WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Printing a Gun 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.080 --> 0:00:14.560 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.600 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heeart Radio, 0:00:17.640 --> 0:00:20.680 and I love all things tech. And it's Friday. That 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.120 means it's time for a tech Stuff classic episode. This 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:28.760 particular episode published originally on May twenty second, two thousand. 0:00:30.200 --> 0:00:33.760 It is called printing a Gun, and it's pretty much 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.960 what it sounds like, using three D printers to use 0:00:37.000 --> 0:00:41.400 additive manufacturing to produce firearms. Lauren Voege Obama and I 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.600 sat down to talk about this one because it was 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.400 a brand new, fresh topic and it's one that remains 0:00:46.400 --> 0:00:51.040 relevant today, So enjoy this classic episode. Jonathan and Chris 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:53.040 did an episode on three D print ng way back 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:57.960 in two nine. Yeah, that was shortly after printing itself 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:01.720 was invented. Um before or that, we just communicated by 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.559 banging rocks together. No one was alive then, yeah, well 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.880 there's no no life. We were alive, but anyway, no, no, 0:01:09.880 --> 0:01:11.960 no, no no no. We did an episode on three D 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:13.680 printing back in two thousand nine, which was funny because 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.680 at that point I had never actually seen one in person. 0:01:17.360 --> 0:01:18.720 Now we have one in the office. We have one 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:20.120 in the office. Now, Yeah, we actually have a three 0:01:20.160 --> 0:01:22.960 D printer here that's very very tiny and we can 0:01:23.000 --> 0:01:27.160 only print small stuff with it. But it's mostly green 0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.000 because we haven't changed out the plastic. But what three 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.040 D printers do. They print stuff in three dimensions and 0:01:33.040 --> 0:01:36.040 they it's called additive manufacturing, yes, and it's this is 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.080 different from subtractive manufacturing. Subtractive would be where you take 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.160 a hunk of stuff and carve away all the stuff 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.200 you don't want. It's Michael Angelo's David exactly. Yeah, you're 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:48.080 you're you cut away everything that doesn't look like David. Right. 0:01:48.440 --> 0:01:51.000 That's that's the sculpt sculpting point of view. You know, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:53.480 to sculpt an elephant, you cut all the stuff away 0:01:53.480 --> 0:01:56.440 that doesn't look like an elephant. But that's very wasteful. 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:58.680 It means that all that material you cut away you 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.560 potentially waste. By using additive manufacturing, you're printing a material. 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:06.080 In most cases, in consumer cases, at any rate, plastics 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.639 in very thin layers uh in in in a predetermined 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:14.080 design exactly. And these layers can be a micron thick 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.520 or thinner. If you've got very precise three D printing technology, 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.560 and you do this layer by layer by layer until 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.160 finally you have a full object. And it's doing this 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.520 with plastic and a binding agents so that the plastic 0:02:27.880 --> 0:02:30.760 sticks together properly. Otherwise it would just fall apart and 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.560 crumble in your hands. But not so useful. Not so useful. 0:02:34.680 --> 0:02:36.280 It would be very pretty until you try to pick 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:38.400 it up. But the but the finished product winds up 0:02:38.440 --> 0:02:43.000 being a single piece of plastic in this case. And yeah, 0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.480 and we've got other there are other types of three 0:02:45.560 --> 0:02:48.639 D printers out there. They're not for consumers that can 0:02:48.680 --> 0:02:50.480 print in other materials. And we expect then in the 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:52.000 future we're going to be able to do things like 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.160 print and metal, even to the point where we can 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.480 print circuit boards or human organs. Human organs using biological 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:01.600 material we can print it maybe lass really anything that 0:03:01.800 --> 0:03:04.720 would allow you to print using a liquid. Uh, it 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:08.560 would it would all be potentially possible using this method. 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.200 If you're interested in that. We uh. In our other show, 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.440 Forward Thinking, we talked a little bit about that, So 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:15.440 so look that one up if you want to. Yeah, 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:16.480 it's a lot of fun. That was one of the 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.760 earliest episodes. I had a lot of fun talking about that. So, 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:22.000 what's the big deal with three D printing. Well, it's 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:27.320 it's an incredibly disruptive technology. Uh, And I don't necessarily 0:03:27.360 --> 0:03:29.679 mean that in a negative way, but it does mean 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.560 that three D printers have the potential to really shake 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.360 up the way the world works in many ways, like 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.120 manufacturing and distribution in particular would be very much affected 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:42.160 by three D printers. If you get to the point 0:03:42.160 --> 0:03:45.640 where a three D printer is within the purchasing range 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:49.440 of your average computer user, then that computer user can 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:51.280 go out by a three D printer, bring it home 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.800 by the materials you need to be able to build whatever, 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:57.520 and then you can start constructing stuff out of your home. