temperature and turning this other motor this speed, then heat this part while tunlrning that motor that fast...." with hundreds or thousands of instructions, and then new instructions for the next layer.

In order to print a model, you first have to run it through a program called a slicer that generates that G-code by slicing it into layers with instructions for how to move, heat and cool the nozzle, build plate, and chamber, feed the filament, etc.

The printers just follow those instructions with minimal on-board processing and zero information regarding the final model's structure.

Why are they so scared of us that they must enslave us?

Under the proposal, printers would have to evaluate STL files, CAD files, or other geometric code using a firearm blueprint detection algorithm and block files flagged as capable of producing a firearm or illegal firearm parts, including conversion devices.

California's Department of Justice, or another relevant state agency, would have until January 1, 2028, to publish performance standards for detection algorithms and software control processes.

This is the problem when lawmakers write technical bills without speaking to technical people. They're going to publish standards for evaluating if your gcode is a firearm or firearm part? THAT'S FUCKING IMPOSSIBLE

"Uhoh, can't 3d print a gun. Guess I'll just go to Walmart."

What does this accomplish?

In the USA it's easier to buy an ar-15 than configuring a multi material 3d printer to print a fidget spinner

And btw if someone really needs to 3d print a weapon they would CNC a receiver from a metal block using a $500 AliExpress contraption rather than making a single use plastic thingy that will probably amputate your fingers at first shot

Everytown for Gun Safety says recoveries of 3D-printed crime guns across 20 cities have risen nearly 1,000% over the past five years,

So... They found a total of ten 3d printed guns in the last 5 years?

Can't regulate the parts as they are used in many many many devices. So as far as I'm concerned this is worthless. I can build a fucking 3d printer from an old VCR and a hot glue gun.

Supporters say the measure tackles the problem before a downloadable file becomes an untraceable weapon. Everytown for Gun Safety says recoveries of 3D-printed crime guns across 20 cities have risen nearly 1,000% over the past five years, and argues that cheaper, more capable printers are already being used in illegal ghost gun operations.

Ooooh, that's two large red flags for me (disregarding the litany of red flags the concept in general has). Every town being involved makes me question the data on its face, given the number of times I saw gang violence near a school out of school hours listed as a school shooting in their database, as does a large percentage increase with no hard numbers. If they recovered 1 gun last year and 11 this year, that's a 1000% increase, but the percentage sounds so much worse than the real number.

I read the article and what a load of shit. So you can't 3D print a cosplay gun? How far will this go? Water pistols? Ray gun props? Children's toys. Plastic guns are not illegal, just certain ones.

If I lived in California, I think I would invest in a really good 3d printer now-ish and just never update the software. Big brother is watching everything.

Good luck. Tough to pick a more DIY-oriented bunch of hobbyists who would rather build their own hardware and compile their own software over allowing their printer to narc on them to the government.

RepRap 2: Countersurveillance Boogaloo, launching soon.

I’m sorry you can’t print a garden hose nozzle because AI thinks it is a gun.

I’m sorry you can’t print a caulking gun because AI thinks it is a gun.

I’m sorry you can’t print a water pistol because it’s a gun.

Same California that is supposedly against the federal government's assaults on people's rights and freedoms...?

Same California governor that wants to run for president to end fascism in the country...?

I might print some guns purely out of spite.

In Minecraft.

1. Buy a kit.
2. Buy a mechanical kit and an electronics package.
3. Build from scratch
4. Buy out of state
5. Buy an open source machine and flash the firmware
6. Buy your fucking gun in an alley (way easier, and maybe cheaper.)
7. Design and distribute stls that have parts that may be interpreted by whatever brain dead software is going to watch out for files, and print in two batches, say, something that may look like a lower, and then an upper, for a a nerf gun, for example, to glut the system.

The list goes on...

Why use AI generated bullshit images like this techspot...

Backdoor Bill? Haven't seen that porno yet.

Given they've postponed the standards until 2028, I am skeptical our legislators will be able to develop a viable benchmark. And then I don't imagine it's possible to enforce it.

This is likely to die in court.

Jokes on you, my 3D printer is offline

My first 3d printer is a RepRap running marlin firmware... They couldn't make me make that 3d printer compliant.

[edit]
I wonder if the microcenter locations in CA are suddenly going to have empty shelves where the 3d printers used to be.

Printing companies should stop selling in California.

Everybody should also stop considering the US like one country, because it functions less than one country than the EU and the EU isn't and the US is.

They really must take every single last one source of joy from everyone who hasn't turned into sheep at this point.