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DEFCAD Newsletter:
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DEFCAD Newsletter - Pump Signal Launcher, Printable Battle Rifle, New AR Mag
10/18/2022
Welcome back to the DEFCAD newsletter! With another issue comes another new set of releases - some of which are quite major! We will cover some major hardware today, but also some projects that rea.
.. Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - New in Guncad Pt 2: Pump Action AR, Double Barrel AR, Chonky Lowers
10/4/2022
This newsletter is Part 2 of a two-part email detailing the newest releases in guncad. You can view Part 1 here! In the time since Part 1 was released, even more new designs have come out, and we e... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - New in Guncad Pt 1: Printable P80 Jig, Panther-9 SMG, Gatling Crank
9/12/2022
Welcome to the latest newsletter from DEFCAD! After two deep-dive issues we are returning to covering the latest in guncad, and there are so many new designs that we cannot fit them into a single n... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Hundreds of Printable Gun Accessories
8/29/2022
In guncad much public attention is given to full firearms platforms, but the world of gun printing contains far more than just this. Firearm parts and accessories - grips, stocks, and more - can al... Read More
On Open Source at DEFCAD
8/21/2022
The political innocence of the artists at work in our community is a given.
3D gun developers draw firstly from their familiarity with computers and design software, and not from a common ideology.... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - DIY Printable Night Vision
8/16/2022
Welcome to a special issue of the defcad newsletter. Today we are stepping back from printable firearms to focus on another subject: diy night vision. nvgs that you can build at home experienced an... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable Rifles, Pistols, Parts, Launchers
8/1/2022
Welcome back to the DEFCAD newsletter, where we keep you up to date on the latest and greatest in guncad designs! The last two weeks has provided several new designs, which provide a rather in... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable AR22 Designs
7/18/2022
Welcome to another special issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. From time to time we step back from the newest designs in guncad and instead survey a particular sort of printed firearm.
Today’s i... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable Bloop Tube, New FGC-9 Model and More
7/4/2022
Happy Independence Day to all gun printers worldwide! Creating your own firearms is one of the most profound ways for free men to assert their independence, and the guncad community continues to su... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable AR Uppers, DIY NVGs and More
6/21/2022
Greetings again to all DIY firearms fans - we have some particularly interesting developments for you today. Preeminent among these another “holy grail” of guncad, two different designs... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Professor Parabellum 100% DIY Designs
6/8/2022
Welcome once again to the latest issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. Today’s issue is focused on one of the founding developers of DIY guncad: Professor Parabellum. The good Profe... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable Drum Magazine, AWCY and Professor Parabellum
5/24/2022
Welcome again to another issue of the DEFCAD newsletter.
This issue picks up where the last one left off, with several new releases from across the community.
Featured today is a plethora of... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable PDWs and Ronis
4/26/2022
Welcome to another special issue of the DEFCAD newsletter! This issue focuses on the many printable PDW and RONI designs produced by the guncad community.If you aren't familiar with these... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable Magazines
10/19/2021
Welcome to the latest issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. Today's focus is a line of development that has literally been part of guncad since its origins: the printed magazine.The very first file relea... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Printable AR-15 / AR-308 Lowers
9/21/2021
Welcome to the fifth issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. This special issue will focus on one of the most exciting lines of development in printable firearms: the printable AR-15 lower.
The development ... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - .22s, NVGs and Stipples
9/7/2021
Welcome to the fourth issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. This regular sendout continues to keep you informed of the newest 3D-printed guns from across the several communities.Our last two issues foc... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Complete Shuty Line Now Available
8/24/2021
Welcome to the third issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. This regular sendout continues to keep you informed as we catalog and archive 3D-printed firearms.Since last issue’s announcement of ... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Shuty, WTF-9, MOD-9 and More
8/10/2021
Welcome to the second issue of the DEFCAD newsletter. This regular sendout will keep you informed as we catalog and archive 3D-printed firearms.We are pleased to announce the cataloging of Der... Read More
DEFCAD Newsletter - Welcome to the DEFCAD Newsletter
7/27/2021
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the DEFCAD newsletter.