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.840 You could download plans from the internet and build things. 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:03.640 And those things could be furniture, it could be toys, 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.440 it could be tools. Uh. And so that means that 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:10.680 you've got these manufacturers out there who design and build 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.360 stuff that suddenly have to worry about, well, is there 0:04:13.360 --> 0:04:16.320 going to even be a market for my stuff anymore? 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:18.800 Or do I do I change my business models? So 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.360 instead of selling stuff, I start selling plans for stuff. Right, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.320 you start worrying a lot more about the intellectual copyright 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.640 of the shape of a table, which is kind of crazy, right, Like, 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:31.359 you're no longer thinking I need to make sure no 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.200 one shoplifts this thing. You're thinking, I need to make 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.119 sure no one builds a plan that allows them to 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.479 to print the same as this thing. So there are 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.839 a lot of intellectual property concerns that come up because 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.200 of three D printing, and some of them are concerns 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.360 that we never would have thought about before, like how 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:51.560 do you copyright a table? You know, but that's a 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.799 thing now. So one of the other questions that came 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.520 up pretty early on when three D printers were starting 0:04:58.560 --> 0:05:01.479 to become uh, some that the general public was becoming 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.080 aware of was what happens when someone prints a weapon 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:07.200 using one of these things. And for a long time, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.640 a lot of people were going like, oh, that's years off, 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:11.960 we don't need to worry about it. Yeah, maybe back 0:05:11.960 --> 0:05:14.080 in two thousand nine Chris and I were saying that, 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:18.599 but two thirteen, hey, we're years off now and someone 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.400 has done that. Yeah. As of as of May four, 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.600 Star Wars Day, Star Wars Day, it was what a 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:31.279 what a bummer? Yeah, that's a nice choice of words there, Lauren. 0:05:31.279 --> 0:05:33.920 I could see you like going through your list. What 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:38.039 word am I going to use? Uh? Excellent choice. I agree. 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.080 So we have a fellowed by the name of Cody 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:45.280 Wilson who describes himself as a co founder and chief 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:50.600 evangelist of a group called Defense Distributed. Very clever. Yeah, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.720 it's a nonprofit organization. Yeah. And he designed a gun 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.960 that could be created using a three D printer and 0:05:59.240 --> 0:06:03.880 a common nail, uh from a hardware store. And the 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:07.880 gun is has sixteen pieces total, one of those pieces 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.479 being the nail. The other fifteen are all printed by 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.360 a three D printer, a consumer grade. I think he 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:16.599 got it for eight thousand bucks on eBay. Yeah, it 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:21.520 was the Stratusist Dimension s ST three D printer, which 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:24.640 you could probably buy for a round ten thousand dollars. 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.120 He got a second hand for eight thousand. And we'll 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:30.880 get more into the whole story of Stratusis and and 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:33.839 it's involvement in this, because it's an interesting part of 0:06:33.839 --> 0:06:35.920 the story. But we'll save that for a bit later. 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:39.960 So he printed out these fifteen pieces, He got the 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:42.680 nail to be the sixteenth piece. The nail acted as 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:44.359 the firing pin. Now, this is the part of a 0:06:44.400 --> 0:06:49.680 gun that strikes the primer on cartridge so that it ignites, 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:53.599 and then the gases from the cartridge are what propel 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:55.760 the bullet out of the barrel of the gun. Now, 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.039 it doesn't technically need to be metal, but but the 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:00.280 kind of plastic that they use is just a little 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:03.560 bit too soft to to strike it without deforming. Right. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.400 So essentially what would happen is the instead of igniting 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.239 the gas, the firing pin was just sort of bending. 