When 3-D Printers Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Have 3-D Printers

That's probably the only thing that the gun-banners will be able to think of: Banning 3-D printers. As for banning the printing of anything, good luck with that. Information is had to suppress. Actually, in these days, it is almost impossible to stop. So while Chuckie Schumer may be having a cow, it is hard to see how he is going to do anything about it. If criminals want to make 3-D printed guns, does anyone seriously think that the law will be a hindrance? And while, if the cops recover a gun now, they can at least try to trace it forward from the place it was made, good luck doing that with a 3-D printed weapon.

Funny how ol' Chuckie worries so much about plastic guns, when one can get a plastic shiv pretty easily. But I digress.

Sure, the first 3-D gun is pretty crude, at least now.

But they won't always be. And, as the technology advances, 3-D printers which can make things out of more durable materials than thermoplastics will trickle down. Sure, they're expensive, now. So were laser printers 20 years ago.

Good thing that the ISS is in neutral space, for NASA wants 3-D printing up there. You'll eventually find those things on every remote location, ship and submarine. You'll find them in the machine shops of industrial plants. And in home hobbyists shops. The idea that you won't have to stock bins of repair parts and hardware, all you'll need are stocks of substrate and software to make the parts you need is just too appealing.

Unless they try to ban the printers, but the commercial applications are too enticing for that to happen. and even if they control them, then what? Eventually, of course, they'll have to outlaw making a 3-D printer with a 3-D printer. For this might be the first non-biological self-replicating system.

Update: As Frank James points out, if the goal is to make a single-shot gun, there are far easier ways to do it.

(H/T)