An article in the Huffington Post by Dominique Mosbergen reports about an very clever man who managed to manufacture gun arts from 3D printing and assembled them into a usable weapon. for a country alert to recent disasters by people who handled guns maliciously and harmed fellow citizens, this development introduces a new challenge for public policy on firearms ownership and use. At the same time, there is the realization that 3D printing technology may lead to production of goods whose ownership and use remain in contention.
It may not be illegal to get blue prints and manufacture a weapon as the subject of the story did but a regulatory issue arises whether the product of that process requires registration. My hunch is that a bureaucrat will probably find good reason why it should be registered if not altogether outlawed. The fears of a criminal using a similar process to manufacture and sell large volumes of similar weapons, is perhaps overstated because the production of that weapon presupposes a high degree of knowledge and technical capability that many people save for dedicated students would have. Additionally, most of these goods are already manufactured by corporations whose processes use cutting-edge technology and who would probably wipe out a lone working competitor on cost and quality. What this state of affairs brings to the fore is that many technologies are marginally neutral in their effects and can also be applied for other purposes that portions of a society may not approve.
It may not be illegal to get blue prints and manufacture a weapon as the subject of the story did but a regulatory issue arises whether the product of that process requires registration. My hunch is that a bureaucrat will probably find good reason why it should be registered if not altogether outlawed. The fears of a criminal using a similar process to manufacture and sell large volumes of similar weapons, is perhaps overstated because the production of that weapon presupposes a high degree of knowledge and technical capability that many people save for dedicated students would have. Additionally, most of these goods are already manufactured by corporations whose processes use cutting-edge technology and who would probably wipe out a lone working competitor on cost and quality. What this state of affairs brings to the fore is that many technologies are marginally neutral in their effects and can also be applied for other purposes that portions of a society may not approve.
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