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.960 So instead of using that, he decided to use a 0:07:12.040 --> 0:07:15.760 nail uh and uh and putting it all together. He 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:17.880 wasn't even sure if it was going to hold together 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.160 or not, but he assembled the gun using the pieces 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.280 that he had designed. Um. And he strapped it up 0:07:26.320 --> 0:07:29.400 to a pole as I recall, and an aluminum a 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:32.000 little bit of scaffolding I think, okay, and uh, and 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.240 he tied a string to it and instead as far 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.080 away as possible, right, and used the string to pull 0:07:38.120 --> 0:07:41.400 the trigger uh and had a successful test. It actually 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:46.560 fired the bullet uh and was and it remained intact. Um. 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:48.440 That's one of the things that was a big concern 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:50.360 was that if you have a gun that's essentially made 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:53.560 out of plastic would it be able to withstand the 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:58.240 the forces that a gun experiences when you fire a bullet, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.120 And in the case of this one, it seemed to 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:05.040 do that. And he also eventually tested it by firing 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.920 it by hand. Um, you know, it took some It 0:08:08.960 --> 0:08:12.400 took some working up to get to that part, right right. Yeah. 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.280 During the initial test, I believe they had a couple 0:08:15.440 --> 0:08:18.880 of successful firings. But um, but then it it misfired, 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.600 um due to a misalignment issue and uh yeah yeah. 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.480 Now they point out that the gun that as it's designed, 0:08:26.520 --> 0:08:29.400 you could actually remove the barrel and replace it with 0:08:29.440 --> 0:08:32.480 a new barrel. So uh, if there were parts that 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.199 were that would break down, you could actually replace those 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.040 parts just by printing out new ones. But the gun 0:08:38.120 --> 0:08:42.560 itself wouldn't last for more than a few shots. In fact, 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.839 one expert I saw said that, in his opinion, if 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.280 you were using the best kind of plastic possible, you 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.240 might be able to get between ten and twenty shots. 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:56.520 Before it just was an unusable machine. Yeah, although, yeah, 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.760 it is designed so that you can snap parts in 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.160 and out right, so you just replace the ones that 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:03.760 are not working anymore, and then you could continue to 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.240 fire and it is supposed to be relatively quickly to 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.199 switch those parts out too. Uh. Well, what Wilson also 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:16.880 did was he ended up uploading the design to Mega, 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:20.960 which is kim dot COM's file sharing It's really like 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.839 a locker service where you can store files. They're encrypted 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:25.720 so that no one can see what it is that 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.240 you are doing. Um. He uploaded that and made it 0:09:29.280 --> 0:09:32.400 freely available to anyone who wanted to get hold of this. 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:36.079 Within two days, ten thousand people had downloaded it, and 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:38.880 as of the recording of this podcast, we're recording this 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:44.000 on May nine. Forbes reported this morning that it had 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.720 been downloaded more than one hundred thousand times. Now, keep 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.080 in mind, not everyone who downloaded that has access to 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:52.720 a three D printer. All Right, I'm sure that a 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:54.600 lot of that is curiosity. There has been so much 0:09:54.679 --> 0:09:56.360 buzz about it on the Internet that I'm sure that 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:58.400 a lot of people were just looking at it because 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:00.920 they could. Yeah, I'm sure there's a percent edge of that. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:05.199 That's just the press that we need to have access 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:06.960 to this so we can take a look at it. 0:10:07.000 --> 0:10:09.360 But uh, and if you're curious about what kind of 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.000 bullet it fired, it was a thirty eight caliber bullet. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.960 Uh and uh he they I've read that they've designed 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:18.559 the gun in such a way that you could change 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:21.720 out the chamber and barrel, which you could fire different 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:24.440 caliber bullets depending upon which ones you were using. But 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:27.160 thirty eight was what they used for their tests. