Video presentation.Our Plan
1) DEVELOP A FULLY PRINTABLE FIREARM
Defense Distributed is organized to produce and publish information related to the 3D printing of firearms. Beginning with little expertise and less financial backing, the group first believed this production would be a limited, trial and error process. Fortunately, in recent months our expertise and capabilities have been greatly supplemented, but the first order production goal remains the same: produce and publish a file for a completely printable gun- or as near to completely printable as actually possible with current technologies. You may have heard of printed rifle receivers and plastic Glock handguns, but this project imagines firearms only at their most essential: what printable configuration of geometries and materials will allow for the reliable and safe firing of a single round of ammunition?
2) ADAPT THE DESIGN DOWN TO CHEAPER 3D PRINTERS
These guns will be almost completely plastic, so melting and failing in your hand will be a concern. Only after a battery of testing the best designs to failure will we find the way to rate a WikiWep as safe for one use. This process may very well be the most difficult phase of our organization’s operations. There are many kinds of printers and many ways to test the same concepts. Also, we want to minimize negative media about the safety concerns of untested firearms and the inevitable suggestion that government agencies are necessary protect us from ourselves.
Provided candidate files and prototypes can make it through testing, the next phase of this goal requires adaptation of the design down to some of the most commonly available of 3D printers. Defense Distributed has chosen the RepRap printer to be this platform, despite the organization’s wishes to subvert and avoid such use. We hope the result will be an easily accessible and replicable design shared with the world. From such a point, any person has near-instant access to a firearm through the internet.
3) BECOME THE WEB’S PRINTABLE GUN WIKI REDOUBT
Insofar as possible, we hope to facilitate a printable firearm creative commons. Our weapons project’s namesake, a “wiki” is likely the best platform for preserving and collaboratively producing knowledge related to 3D printable firearms for years to come.
THE IMPACT
This project might change the way we think about gun control and consumption. How do governments behave if they must one day operate on the assumption that any and every citizen has near instant access to a firearm through the Internet? Let’s find out.
Yes, as marked in bold in text, all-plastic gun would be most likely safe for one use. But what if someone published a design including a range of inconspicuous metal parts that can be bought in local hardware shop? Let's say everyone can make assault rifle good for 250 shots - in other words, garbage weapon, that would be still very useful in one-time terrorist attack. Or that say every criminal is now armed with cheap, disposable gun he can just burn after "job" 'just in case' - how would that change security thinking in modern Western country? Would we see new EURion constellation for 3D printers? Or will dilapidated cyberpunk cities become a reality?
