Thanks to the ever-diligent men and women of the United States Transportation Security Administration, we can all rest a little bit easier tonight. Yesterday at approximately 17:00 hours, a one Mr. Rooster Monkburn was successfully disarmed when a TSA agent confiscated the monkey sock puppet’s two-inch, vaguely gun-shaped piece of plastic—and then threatened to call the police.
     |
The Liberator made quite a name for itself a few months back when it became the first functioning all-3D printed gun, and while its maker designed it with mass distribution in mind, we now know one place where it’s unwelcome: Philadelphia. The city of Brotherly Love lived up to its name yesterday, when the city council voted unanimously to ban folks from being able to print plastic pistols with which to shoot each other. That’s right, it is now illegal to manufacture guns via 3D printer in Philadelphia. As of this writing, Philly’s the first city to put such a ban in place, and it’s not in response to a a rash of plastic pistols flooding the streets, either — Philadelphia Magazine reports that it’s just a preventative measure. Nice to see a city government trying to stop a problem before it starts, but we’re betting it won’t be long before someone in Philly takes to the courts to challenge the ban.
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Philadelphia Magazine
Will computers take over the human race eventually? Perhaps, as we do see robots creeping up bit by bit to “invade” different aspects of our lives. When it comes to the battlefield, there is nothing quite like a battle hardened marine, is there? Perhaps an alternative can be found in the solution from firearm company TrackingPoint. This particular solution is a software which has been integrated with its Precision Guided Firearms (PGF), offering shooters near perfect accuracy right from the get go. Known as “Tag Track Xact” or TTX, the advanced target-tracking technology boasts of offering on-point shots over a range of 1,200 yards – which is roughly the equivalent of 22 Olympic sized swimming pools.
TTX hopes to deliver an exact, accurate shot every single time by taking into account for the coriolis effect, magnus, temperature, pressure and spin drift when you take aim at your target. The software will be shown through TrackingPoint’s Integrated Networked Tracking Scope, which will also feature integrated functionality such as a compass, microphone, Wi-Fi server, batteries, ballistic calculator, laser rangefinder and filters for shooting in bright or dim light. Still, I am quite sure that the TTX is unable to do miracles such as curving bullets around an obstacle in the movie Wanted.
TrackingPoint Develops Smart Rifle With TTX Technology original content from Ubergizmo. 
| |
That didn’t take long — just days after its first test fire, the Liberator, a 3D-printed pistol designed by Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson, has caught the attention of the federal government. It’s hardly a surprise: the arm’s blueprints were downloaded more than 100,000 times since going live on DefCAD this week. It’s not the amount of downloads that’s causing trouble, though, it’s who is downloading them. In a letter from the US State Department, Wilson was told that it’s a violation of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations to “export any defense article or technical data for which a license or written approval is required without first obtaining the required authorization from the DDTC (Directorate of Defense Trade Controls).”
The letter goes on to explain that these downloads legally count as exports under the law, telling Wilson to remove the plans from public access immediately. “That might be an impossible standard,” Wilson told Forbes. “But we’ll do our part to remove it from our servers.” As it turns out, most of the gun’s downloads were served via Mega, making full removal near impossible. Still, Wilson seems optimistic about the situation, explaining to Forbes that conversation will help mold the discussion on 3D printed weaponry. “Is this a workable regulatory regime? Can there be defense trade control in the era of the internet and 3D printing?” We’re looking forward to discovering the answer ourselves.
Filed under: Misc
Via: Vice
Source: Forbes
The (almost) all-plastic 3D-printed Liberator pistol was announced by Defense Distributed late last week, but with the gun’s blueprints and construction details now live on the company’s own DefCAD design site, it’s also released a video taken during its testing. In front of a Forbes onlooker, the clip apparently shows a .380 caliber bullet being fired by the Liberator.
The only non-plastic part of the design is a common nail, which acts as the firing pin. Defense Distributed’s founder Cody Wilson has worked over a year on the project, apparently citing the one-shot pistols that were designed to be air-dropped over France during World War II as inspiration — also called the Liberator. This modern version is, however, formed of 15 components made inside a Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer. The video of the test shot and more details are right after the break.
Source: Defense Distributed (YouTube), Forbes, DefCAD
The 21st century has been a real disappointment so far. Our robot servants top out at mediocre vaccums, self-driving cars are years away (and won’t be able to fly even when they do arrive), and we’re closer to inventing tricorders than phasers. A tricorder. Who wants a goddamn medical scanner when you could be blasting baddies with awesome handheld lasers? More »
Confiscated weapons are always destroyed, but that doesn’t mean the wreckage can’t be used for something. Artist Pedro Reyes took the remains of 6,700 guns—many of which had probably seen some action—and used their dismembered parts to build instruments for a makeshift gunmetal orchestra. More »
Flintlock pistols may have been super effective against single opponents because, as Boris the Bullet Dodger once said, “If it doesn’t work you can always hit them with it.” Against groups, however, they were comically useless—that is, until enterprising gunsmiths added some extra barrels. More »
Nobody would fault you for bringing a knife to a Swiss Minigun C1ST fight. Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest functional revolver on the planet, this diminutive firearm makes Derringers look like Desert Eagles. More »
A gun safe’s purpose is obvious in its name, but many readily available models fail to deliver, as this 3-year-old safe-cracker is quick to demonstrate. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
