The dangers of 3D printing

Oh, sorry, so someone could make something that violates the UFA, but would still be picked up by metal detectors. So, the letter of the law would be violated, but the weapon wouldn't actually threaten any of the things the UFA was designed to safeguard against (as it's specifically meant to make sure weapons must be detectable by security equipment, and brass/titanium are just as detectable in the quantities that need to be used). In other words, idiots could go to prison for committing a crime, while not actually putting anyone in any increased risk, since they'd still be stopped by all the basic security safeguards that currently detect every other weapon.

As for a firing pin, okay, that now requires a beefy metal spring, as putting sufficient force behind plastic or wood to actually crush a primer is something you can't accomplish with rubber bands. Again, an idiot would still go to jail after a metal detector picked it up, but yes, it would technically violate the UFA.

This is a pedantic as fuck conversation, and I'm really tired of it. If you want to contend that non-steel metals used in guns are the thing that makes them dangerous, you can build a hell of a gun out of copper pipes. Nothing about printed firearms makes them any more dangerous than what can be made out of spit and shit by rednecks, but constantly bringing up the UFA reinforces this idea that they can create "ghost" weapons totally undetectable by scanning equipment, and further stoking the flames of public hysteria. For that, I thank you. You're definitely helping, and not just proving that everyone's an expert on the internet, regardless of what research they do.

/r/3Dprinting Thread Parent