On today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how WIRED was able to legally 3D-print the same gun allegedly used by Luigi Mangione, and where US law stands on the technology.
On today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how WIRED was able to legally 3D-print the same gun allegedly used by Luigi Mangione, and where US law stands on the technology.
Unless you keep the gun I guess.
How do you mean? You 3D print something with no serial and it’s untraceable. Even if they find it they can’t definitively say your firearm shot the bullets. Unless of course you’re on video doing it and admit to it.
Something tells me not doing that part is going to be harder for a significant portion of today’s population than getting a weapon.
Except for all the metal parts they used a debit card/paypal to buy.
Yeah, you can’t easily print an entire gun, but the parts you buy don’t necessarily tie you to the gun.
The only regulated parts (I know of) are:
receiver (considered the actual gun, this is the bit they print)
suppressors (not printable but you can make these homemade, though not as good and definitely not as reliable.)
autosears (or anything else that makes your gun fully automatic, or even act like it, usually these are super basic and printable)
big magazines (not federal but a lot of states have laws on em’ Usually states with these laws will allow big ones to be sold with rivets, so they can usually be converted with a drill and new spring. Also they’re just boxes w/ springs so you can print one.)
They’re also starting to Anodize rifling into barrels using cheap 3D printed jigs, so some of the metal parts are now getting homemade too.
Autosears themselves are not actually regulated. It’s the action of fully automatic fire that is. Which is kind of ridiculous because it’s not terribly uncommon to have a gun do it by accident on worn out parts.
Wild. I suppose, thinking about it, it’s also way quicker to iterate on, test, and improve too.
Which is obviously why you buy them with Monero instead.
The components aren’t traceable either. They don’t have serial numbers on them. Typically only the lower receiver does. This is why that’s the part that’s typically 3D-printed.
when you fire a gun scratches are left on the bullet that are enough of a unique fingerprint to trace to the gun.
Yeah but is each 9mm unique from the next?
In the age of AI deepfakes, I don’t even think that’s conclusive enough.
really easy to tell if an image is AI or not still it’s not that good yet
gotta count how many fingers it took to pull the trigger
Haha it’s better than that now. You have to see them eating.
never forget will smith spaghetti
Haha you’ll know you’re old when people don’t get the reference
that’s one i genuinely wonder about though. it was the embarrassing early years of generative ml. will it care to keep it for us? eww, i just got those terminator chills again
Depends if next gen AI has a sense of humor
For real
Didn’t Luigi get caught with the weapon in his backpack? The title picture on this article is literally him. If it’s untraceable by printing, it seems you’d want to not have it on you if apprehended.
Yeah but they have video of him too. Idk the case well enough but I assume the gun itself wasn’t enough to prove he did it.
Factually, they illegally searched his bag without a warrant at the mcdonald’s, repacked the bag, put the bag in a police vehicle and drove to the police station without bodycam, and then turned bodycam back on to search the bag again and instantly “find” the ghost gun in his bag, which, without a serial number, is conveniently impossible to prove it was not planted.
https://www.wtaj.com/news/local-news/new-photos-show-luigi-mangiones-arrest-defense-argues-for-evidence-to-be-suppressed/