New York Bill Would Require a Criminal Background Check to Buy a 3D Printer
New York Bill Would Require a Criminal Background Check to Buy a 3D Printer
Supporters of the bill say it's necessary to thwart convicted felons who use 3D printers to develop untraceable "ghost guns."
I understand the intent, but feel that there are so many other loopholes that put much worse weapons on the street than a printer. Besides, my prints can barely sustain normal use, much less a bullet being fired from them. I would think that this is more of a risk to the person holding the gun than who it's pointing at.
There's a community that builds 3d printed guns, and those don't last very long either. They're not printing barrels, they're just printing the trigger housing and grip. They go out and buy the dangerous bits.
This is all a bit pointless.
Even more pointless when you consider that once you have a 3d printer, you can make a lot of the components for a second 3d printer, and go out and buy the other parts, without ever buying a 3d printer. Now you have two ghost gun machines!! Oh the horror.
In other news: virtue signaling politicians are considering banning [scary items that their core voters know nothing about] in order to appear tough on crime, while avoiding doing the logical things experts recommend, because that would look bad in the eyes of the voters. Instead the only consequence is extending the stigma related to excons resulting in greater recidivism
Googling 3d printed gun homicide returns a story from Rhode Island in 2020 (where the police can't figure out if the gun was actually printed), an attempted murder in Reykjavík in 2022, and this story from 2022 that claims a total of 44 arrests were made related to 3d printed guns... world wide https://3dprint.com/291684/3d-printed-gun-arrests-tripled-in-less-than-two-years-3dprint-com-investigates/amp/
In contrast there were 48117 firearms related deaths in the US during the same period.
Maybe statistics and proportions should be a core part of math from an early age?
“Three-dimensionally printed firearms, a type of untraceable ghost gun, can be built by anyone using a $150 three-dimensional printer,” Rajkumar wrote in a memorandum explaining the bill. “This bill will require a background check so that three-dimensional printed firearms do not get in the wrong hands.”
.... No way an ender 3 is going to produce something that doesn't blow up in your hand.
so. i suggest people get that 150 dollar lol-printer. Should take care of itself.
And if I download a parts list, buy the components, and make the printer myself I guess I can just cruise new york "printing guns" for people without any hassle from the man.
Printing ghost guns, so far, is just a boogyman politicians trot out when one of their corporate sponsors thinks one of their revenue streams might be threatened by DIYers.
This isn’t even low hanging fruit. This is fruit that’s been on the ground rotting for a few months that no one is going to pick up and eat anyway. Let’s throw ineffective solutions at the problem and when they fail go, “weeeeell, since you can buy a 3d printer and a gun online, let’s just do background checks for internet access”
Anything to regulate and restrict the people/end users but not address any real problems in society.
Go after the gun companies, gun lobbies, NRA? No, never. Address housing, income, and educational inequality? That sounds complicated, tough, and expensive.
This has similar vibes to shaming/regulating people for using too much water in their showers and for washing their cars, but when a multi-billion dollar oil company spills millions of gallons of crude into the sea causing years of environmental damage due to negligence, fine them a few million dollars and tell them they've been very naughty...
So tired of politicians being in the pocket of Capitalist scumbags.
Whats next? Criminal background check to buy cutlery for your kitchen?
The New York Police Department has reportedly seen a 60% increase in ghost guns seized from city streets for the past two consecutive years. NYPD recently traced some online ghost gun sales to a “ghost gun printing operation” filled with 3D printers and firearms nestled within a daycare center.
I have no idea from this if the increase in ghost guns was attributable to 3D printing, or if the increase even represents a significant number.
It also seems like this would be really difficult to enforce. You can buy hardware or kits to build your own printer, or you can buy an old printer off someone else.
All that said, if it represents a reasonable concern and they figure out a way where it's not trivially circumvented (both of which seem unlikely), I really couldn't care less about a background check.
Gotta stop those guns made from kids. (Per the first image caption in the article).
A ghost gun is displayed before the start of an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. Biden announced a new firearm regulation aimed at reining in ghost guns, untraceable, unregulated weapons made from kids. Biden also announced Steve Dettelbach as his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
In a country where 13 year olds have access to guns.
Who pays for the background check? If it's the individual, this would kill 3d printing in New York. If someone else, it would still probably kill 3d printing just because of the extra resistance to purchase.
Shhhh dont tell new york that anybody can by a lathe or a mill. Or forbid A CNC
Requiring a backround check for a 3d printer is idiotic at best. Whats next a flat bastard file? You could use it to form metal to make weapons! Not to deburr or make somthing harmless.
THINK OF THE CHILDREN
Ah, USA... The land of the free XD