There's a community that builds 3d printed guns, and those don't last very long either. They're not printing barrels, they're just printing the trigger housing and grip. They go out and buy the dangerous bits.

This is all a bit pointless.

Even more pointless when you consider that once you have a 3d printer, you can make a lot of the components for a second 3d printer, and go out and buy the other parts, without ever buying a 3d printer. Now you have two ghost gun machines!! Oh the horror.

Do I need a background check to buy a CNC? Or a lathe?

In other news: virtue signaling politicians are considering banning [scary items that their core voters know nothing about] in order to appear tough on crime, while avoiding doing the logical things experts recommend, because that would look bad in the eyes of the voters. Instead the only consequence is extending the stigma related to excons resulting in greater recidivism

Googling 3d printed gun homicide returns a story from Rhode Island in 2020 (where the police can't figure out if the gun was actually printed), an attempted murder in Reykjavík in 2022, and this story from 2022 that claims a total of 44 arrests were made related to 3d printed guns... world wide https://3dprint.com/291684/3d-printed-gun-arrests-tripled-in-less-than-two-years-3dprint-com-investigates/amp/

In contrast there were 48117 firearms related deaths in the US during the same period.

Maybe statistics and proportions should be a core part of math from an early age?

What the fuck? You dont even need that for buying a fucking knife

Zip guns have existed for a long, long time, but nobody's going to legislate serious controls for buying building supplies. I could walk into any hardware store and come out with the materials to build a gun that fires real bullets.

By that logic, they should ban water pipes to stop people from making water pipe shotguns

Hey congress, so uhhh... you can 3d print a 3d printer

“Three-dimensionally printed firearms, a type of untraceable ghost gun, can be built by anyone using a $150 three-dimensional printer,” Rajkumar wrote in a memorandum explaining the bill. “This bill will require a background check so that three-dimensional printed firearms do not get in the wrong hands.”

.... No way an ender 3 is going to produce something that doesn't blow up in your hand.

so. i suggest people get that 150 dollar lol-printer. Should take care of itself.

You wouldn't download a gun

And if I download a parts list, buy the components, and make the printer myself I guess I can just cruise new york "printing guns" for people without any hassle from the man.

Printing ghost guns, so far, is just a boogyman politicians trot out when one of their corporate sponsors thinks one of their revenue streams might be threatened by DIYers.

You can make a gun with anything

This isn’t even low hanging fruit. This is fruit that’s been on the ground rotting for a few months that no one is going to pick up and eat anyway. Let’s throw ineffective solutions at the problem and when they fail go, “weeeeell, since you can buy a 3d printer and a gun online, let’s just do background checks for internet access”

Holy shit, it would be so funny if this started an 80% 3D printer market.

Anything to regulate and restrict the people/end users but not address any real problems in society.

Go after the gun companies, gun lobbies, NRA? No, never. Address housing, income, and educational inequality? That sounds complicated, tough, and expensive.

This has similar vibes to shaming/regulating people for using too much water in their showers and for washing their cars, but when a multi-billion dollar oil company spills millions of gallons of crude into the sea causing years of environmental damage due to negligence, fine them a few million dollars and tell them they've been very naughty...

So tired of politicians being in the pocket of Capitalist scumbags.

Whats next? Criminal background check to buy cutlery for your kitchen?

I personally have a 3d printed gun that I've put a few hundred rounds though and is still holding up just fine 3d printing is plenty strong enough