There has been an ongoing debate over how to deal with 3D printable firearms raging for years now. Granted, it is only simmering for the moment, but depending on the outcome of Cody Wilson’s ongoing lawsuit, and the fact that guns are likely to be a hot topic of debate in next year’s Presidential election, a new political battle could be brewing. While the government and the general public continues to misunderstand the technology, the 3D printing industry continues to brace for the worst; legislation that asks them to do the impossible and prevent guns from being printed. The desire to ban 3D printed guns seems to be based on a lot of inaccurate information about what an entirely 3D printed gun can actually do, which is not much.
The Liberator for instance, the 3D printed gun created by Wilson, certainly isn’t harmless, but it is by no means an especially deadly weapon and probably won’t be for years to come. At the moment it can typically only fire a single shot, and even then is at risk of blowing up the gun rather than successfully firing a bullet. But whatever the final outcome of the debate, it is probably all going to be for nothing, as the real threat, if it could be called one, probably isn’t going to be a 3D printed gun but 3D printed ammunition.
Each 70 caliber slug is about two inches long, weighs about 21 grams, and was loaded into a standard shotgun shell. The guys set up a series of objects to shoot their bronze rounds at, including a jug of water and a large piece of scrap metal. The slugs ended up firing extremely straight and as you can see from the video, they did actually do a fair amount of damage to the targets.
You can see the test firing of the 3D printed bronze shotgun slugs here:
The Taofledermaus guys seemed to be having a lot of fun with their 3D printed ammunition, and it would certainly suck to be hit with one. However I wouldn’t expect 3D printed ammunition to be anything worth worrying about for a few years, especially while traditionally manufactured ammo is still inexpensive and readily available. For now 3D printed guns remain what they have always been, a novelty reserved for gun hobbyists. But this video proves that 3D printed ammunition is a lot more viable as an actual usable product than a 3D printed gun, so if the price ends up rising do to regulation and taxes, this is something that could easily happen now.
What do you think about these shells? Discuss in the 3D Printed Bronze Shotgun Shell forum thread on 3DPB.com.