Motherboard’s documentary Click, Print, Gun: The Inside Story of the 3D-Printed Gun
Yesterday, a Japanese man was sentenced to two years in jail for manufacturing 3D-printed guns. Yoshitomo Imura – the 28-year-old mini-Mikhail Kalashnikov in question – was arrested in May after posting a video of himself assembling his very illegal firearm to YouTube, ready to be viewed by the site’s 800 million monthly visitors. Which probably wasn’t the best idea on his part.
Videos by VICE
The right to bear DIY weaponry is still, in its makers’ minds, a contentious issue. Although it shouldn’t be, really. If guns are illegal in your country, then it makes sense that the law isn’t suddenly going to side with you when you decide to have a crack at making one in your garage. Mind you, Imura appears to be the first person in the world to receive a prison sentence for making 3D-printed guns.
British police seized what they believed to be 3D-printed gun components last year, before it was revealed that they were actually probably just parts for the printer itself, leaving the internet to make plenty of jokes at the officers’ expense. However, under UK legislation, buying, owning or creating a 3D-printed gun could land you up to a decade behind bars, so it’s not a topic to be taken too lightly.
In the US, where the whole movement kicked off, it’s somehow totally legal for individuals to manufacture firearms for personal use without a license (except for Title II weapons and assault weapons in certain jurisdictions). Certain restrictive measures have been put forward – such as a proposed renewal to the Undetectable Firearms Act that would criminalise production of firearm magazines and receivers that don’t include a certain amount of metal – but have been shunned as transparent attempts to stifle the use of 3D printers in home gunsmithing.
All that means that Defense Distributed – the Texan company that produced “The Liberator”, the first ever 3D-printed gun – can carry on as they have been. Motherboard made a documentary about Cody R Wilson, director of Defense Distributed, last year, which you can watch above. The “non-profit organisation” say they operate “exclusively for charitable, religious, scientific, testing for public safety, literary or educational purposes”. I’m not certain how guns can be used for charitable, religious or literary purposes, but I’m sure Cody has some kind of justification.
While The Liberator can only hold one bullet at a time, Imura’s model “The Zigzag” can load six. And although he’s going to spend the next 24 months in a cell, the plans for the weapon are safely out in the public domain, meaning anyone can get a hold of them and start producing their own DIY firearms. I’ll let you decide whether that’s a libertarian dream or a complete fucking nightmare.
More stories about 3D printing:
You Can Now Use Bitcoin to Buy 3-D-Printed Sex Toys
In the Future, Your Drug Dealer Will Be a Printer
WATCH: The VICE Podcast – Cody Wilson on 3D-Printed Guns