This regular sendout will keep you up to date on the best 3D-printed firearms releases.Recent major releases include two projects from ... Read More
Host Beta and Prerelease Files on DEFCAD
1/18/2021
Many community projects are thoroughly beta tested by small groups before being released. We invite you to support your testing efforts by uploading your project to DEFCAD as a "prerelease.”U... Read More
Invitation to DEFCAD
1/16/2021
In the last 24 hours, this new year’s wave of de-platforming and censorship reached DIY gunmaking. The loss of Keybase is a blow meant to disrupt this community’s coordination and growt... Read More
3D Printer Pistols are Back and Unstoppable / Sudo Null IT News They anonymously share drawings, tips, and create their own community. And there is no easy way to stop them.
In the United States, a network of supporters of printing weapons on a 3D printer is growing again - but now everything is different.
Unlike previous attempts to popularize weapons that can be printed on a 3D printer, this operation is completely decentralized. It has no headquarters, no trademarks and no leader. And the people behind it believe that this state of affairs guarantees the inability of governments to stop them.
“If they want to come after me, they'll have to find me first,” says Ivan the Troll, a member of the group. “I am one of many like-minded people doing this work.”
The troll Ivan is known only by his network pseudonym, and is the de facto representative of an underground organization of gunsmiths working on 3D printers. Ivan says he knows at least 100 people actively developing weapon 3D printing technology, and claims that thousands of people are involved in the network. And this loosely connected network spans the entire world.
They communicate on different digital platforms - Signal, Twitter, IRC and Discord. They critique each other's work, trade weapon CAD files, give advice, talk theory, and collaborate on new blueprints.
Enthusiasts of printed guns - who share similar ideas and political views on gun control - mostly meet on subreddits and forums dedicated to this topic.
Ivan himself is only a small part of this network. He says he comes from Illinois and is about the age of a "college student," but otherwise keeps quiet about himself to keep his head down. In doing so, he launched some amazing commercials showing new handgun parts he printed out in his garage, including the Glock 17 pistol frame.0006
On the last video [ , the video is deleted from YouTube, but the videos can be found on other hostings / approx. transl. ] shows the Glock 17 resin frame in various stages of production in the workshop. The footage is sounded with fast synthwave music, and passed through a VHS filter for greater aesthetics. By the end of the video, Ivan fires several shots from a ready-made pistol, and the captions that appear at the same time read: "Anyone can do this", "Live free or die", "Let's try to stop this, you dirty etatists.
" He also uploaded a complete CAD model of the AR-15 assault rifle to a file sharing site. It is clear that Ivan is trying to provoke his detractors to the maximum.
In February of this year, Ivan and his group decided to call themselves "Distributed Deterrence" transl. ], which is an allusion to the name of the company Defense Distributed [distributed protection], which was previously headed by Texas crypto-anarchist Cody Wilson.
In September 2018, Wilson, aged 30, was arrested and charged with sexually abusing a minor. He allegedly paid $500 for sex with a 16-year-old girl in his hometown of Austin, Texas. Naturally, this arrest took Wilson completely out of the world of 3D printed guns. Many of the people who admired him were either disgusted or realized that his time had passed. He retired from Defense Distributed, which used to be the main driver behind 3D weapon printing, since its inception in 2012. Wilson was released on $150,000 bail, but hasn't been in touch since.
Defense Distributed has many other legal issues. Attorneys in over 20 US states are currently suing the company - which has filed counterclaims - in an attempt to overturn the company's win in court that allowed the company to upload and share 3D weapon blueprints online. All these processes are long and tedious (New York State just passed a law to ban 3D printed weapons).
But for Ivan's group, Deterrence Dispensed, none of that matters. They upload their files singly to services like Spee.ch, a media hosting site powered by the LBRY blockchain, without waiting for anyone's permission. They themselves make drawings for printing weapons, fix old ones, and distribute all drawings from Defense Distributed for free.
“Even if no government forbade me to do this, I think I would still do it,” says Ivan. “Some people enjoy video games, but I like to spend time drawing things in CAD.”
But Ivan doesn't just "draw things" in CAD. He's giving away files for free to help anyone with a decent Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D printer and certain tools build a working gun.
Once the CAD file is downloaded, it is opened in a slicing program that translates the CAD files into instructions that the 3D printer can understand. After the parts are ready, they can be assembled, getting a fully working weapon.
The blueprints that Deterrence Dispensed shares with the world are so good, according to Ivan, that they are not just "working", they are of excellent quality. “Our AR15 model is the best available to the public without a doubt,” says Ivan.
Despite active antagonism with the authorities, Ivan has had no problems with them so far. His Twitter account was permanently shut down by Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, but so far, from the point of view of law enforcement and government, all has been quiet.
