3D Printed Gun Control

The issue of control of undetectable 3D printed guns is coming back to Congress soon.  With the substantial advances since the last time the question came up, some believe it is time for another round.  As before, the emphasis is not on how easy it is to print the guns but rather on their stealth nature.  Current gun law prohibits owning guns that are less detectable (in a metal detector) than 3.7 ounces of steel.  Current 3D printed gun models satisfy this law by adding a chunk of steel of that weight to the gun as a non-functional part (typically internally).  The bill currently being drafted would require that specific functional parts of the gun be made of metal, which would make it impossible to legally print a gun with current 3D home printing technology (the industrial version includes support for printing in several metals that could be used for the metal components).  The major concern is that terrorists or felons could 3D print guns that would not be detectable by any modern security, and the assumption is that making it illegal to do so would stop them.

The big problem with this is that last line: The bill assumes that making undetectable guns illegal will somehow make a difference to those who would use them for terrorism.  Now, in the past, gun control advocates have used this same excuse to demand mandatory registration of firearms as well as increasing seller accountability.  These things would at least make it harder for felons and terrorists to obtain firearms, but the argument that criminals will get them anyway has largely prevented Congress from strengthening gun control.  With 3D printed guns, it is far worse.

Modern 3D printers are cheaper than handguns.  Blueprint files are extremely easy to obtain, and it is nigh on impossible for the government to do anything about this, since they are available over BitTorrent and other P2P file sharing services (and legally, because they are licensed to allow free redistribution).  In other words, for maybe half the price of a decent handgun, a criminal can obtain the equipment to print any number of 3D printed guns.  The print media is cheap enough that once a criminal has the 3D printer, he can print guns at $10 to $20 a piece.  The government cannot do anything about this.  Just catching one marginally careful criminal would be difficult and costly.  Catching even a majority would be almost impossible.  Individual criminals that used specialized security software would be almost impossible to catch, even if the government was already keeping a close eye on them.

The biggest hindrance to criminals wanting to 3D print guns is the technical complexity of setting up the 3D printer system.  Careful criminals will have the buy components for the printer, instead of buying a pre-assembled one, to avoid government detection (and simply having the printer is still not enough to justify law enforcement action).  The task of assembling a 3D printer is not trivial to anyone without significant electronics experience.  Likewise, setting up the software and learning to use it is also not a straightforward task.  The average criminal that would need a gun would likely give up before making even one 3D printed gun, because it is so much easier to just steal a few hundred dollars and buy one on the black market.

The fact, however, is that this really is a valid concern.  The average felon will probably not go to the effort to print an undetectable gun.  The real concern is terrorists.  Plastic guns could easily be carried through all sorts of government checkpoints by terrorists, and the consequences could be dire.  Before jumping to conclusions about the best solution to this problem though, we should consider the facts.  The first fact to consider is that terrorists living in the U.S. long term have managed to get bombs through government checkpoints, despite much stronger legislation against bombs.  Unfortunately, criminals and terrorists do not allow themselves to be governed by mere laws.  In other words, making undetectable guns illegal is not going to make any difference where it really counts.  Not only can criminals easily 3D print guns without any real chance of detection, they can print them in massive amounts, and nothing short of banning 3D printing outright, along with at least half of the necessary components for building 3D printers (components that power enough of our technology that banning even one would be absurd), will make any difference.

The point here is that anyone rushing to legislation banning 3D printed guns is totally out of touch with the technology.  This technology is here to stay.  In fact, as soon as 3D printing was invented, using it to make guns became inevitable.  The long term consequences of this may result in a lot of harm, but there is nothing that can be done at this point to stop it.  If legislation to ban 3D printed guns, detectable or not, does eventually go through, all it will do is turn 3D gun printing into a completely criminal activity.  It won't make detecting those criminals any easier.  The one good thing about this will be that honest people will still be able to obtain traditional firearms.  Consider, however, who will have more and better access to firearms if honest citizens have to pay $300 or more for anything decent, while criminals can make functional firearms for well under 10% of that.

The only thing laws against making undetectable guns will do is make prison sentences longer for criminals that have them when they get caught.  Most crimes that would be committed with such a weapon are already worthy of a life sentence, so the added gun charge will be trivial.  Frankly, it would be equally effective without infringing on the rights of the rest of us to simply make committing crimes with 3D printed guns more illegal than committing those crimes without.  At this point though, firearms (including undetectable ones) are only going to become easier to obtain, and there is nothing any government can do to stop it.