Quote:
Originally Posted by 911_Dude
Makes for great headlines, but I seriously doubt these "guns" can be fired.
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins
Problem is, the technology is horribly expensive, requires a great deal of knowledge about the technology to use, and so on. It's infinitely easier and cheaper to just go get a gun.
|
This technology is advancing at a very rapid pace. Not very long ago, all a 3D printer could do was make a brittle facsimile of a part for show & tell. Now, as Jeff said, newer resins and sintered metals can be used to "print" nicely-finished, precision parts that can be pretty much used as-is. The 3D printers themselves have changed dramatically in recent years too. Once as big as a refrigerator, newer units will fit on a desktop and are much easier to use. Advances in materials used to build parts, and in the printers themselves, will continue to drive costs down and make this technology more readily available.
I don't think that it would be much of a problem to "print" a working firearm. Try not to think of it producing something like a semi-auto Glock, but rather a simple, single-shot piece that could fire 3 or 4 rounds before breaking down. A device like that could cause serious problems in the wrong hands.