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:30.599 they're for their successful tests. According to a Forbes Andy Greenberg, 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.440 who was on the scene for some of these tests 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.120 and has a couple of really great articles that we 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:38.160 did drawn extensively for for this podcast. Um, they switched 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:40.640 the barrel out for a rifle cartridge that made the 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.400 entire thing explode into shrapnel. Now what was the name 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.920 of this gun? They're calling it the Liberator? Yeah, this 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.160 this might be something that history buffs recognized from World 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:56.280 War Two. Um. During World War Two, the Allies, specifically 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.160 the United States, I believe, Yeah, they manufactured these one 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:02.600 shot for fives. There were one shot pistols, meaning that 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:04.960 you could fire them once and then that's it. It's 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:07.520 just not designed to shoot more than one time. And 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:10.720 the whole the whole purpose of this was to drop 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:15.679 these forty five behind enemy lines and occupied territories occupied France, right, 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:19.160 The idea being that that the French population would suddenly 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.240 have access to weapons, but you can only fire at once. 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.520 It really wasn't a practical weapon. In fact, I don't 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.640 think that the Allies ever considered it to be something 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:30.880 that would allow a real tied to turn. It was 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.720 more of an attempt to demoralize the Access powers rather 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:39.520 than to actually foment some form of revolution and propaganda 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.400 was was a really interesting technology that was used in 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:44.240 World War Two. Yeah, so this is one of those 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.480 examples of propaganda that don't doesn't involve like a song 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.120 or a poster or a movie. It was actually an act, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:52.120 and in this case, it was an act of distributing 0:11:52.760 --> 0:11:59.000 uh weapons of limited use to an occupied country. And 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:02.080 from what I understand, it doesn't look like it doesn't 0:12:02.080 --> 0:12:03.839 look like all of them, or even most of them 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.320 were ever actually distributed. It was. There's a little bit 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.640 of contention about whether or not they were and to 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:11.120 whom and when and how many, but and from why 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:16.520 I understand most of them most of them without But anyway, 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:21.480 Wilson apparently wanted to to take that name, and uh, 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.960 it kind of goes along with his philosophy. But his 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.400 philosophy is interesting. We will cover that in this episode, 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:30.200 but I think we're going to save that for the 0:12:30.320 --> 0:12:35.680 end because it's it's pretty it's pretty dynamic. It is dynamic. 0:12:36.160 --> 0:12:38.439 It's intense, is what it is. So yeah, a hundred 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.160 thousand folks around or at least a hundred thousand people 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:44.040 have downloaded these plans as of the recording this podcast. 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.400 By the time this publishes, I'm sure that number will 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:50.840 be way bigger. Ye. Yeah, well, I mean, as you 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:53.040 could have everyone just lose interest, but I don't think 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:56.440 that's going to happen with this particular product. So, uh, 0:12:56.640 --> 0:13:00.840 that's that's where the actual logistics sre. That's you know 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:03.520 what the state of the gun is. The gun, by 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:05.440 the way, if you ever have if you haven't seen 0:13:05.440 --> 0:13:08.720 a picture of it, it looks really clunky and it 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.680 has to be because that plastic has to be pretty 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.360 thick to withstand the pressures. And we'll talk more about 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:16.280 what those actually are in the in the next section. 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:20.120 But um, it's not a sleek weapon by any means. 0:13:20.360 --> 0:13:22.200 It is not, no, no, And I mean you know 0:13:22.240 --> 0:13:24.760 the kind of plastics that are that are being used 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:26.400 are Um, it's it's a b S which is a 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:30.000 krylum nitrial butt to dyeing styrene um. It's a it's 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:33.520 a thermoplastic blend. It's used in lots of everyday items 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.280 like like molded tool handles, electric shavers, lego bricks are 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:40.600 made of this stuff. So wow, And we'll talk a 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.440 little bit about why that causes a concern, you know, 0:13:43.520 --> 0:13:46.280 the materials used, but before we really get into the 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.400 concerns and and you know, the philosophy of of Cody 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:54.319 Wilson and other elements and the response that we've seen 0:13:54.440 --> 0:13:58.240 so far, and these are early days when we're recording this. Guys, 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:01.120 we're gonna take a quick break from this classic episode 0:14:01.120 --> 0:14:11.679 to thank our sponsors, but we'll be right back. Okay, 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.079 getting back into the subject at hand. There are a 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:16.600 lot of concerns that come up with this idea of 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.720 being able to print a gun at home. Some of 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:22.680 these you might think of as knee jerk responses that 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.840 that don't take everything into account, But I think there 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:28.520 are some concerns that are you can't just dismiss easily. 