Download, Click, Print: BANG!

Maybe Congress can download and print copies of the Constitution on their 3-D printers since they can apparently not decipher the document when typed in 2-D.

With the advent of 3 dimensional 'printers' a young man in Texas has made available the blueprints that your printer can use to create an AR-15 rifle at home. One free from serial numbers, identifying markings and no government 'permit' needed. 

The technology for 3-D printing was developed in 1988. If you've yet to hear of it, the process (in its simplified form) works like this:

There are Computer Aided Design (CAD) drawings of whatever it is one wants to print. Let's assume a button on your favorite shirt fell off and was lost. You go to the website of the shirtmaker, enter the UPC code and the website then brings up a file of CAD drawings for you to download. You do so, then hit 'print' and your 3-D printer goes to work. Using a process similar to Ink Jet Printing, the printer, using 1 of 2 types of plastic (polylactic acid made from corn starch or sugar cane OR acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, a derivative of crude oil) creates, with very thin layers 'printed' on top of each other, the button. (Though they still have yet to master color printing, from what I've seen anyway).

There are 3-D printers that also are able to print with different 'inks' including many metal alloys, titanium, paper and ceramic powders.  Boeing anticipates to soon be building entire wings for commercial aircraft in 1 piece, using a gigantic 3-D printer.  Auto makers such as GM and Ford currently use 3-D printers to produce things such as dashboards. 

3 D printing opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Why manufacture a computer in China when one can simply go to a website, pay online and download the CAD design and print it at home?  Start a business, perhaps, that features the more expensive  printers that can print with the alloys and ceramics, sort of like a Kinkos but for the 21st Century?

The technology certainly got 1 young Texan thinking... 'I wonder if I can print my own gun?'  And he did.  A year ago Cody Wilson and a few cohorts printed their very own AR-15 'lower' from CAD designs they had created (The lower, or "lower receiver" part of a firearm, is the crucial part that contains all of the gun's operating parts, including the trigger group and the magazine port. Under American law, the lower is what's defined as the firearm itself). The weapon fired 6 shots before falling apart. Wilson promised to return with better designs (and it helps that printer technology is re-inventing itself at a rapid pace) and now he has, developing both a Lower and 30 shot magazine. First the magazine:

And the lower (with some Bolero tossed in for good measure)

Not surprisingly, this has a number of our Israeli representatives in DC hopping mad:

When University of Texas Law School student Cody Wilson published a YouTube video last month of an AR-15 he'd made with the assistance of a 3D-printer, Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.) sprang into action. He announced new legislation (actually a reauthorization of the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act, which expires at the end of the year) that he said would "stop so-called 'wiki-weapons.'" As I reported at the time, Wilson's response was fairly understated. He believed his plan to make and test guns made with printed plastic parts—and then post all of the instructions online—was legally sound, and had no intention of backing down.

Last week, Wilson published a new video. This time, his AR-15 is outfitted with a different printed plastic component—a 30-round magazine, the same kind President Obama proposed outlawing in his new gun control package. Israel's response: Ban those, too. Wilson's response to that? "Good fucking luck". (Link here:http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/01/rep-steve-israel-pledges-ban-3d-printed-gun-magazine)  

Oh, yee of little faith, Cody Wilson. If Israel's American politicians want things banned, they'll be banned.  One way or another. 

One real plus though, for Israel (the occupyer, not the Israeli rep named Israel) is this: think how easy it will be in the future to steal the very newest in American technology! Simply payoff (right.... we all know dual-citizen jews work in every defense corporation) order Moshe to provide the password (I'm not thinking well today at all!) OK, simply break into, say, Boeing's computer system (for all I know an Israeli corporation currently is the security vendor for the computer servers at Lockheed and/or other defense contractors which means they won't even have to break in) and download the CAD designs and print up one of those F-35's that are already facing well over $1Billion in cost overruns (not to mention already falling apart).  Come to think of it, I don't know if the Occupyers of Palestine would want to risk one of their own piloting one of these clunkers, so this is likely a bad example. Still, you get the idea. 

So back to these printers. Here's what a few of them look like: 

An Industrial Sized 3D Printer

A Desktop/Home Model

Another Home Model

Steve Israel and the other jackballs in DC have 1 thing goin' for them, however:

One still can't (yet) print Bullets....