Ivan considers himself and other radical gun printing groups like FOSSCAD to be hobbyists who want to do something “wrong”. He believes that the problems of 3D printing weapons are overblown. He points out that while printable gun parts can be used to kill people, homemade guns have always existed and are probably more lethal.
From his point of view, all this hysteria and backlash is directed to the wrong address.
"Trust me as a gun maker. A semi-automatic shotgun is 100 times easier, faster and cheaper to make than a regular pistol. I can go to Home Depot and buy a shotgun for $8."
In 2019, 156 people have already died in mass shootings in the United States, and in principle, the number of deaths related to weapons is a 20-year high. In March, a terrorist armed with two semi-automatic rifles and two shotguns killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand. Does the US (and the rest of the world) need more weapons in these circumstances, homemade, printed or otherwise? Ivan thinks so.
“The police killed more people last year than were killed in all the mass shootings in the last 10 years,” he says. “We in America live in a society where there is always the risk that a cop will shoot your ass off for nothing. And you don't even have to pose a threat to him. A cop can kill you just because he wants to, and he can get away with it.
"
He cited numerous examples of policemen shooting at unarmed black Americans, especially Steven Clarke. Clark, 22, was shot and killed by police in his garden with only his cell phone in hand. “I think it’s extremely important that everyone has the opportunity to have a gun,” Ivan continued. “Everyone should have the same legal options as the cops using them to control you.”
However, the facts are undeniable. Slightly more than half of deaths from firearms occur in six countries, incl. in the USA. And analysis from Harvard University shows that the more guns there are, the more murders there are.
Opponents of weapons, of course, are not satisfied with the concept of a downloadable pistol. Avery Gardiner, one of the presidents of the Brady Campaign, said that 3D-printed weapons "pose the greatest threat to our security." Following the court ruling in August, Gardiner said, "There is already a wave of dangerous individuals trying to illegally post blueprints on the Internet.
"
Members of this decentralized 3D printed weapon society are often motivated by a mixture of libertarian views and the pleasure of designing and creating tangible items as a hobby. They upload drawings to the Internet, share them, improve diagrams and make it easier to print, while remaining out of sight. Ivan states that he does this for the love of freedom and radical adherence to the first two amendments to the US Constitution: freedom of speech and freedom to bear arms.
However, his radicality goes as far as to talk about the right to have his own Tomahawk-class missiles, saying that they would be safer in his hands than in the hands of the US Army and its allies - given the history of accidental killing of civilians by the military, including a wedding in Afghanistan and a school bus in Yemen.
Describing the growing list of civilians who died at the hands of the US military in foreign wars, Ivan often comes across as more of a radical leftist than the right-wing gun fanatic that many think he is.
However, he rejects any particular ideology, saying, "I myself am special and unique."
So far, Troll Ivan, Deterrence Dispensed and thousands of 3D weapon printing enthusiasts, united by a worldwide network, have let the genie out of the bottle. Unable to stop anonymous file sharing for weapon 3D printing. Whether they are hiding behind freedom in the process or not, one thing is clear: it is too late to stop them.
Is it possible to print airguns and firearms
Is it possible to make a gun on a 3D printer and is it legal?
Today's 3D printers offer enormous possibilities. They can print products of almost any complexity. Until quite recently, it was difficult to even imagine that a plastic weapon could shoot. However, it is already possible to make a pistol on a 3D printer, which, although not reliable, still fires live ammunition.
Can firearms be 3D printed?
Back in 2013, a young American activist for the free sale and distribution of weapons proved that plastic weapons can be printed on a 3D printer.
He was the first in the world to make a pistol in this way, in which only the striker was made separately from metal. All other parts were printed on an FDM printer.
Today's 3D printers are capable of printing any CAD model, and these models of firearms have been available for over 10 years. If in previous years their printing required professional skills, now almost any user can master them. With a 3D printer and a finished model, it became quite possible to print a gun. Another thing is that such "creativity" is punishable by the laws of most countries.
The evolution of 3D printed weapons
Despite all the prohibitions and restrictions, the evolution of 3D printed firearms is moving at a great speed. The beginning was laid by the single-shot plastic pistol Liberator by American K. Wilson, which appeared in 2013. It had a simple design and was chambered for 380 ACP. Already after 10-12 shots, this weapon became unusable. However, the very possibility of printing firearms served as an impetus for the development of the idea.
The author of the first pistol himself founded the Defense Distributed company, which began to actively improve the technology.