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.680 One is that if you're talking about a plastic gun, 0:14:31.800 --> 0:14:34.160 let's say that a plastic gun is being used in 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.560 a crime. Uh, the concern is that you wouldn't really 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.800 be able to trace that gun back. You know, guns 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:43.680 right now have these grooves that are in the barrels 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:45.680 so that when you fire the bullet, it makes the 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:49.040 bullets start to spin, giving it more stability, but it 0:14:49.080 --> 0:14:53.320 also ends up carving uh into the specific pattern. Yeah, 0:14:53.360 --> 0:14:55.600 and so by looking at the pattern, you can identify 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:58.560 depending on how what shape the bullets in, you can 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.120 identify the type of firearm that fired that bullet. If 0:15:02.120 --> 0:15:07.080 you're talking about a smooth barreled, plastic gun, there's no 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:09.880 way of telling. And even if it had some sort 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:12.760 of grooves in it, you could design those in such 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.400 a way where it's unique to your gun, but without 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:18.120 anyone being able to tell it could be designed. It 0:15:18.160 --> 0:15:20.520 could be literally unique to your gun. No one would 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:23.160 know where to even start looking for that, because if 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.080 it's all just a file on your computer, how would 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.560 how would anyone know unless they're already watching you. I'm 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:30.080 not even gonna get into that because I think that's 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.400 what fuels the whole Liberator in the first place. But 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:36.760 the you know, that's that's the concern is that if 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:38.400 it was used in a crime, it would be very 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:43.000 difficult if not impossible to trace back. Uh. They're also undetectable, 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.200 meaning that if you only have a tiny amount of 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:47.400 metal in them and you go through a metal detector, 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:49.560 the metal detector may not it might not pick up 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.400 that mail. Yeah. Now, now, in this case, Cody Wilson 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.480 was actually very careful about following um the letter, if 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.200 not at all the spirit of the law. In the 0:15:58.240 --> 0:16:02.040 creation of this he um Uh. He took his company 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.479 to the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:09.840 in order to get a federal license to manufacture and 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:15.080 distribute firearms, and furthermore, put a small metal cube at 0:16:15.200 --> 0:16:18.400 completely non functional six ounds metal cube into the gun 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.240 to make it detectable by metal detectives. Right, because the 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.080 US Undetectable Firearms Act makes it illegal to manufacture any 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.120 sort of undetectable weapon. Because this this isn't the first 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:32.480 time that a potentially undetectable weapon has been made. You can. 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.440 They're guns that use ceramic. There are other plastic weapons 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:39.000 as well that have used molded plastic as opposed to 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:43.120 three D printed plastic. But uh, that was a big concern. 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.480 So now he followed the rules. Wilson did his his 0:16:46.560 --> 0:16:48.560 version of the gun in fact had that metal in it, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:51.280 so it was not undetectable. But here's but nothing saying 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.360 that someone who downloads that would still have the same 0:16:54.600 --> 0:16:56.760 ye follow the same rules. If you download the blueprint 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:58.520 and printed it out yourself, you could be you could 0:16:58.520 --> 0:16:59.960 just say, well, I'm not I'm not going to put 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.800 the metal slug in there, and therefore it is going 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.720 to be virtually undetectable by a metal detector. And however, 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:07.800 we should mention that that those three D scanners that 0:17:07.840 --> 0:17:09.679 they've put in a lot of airports would pick the 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.440 gun up. It would be able to recognize it on 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:15.480 on your person, right. So so if if you're using 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:17.199 a three D scanner, it's still going to pick these 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.480 things up. If you are using just metal detectors, it wouldn't, 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:25.240 So that that's raised some security concerns obviously. Um and uh, 0:17:25.280 --> 0:17:29.480 you know, Wilson, I think he took some perverse joy 0:17:29.560 --> 0:17:32.639 and the fact that he was following the law while 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:40.359 creating something that is potentially incredibly disruptive. Absolutely, he's are 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:44.160 we getting into. But I think it's fair to say 0:17:44.200 --> 0:17:47.520 that he took some pleasure. And they did. They did 0:17:47.520 --> 0:17:50.600 install a metal detector or walk through metal detector in 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.080 their workshop for testing to make sure that that that 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.879 met those requirements. Uh and uh. So to get to 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.280 other concerns beyond the fact that you can't trade sit 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:05.680 you can't necessarily detect it. Um. Another concerns there's there's 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:09.200 no background check, right if you download those plans, there's 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.840 no control there about who gets access to that gun. 