BBC News, Rebecca
Morelle, Science reporter, Texas, 6 May
2013
 |
| The BBC's Rebecca Morelle saw the 3D-printed gun's first test in Austin, Texas |
Related
Stories
The world's
first gun made with 3D printer technology has been successfully fired in the
US.
The
controversial group which created the firearm, Defense Distributed, plans to
make the blueprints available online.
The group
has spent a year trying to create the firearm, which was successfully tested on
Saturday at a firing range south of Austin, Texas.
Anti-gun
campaigners have criticised the project.
Europe's
law enforcement agency said it was monitoring developments.
Victoria
Baines, from Europol's cybercrime centre, said that at present criminals were
more likely to pursue traditional routes to obtain firearms.
She added,
however: "But as time goes on and as this technology becomes more user
friendly and more cost effective, it is possible that some of these risks will
emerge."
Defense
Distributed is headed by Cody Wilson, a 25-year-old law student at the
University of Texas.
Mr Wilson
said: "I think a lot of people weren't expecting that this could be
done."
 |
| The gun was assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the firing pin was made from metal |
3D printing has been hailed as the future of manufacturing.
The technology
works by building up layer upon layer of material - typically plastic - to
build complex solid objects.
The idea is
that as the printers become cheaper, instead of buying goods from shops,
consumers will instead be able to download designs and print out the items at
home.
But as with
all new technologies, there are risks as well as benefits.
Personal
liberties
The gun was
made on a 3D printer that cost $8,000 (£5,140) from the online auction site
eBay.
It was
assembled from separate printed components made from ABS plastic - only the
firing pin was made from metal.
Mr Wilson,
who describes himself as a crypto-anarchist, said his plans to make the design
available were "about liberty".
He told the
BBC: "There is a demand of guns - there just is. There are states all over
the world that say you can't own firearms - and that's not true anymore.
"I'm
seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have
whatever you want. It's not up to the political players any more."
Asked if he
felt any sense of responsibility about whose hands the gun might fall into, he
told the BBC: "I recognise the tool might be used to harm other people -
that's what the tool is - it's a gun.
"But I
don't think that's a reason to not do it - or a reason not to put it out
there."
Gun control
To make the
gun, Mr Wilson received a manufacturing and seller's licence from the US Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
Donna
Sellers, from the ATF, told BBC News that the 3D-printed gun, as long as it was
not a National Firearms Act weapon (an automatic gun, for example), was legal
in the US.
She said:
"[In the US] a person can manufacture a firearm for their own use.
However, if they engage in the business of manufacture to sell a gun, they need
a licence."
Amid
America's ongoing gun debate in the wake of the shootings at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, US congressman Steve Israel recently
called for a ban on 3D guns under the Undetectable Firearms Act.
Groups
looking to tighten US gun laws have also expressed concern.
Leah Gunn
Barrett, from New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, has said: "These guns
could fall into the hands of people who should not have guns - criminals,
people who are seriously mentally ill, people who are convicted of domestic
violence, even children."
3D printing
technology has already been used by some criminal organisations to create card
readers - "skimmers" - that are inserted into bank machines.
Many law
enforcement agencies around the world now have people dedicated to monitoring
cybercrime and emerging technologies such as 3D printers.
Ms Baines
from Europol said: "What we know is that technology proceeds much more
quickly than we expect it to. So by getting one step ahead of the technological
developments, we hope and believe we will be able to get one step ahead of the
criminals as well."
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“… Tesla the Man
There was a point in time when humanity almost stumbled, by the way. You were having a hard time with electricity. So a man came along who was way ahead of his time and was available and his name was Nikola Tesla. He gave you a principle that today you call alternating current. Dear ones, I challenge you to understand this principle. Most of you can't, because it is not in 3D. The attributes are still considered "genius-level thinking" to this day. The whole idea of the kind of electricity you use today comes from this man's quantum mind.
That was all he was allowed to do. Tesla himself was a kind of time capsule, delivered at the right time. He had more, but alternating current was all that was allowed to be given to the planet at that time. Oh, he tried to give you more. He knew there were other things, but nothing was able to be developed. If I told you what else he had discovered, you might not be aware of it at all, since it was never allowed to get out of the box. Earth was not ready for it.
Tesla discovered massless objects. He could alter the mass of atomic structure using designer magnetics, but he never could control it. He had objects fly off his workbench and hit the ceiling, but he couldn't duplicate or control it. It just wasn't time yet. Do you know what else he was known for? It was seemingly the failure of the transmission of electricity. However, he didn't fail at all.
There are pictures of his tower, but every time a Human Being sees a tower, there is a biased assumption that something is going to be broadcast through the air. But in the case of Tesla, he had figured out how to broadcast electricity through the ground. You need towers for that because they have to pick up the magnetics within the ground in a certain way to broadcast them and then collect them again from the nodes of the planet's magnetic grid system. We talked about this before. He was utilizing the grid of the planet that is in the earth itself! He was on the edge of showing that you could use the whole grid of the planet magnetically to broadcast electricity and pick it up where you need it, safely, with no wires. But the earth was not ready for it.
Tesla died a broken man, filled with ideas that would have brought peace to planet Earth, but he was simply not allowed to give any of them to you.
Now I'll tell you why he was stopped, dear ones, and it's the first time we have ever told you – because these inventions were too easy to weaponize. Humanity just isn't ready for it. You're not ready for massless objects, either, for the principles are too easy to weaponize.
"So," you might say, "when will we be ready for it?" I think you already know the answer, don't you? At the time when Human consciousness reaches a point where that which is most important is unification and not separation, it will happen. A point where conquering and power are not desirable ideas or assets. A point where humanity will measure the strength of its population by how healthy they are and not by economic growth. A point where coming together with your neighbor is the main objective to social consciousness, and not conquering them or eliminating them. That's coming, dear ones. It's a ways away, but it's coming. Look around the planet at the moment. The old energy leaders are obvious, are they not? It's like they are relics in a world of thinking that is passing them by. ….”
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