One of the ways to increase the durability of weapons was to increase the number of their barrels. At the beginning of 2014, the Japanese Y. Imura makes a 38 caliber Zig Zag pistol. He was able to fire up to 6 shots non-stop. The author of the weapon was recognized as a criminal and convicted.
The next step was the production of a six-shot revolver by J. Patrick in 2015. The PM522 Washbear has been shown in action on YouTube. The weapon was noticeably safer for the shooter compared to previous versions, but still allowed to fire only a few dozen rounds.
The first 9mm semi-automatic pistol appeared in 2016 under the name Shuty-MP1. It was developed by a handicraft gunsmith who hid under the pseudonym Derwood. It wasn't exactly a plastic weapon. The author used some metal parts from factory pistols - a barrel, a firing pin, a bolt and several springs.
This made it possible to ensure a rate of fire of more than 46 rounds / min. However, when changing the store, the plastic case had to be cooled. In 2017, the same master proposed an improved model - Shuty AP-9.
The main contribution to the development of 3D printed weapon printing technology was made by Defense Distributed, which brought together a group of like-minded activists. First, these enthusiasts won legal proceedings in the United States and obtained permission to 3D-print weapons, which greatly expanded their capabilities. Secondly, they were able to set up a professional business with product testing and quality control. As a result, in 2018–19 they developed numerous models of a variety of firearms - from pistols to carbines. They posted over 30 files for printing original gun parts. Most of them were plastic, and the metal parts were not made from purchased, ready-made elements, but from simple metal profiles (tubes, strips, etc.), which are sold in ordinary hardware stores.
This made it possible to exclude the use of parts patented by gunsmiths.
At the moment, the semi-automatic carbine FGC-9, developed on the basis of the Shuty AP-9, has become the pinnacle of "creativity" of Defense Distributed. At the same time, there is not a single factory part in it. The barrel for the 9 mm cartridge is made of steel pipe using electrochemical processing.
Where can I get drawings and what should I look for?
Gun manufacturing bans make it much more difficult to access blueprints and models of guns for 3D printing. The right to free placement of information was achieved only by Defense Distributed. Their website provides free access to drawings, models and technologies. Other information can be found on the Internet, but they are usually illegal.
When choosing a model, pay attention to the following information:
- material used;
- cartridge for which the model is designed;
- number of cartridges in the magazine, rate of fire;
- duration of operation before failure.
It is important to clarify which metal parts will need to be purchased separately, in addition to plastic for printing on a printer.
What does the law say in different countries?
The only country where firearms can be 3D printed is the United States. Gun Control Act 19 applies here68, giving Americans the right to make weapons, but only for personal use. Only one limitation is put forward: it must be determined by metal detectors, that is, it must have a metal element. In virtually all other countries, homemade manufacture and repair of weapons for any purpose is prohibited by law. In Russia, printing it on a 3D printer falls under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and is punishable by imprisonment.
Should we be afraid of plastic weapons?
The question of how dangerous a weapon printed on a printer is becoming increasingly important. Despite all the prohibitions, it is extremely difficult to control the spread of technology around the world.
The availability of 3D printers and the increase in their functionality make it possible to master the production of plastic guns at home. How dangerous is such a weapon?
Most experts agree that currently printed weapons are more of an interesting toy. It is quite expensive and is designed to carry out only a few dozen shots. Moreover, such pistols are quite dangerous for the shooter himself with live ammunition, because they can explode in their hands.
However, the danger cannot be underestimated. It is easier and cheaper for a "serious" criminal to buy illegal military weapons than to make them on a printer. At the same time, there may be "enthusiasts" who, for their own interest, can make a pistol and try it out in action. Such inadequate people represent an undoubted danger. In addition, the temptation is great for terrorists. Metal detectors do not detect a plastic gun, which means that it is easier to carry it, for example, on an airplane.
Important! Plastic weapons have a very small resource.
At the same time, sometimes just one shot is enough to kill a person.
3D printed firearms have the following advantages:
- the ability to make military weapons at home;
- light weight;
- availability of materials;
- ability to copy famous weapon models.
Always remember that there are significant disadvantages:
- illegal manufacture;
- high cost of weapons;
- very small resource and limited rate of fire;
- danger to the shooter himself.
Currently, plastic weapons have more disadvantages than advantages, and most importantly, you can get a real prison term for making them.
Prospects for printing weapons
The potential for 3D printing of firearms is far from exhausted. The expansion of equipment capabilities and the development of innovative materials indicate that in the near future such weapons may approach military weapons in terms of characteristics.