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:17.160 So in the United States, convicts can't you know, people 0:18:17.200 --> 0:18:19.240 who have been convicted of a felony, they can't buy 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.240 a gun legally in the United States. I mean, they 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:24.640 could buy it illegally, but you can't go through any 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.280 legal means of buying it. Um. That's what the whole 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.679 background check thing is supposed to protect against in the 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:34.679 United States. So this bypasses it. If you are able, 0:18:34.760 --> 0:18:37.240 if you have the means or the access to a 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:40.280 three D printer, and you have a criminal record and 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:43.400 you otherwise could not legally buy a firearm, you could 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:46.240 make one yourself this way. And that's something that a 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:48.360 lot of critics have pointed out, saying you have just 0:18:49.080 --> 0:18:53.760 invalidated this whole part of the system. Wilson, for his part, 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.040 not a big fan of gun control, that doesn't seem 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.280 to be very concerned about that so much though that 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.800 in March he released a video of a three D 0:19:02.840 --> 0:19:05.359 printable UM A R fifteen lower receiver, which is the 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.000 part that's regulated. UM. The rest of the parts you 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:11.439 can purchase without without all that much trouble and UM 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:15.960 and that hypothetically could lock into these these other purchasable 0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:19.200 parts and UH. And thus you know, again bypassed by 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.440 passing that whole problem, or what at what he saw 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:25.240 as a problem. Uh. Other things that you have to 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.600 keep in mind. Remember we were talking about that plastic earlier, 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:30.680 about how how strong it was, and the type of 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:33.840 plastic used and the type of printer being used. UH. 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.920 Jonathan Rally, who's a three D printing expert UM said 0:19:38.040 --> 0:19:41.880 in The Guardian that that you have to be really 0:19:41.880 --> 0:19:44.280 careful because not everyone out there has access to the 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:45.920 same sort of three D printers, were the same sort 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:50.120 of raw materials being used. And just because one printed 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.040 gun was able to withstand the pressure and force that 0:19:53.280 --> 0:19:57.080 a that this that the liberator did in the initial tests, 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:59.920 it doesn't mean that something that you print using a 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.320 different kind of printer could do the same thing. Um. 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:06.200 It may be that the material you print is weaker 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:09.720 than the one that that Wilson used, and Wilson Wilson 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.240 also did treat the plastics after they were printed in 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.600 order to make them stronger. So you could potentially end 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.160 up with a device that could explode in your hand 0:20:18.200 --> 0:20:21.800 and cause you huge amounts of damage, if not even 0:20:22.200 --> 0:20:24.200 kill you right out, you know, out right. In fact, 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:27.199 he said that it's far more likely someone will be 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:31.639 injured by a failing weapon before anyone is ever deliberately shot. 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:35.840 But so uh that that was his big concern was 0:20:35.880 --> 0:20:38.320 not only is it something that could potentially, you know, 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:40.600 one person could potentially used to kill someone else, it's 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.760 something that someone who's just curious about it could end 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:47.720 up severely injuring themselves because the materials they're using just 0:20:47.800 --> 0:20:49.840 can't hold up to the pressures and even even unit 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:52.200 to unit um uh you know, and any anything that 0:20:52.200 --> 0:20:55.280 you've printed like that could be misaligned, uh, you know, 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:57.840 on a relatively small scale that you might not be 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.640 able to see from the outside of the right. Yeah, 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:02.440 if you if your printer does not have the same 0:21:02.480 --> 0:21:04.800 level of precision, then that could also be a problem. 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.360 Things couldnt be things might not be in the right alignment, 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.840 because fair if just something glarps into the wrong place, 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:12.360 that's you know that that can be glarping is an 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.000 issue that there's also the problem that there could be 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.840