Boing Boing: Well, that was predictable: days after a 3D printed gun fired a few rounds, Rep Steve Israel has called for a ban on of Wiki Weapons. The congressman points out (correctly) that all-plastic 3D printed weapons would not be easy to spot using traditional methods, such as metal detectors.
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When I first clicked on this article, I was expecting that, one, it would be from a different perspective and, two, that it would be discussing something about the ban itself, or the production of weapons using 3D printers. I do think it is a fascinating problem to have, who would have thought that someone out there would decide to print a functional firearm? I do think the author is correct in arguing that there really is no way to enforce this. There is no way to truly monitor exactly what comes out of a 3D printer any more than there is a way to monitor what is printed by your average run-of-the-mill office printer. This is not to say that there should not be legislation regulating the creating of functional weapons. I think it is absolutely critical that something somewhere has created an incentive to not create things like this, because it is dangerous, like Steve Israel pointed out, not easily detected and caught by traditional means of protection (metal detectors), and because they would not be easily identified as fake weapons. With all of this considered, I fully agree with the ban, though I do think that there should be a channel through which research institutions should be able to petition for lawful creation of firearms for studies or other academic uses, but I do not think that the everyday person with access to a 3D printer should be able to create a somewhat functional firearm.
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