They act like we have this big problem with 3d printed guns. This is about control not safety.
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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Wow, they are doing so much to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands. I'm really glad the everyday issue of 3d printed guns will finally be solved.
Wait until they find out that you can make a shotgun with some galvanized pipe and a nail.
Arm the Proletariat
I've been telling people to arm and practice for more than 10 years.
Are 3d printed guns even a problem? This whole thing is just a way to destroy peoples ability to do anything on their own, or repair anything.
3D printing working, safe-to-handle and durable guns is a pretty complicated technical problem. Don't need to be a genius to figure out that making 100% plastic guns is asking for trouble. Tiny explosion = big plastic cracky.
Meanwhile, any monkey can bash together pieces of scrap metal and produce a durable gun that way. And that was a thing long, long before 3D printers existed.
Someone played Watch Dogs and got a-scared.
Not nearly as much of a problem as real guns that's for goddamn sure.
Gosh, if only it were illegal to manufacture and sell weapons without a license, then we wouldn't need all this.
Video series worth a watch from 3D Printing Nurd.
These videos talk about the additive printing bill and how it essentially looking to make any "uncertified" 3d printer or even CNC machines illegal.
Strictest 3D Printing Regulation YET! California AB2047: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ax9zW0w_gY
3D Printing in California Can Be Saved! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGvvEuIPJxA
The FINAL Hearing in California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6fpPStIAsY
I rember in the US police had an event where in an effort that has had some success getting guns off the street is they were paying $200 per gun you turned in, including ghost guns no questions asked. Some legend heard about the event and quickly made quite a few working guns out of 2"x4"s, metal plumbing pipe, and a nail. He only used basic tools like a drill and angle grinder from what I remember. The police had to pay him too, but I think they changed the rules after
One problem the left especially the global left outside the US has when they talk about gun control they flat out do not understand how things work when so many people want something as much as people want guns in the US. Also how hard it would be to actually change the constitution. They were not able to stop people smoking weed or drinking alcohol either. It's going to have to be a major societal shift. I think there's a good chance we will see that in the next 50 years.
I support gun control wherever it's shown to actually work but a lot laws are being pushed by either someone with an alternative motive like the 3D printer laws, or have actually no clue and just want to put another law that sounds good to
The 3D printer laws are really a micro manufacturing and surveillance law that appears to be being pushed by a billionaire and a company in bed with palantir. It could kill open source 3d printers that are the only reason we have 3d printers in the first place. The guns people make with 3D printers require major components from actual guns that you can leagly buy because the parts are not considered a gun.
iirc some of the parts you need like the lower are considered guns, but your point still stands. the last paragraph, i mean. it’d just surveillance state horseshit with the added benefit of protecting corporate profits in an industry that was developed with public funds and innovation.
This is just the dumbest thing ever.. So I can't print a grip for a camera?
Uhhh nope. Palantir said so
When you consider how many students were shoot with 3d printed guns... Oh wait, those were all manufactured by a proper business, carry on then, we don't want to interrupt big businesses.
New laws in California and New York might stop people from 3D printing guns
It absolutely, positively, will not do that. If someone wants to print a gun, no legislation is going to stop them. It could at best, slow them down by maybe an hour, as they find, download and install different firmware for their printer.
If you want to prevent people from printing guns, you'll need a different tactic, because that won't do it.
This goes way, way beyond 'guns.' It is an assault on property rights and freedom of expression as concepts generally. It would fully outlaw Free Software firmware (which is what the entire 3D printer hobby, having started with the RepRap project, is based on!). It would cut the Maker movement as a whole off at the knees.
It's absolute tyranny in ways entirely unrelated to guns themselves.
"might stop anyone from 3D printing guns"
I can guarantee you that it won't even do that.
It absolutely won't do that. You know how many millions of early generation Prusa and Ender 3 printers are in the US? Many of these models have no internet connectivity whatsoever and print from SD card.
What that means is they will also try to incorporate spyware into your CAD and/or slicer software, which is even more invasive.
This is a anti-privacy bill.
I don't even understand how they imagine this will work. Most printers are certainly not powerful enough to do real 3d object detection. Even if they forced slicers to include this, just fork OrcaSlicer and take it back out. Actually a lot of printers run open source software as well, so we can just fork klipper of it ever comes to that.
It won’t stop anyone buying or importing innocuous machinery parts like 2020 aluminium extrusions or GT2 belts either. There are mature generic 3D printer designs out there that outperforms RepRap i3 bedslingers.
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I'm no gun person, but you could easily make a gun on a lathe or a mill drill, too. Get a CNC one and you don't even need to know how to use them.
Are we going to start fitting them with "you might be making a gun" detectors, too? Of course not.
Edit: Turns out they are... I choose to blame my ignorance on the paywall.
Are we going to start fitting [CNC lathes and mills] with “you might be making a gun” detectors, too? Of course not.
I've got some bad news for you about just how fucked-up these proposed laws actually are.
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Not too sure about this but, um... Can't you just print it offline?...
Well that's the common problem I think we're seeing everywhere now, everything HAS to be connected to the internet. Can't connect to the internet? No playing video games on your playstation then, even if it's single player coz that disk you bought doesn't have the actual game files, it's just an access key to the servers where the game is hosted! Can't use your HP printer that has built in ink cartridge subscription, even though it's still half full? That's because you unsubscribed. Can't use the seat heater in your new car? That's cos we turned that fucking thing off by remotely connecting to the car's OS. boohoo, pay up.
Soon we'll be having toilet seats that won't open because it's connected to the internet and you missed your shitter subscription, and It'll be disguised as some nonsense safety regulation that monitors you bowel movements for your well being or something i dunno.
About that... lol.
I wouldn't be against my toilet monitoring my movements. But the data collected needs to be shared with my doctor only - since she could potentially do something useful with it.
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