Activists 3D Printed a Gun in Front of State Capitol Building

A group of activists in Texas stirred controversy this week, by 3D printing a gun right out front of the Texas State Capitol building in Austin. The unique live protest was organized by the group Come And Take It Texas, or CATI, and featured a CNC device called “Ghost Gunner” which uses 3D printed parts and is capable of manufacturing a gun.

“Anybody can purchase one of these to print firearms in their own homes,” Murdoch Pizgatti, president of CATI said on NBC News.

There has been a heated debate about 3D printing technology in the past few years, as 3D print gun projects like Wikiweapon began to grow in popularity and gather press recognition. Wikiweapon was a project that intended to share open-source blueprints for 3-D printed guns, allowing anyone with the right equipment to manufacture a firearm from their home.

The Ghost Gunner is made by Defense Distributed, the parent company of the Wikiweapon project, and set up by founder Cody Wilson. The company is fittingly based in Austin, Texas, where the protest took place this week.

There are many technologies that are beginning to emerge in the consumer market that have the potential to radically disrupt the status quo and shift the power balance on this earth in favor of the general population.

3D printers are one of the first of these devises that come to mind, with the ability to mold any 3 dimensional object from a precise computer graphic. So far, this technology has been used to replace bones and body parts in people, creating exoskeletons for children with congenital illnesses in order to help them walk, and it is even said that someday people will have the ability to print working human organs through cheap home devices.

If given the ability to flourish and develop in every way possible, the millions of people who end up using this technology will be able to create amazing things that could reshape this world for the better in a short amount of time. However, as always the one thing that stands in the way of this achievement is the monopolists of the State, and their violently imposed restrictions on freely interacting individuals.

More on Ghost Gunner, from 3Dprint.com:

The Ghost Gunner uses an aluminum block that’s referred to as “80 percent lower” – a piece which can be purchased for less than $100 – to fabricate a working receiver in around 15 minutes. Defense Distributed calls the Ghost Gunner project “a non-profit, open source hardware effort.” They add that the Ghost Gunner schematics and design files will be published into the public domain.

The device uses 3D printable jigs to hold the receiver part in place as milling steps are completed. When milling an 80% AR-15 lower receiver, the company says two jig pieces are required to secure the lower in place as the ‘trigger pocket’ is milled, and two more jig pieces are used to drill the trigger pin holes.

Defense Distributed says that, in general, using their device to manufacture semi-automatic firearms like the AR-15 lower receivers is legal for private individuals. They add that some states and municipalities restrict either the manufacture of certain firearms, or more recently, the personal manufacture of a firearm with a 3D printer or CNC machine