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.
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.