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Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by _bxg1 on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:32PM (#17533111)
You have to be an experienced metalworker to make one that way. A computer doesn't do it for you (at least not yet). Whereas any idiot can download a file and send it to a 3D printer.
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by DuskStar on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:40PM (#17533143)
Ghost Gunner [0] is a general purpose CNC mill with a focus on taking 80% lowers and turning them into 100% lowers.

0: https://ghostgunner.net/

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by pxeboot on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:41PM (#17533152)
'80 percent lowers' have been available for quite sometime and can be turned into a working firearm with just a Dremel tool. Very little skill required.
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by esaym on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:48PM (#17533188)
>You have to be an experienced metalworker to make one that way.

Well not so much. If you've got blue prints or a replica of any metal part you can go to any local machine shop have them make it for you. Of course you are going to be paying $150+ an hour for labor, but it can be done. I had to get a lot of parts machined from raw materials on an old motorcycle I restored once. There were not after market parts for it. I had to get everything that was broken or worn out made at a local machine shop. Nothing stopping me from handing them blue prints for an ak-47 receiver. Machining a gun barrel might be a little more obvious, but barrels can be bought on ebay and other online shops. Usually only receivers and frames are what is regulated, but frames can be made custom out of wood or plastic.

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by madengr on Saturday July 14, 2018 @09:33PM (#17533363)
They can make you an 80% lower receiver, but would need a manufacturing license to make a 100%.
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by toomuchtodo on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:34PM (#17533120)
And plastic isn't detected by a metal detector (there's a movie plot about this! [+]).

[+] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Line_of_Fire

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by woolvalley on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:42PM (#17533156)
I'm not sure if the entire gun can be made out of plastic without making the gun near useless or explode in your hands as you shoot it.

Usually these 'homemade' guns buy a lot of professionally made gun parts such as the rifle barrel and just make their own lower receiver, which isn't exposed to the explosive high pressure part of a gun.

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by king_nothing on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:47PM (#17533184)
DemoRanch, Taofledermaus or iv8888 fired shotgun shells bare, ICRW. They’re the lowest chamber-pressure lethal (22LR and .25 are difficult but not impossible to make lethal) rounds.
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by cma on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:57PM (#17533232)
Was the shot made of plastic too?
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by esaym on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:50PM (#17533195)
Most guns are already 50%+ plastic today so not really seeing your point.
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by toomuchtodo on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:53PM (#17533216)
Are they of sufficient plastic or composite composition that they don't trigger a metal detector? I don't believe so.

Disclaimer: I’m familiar with this only because I have to check my firearms when I’m flying.

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by esaym on Saturday July 14, 2018 @09:16PM (#17533308)
Hard to say as all detectors are different. I only know that while as a teenager I got kicked out of public school for skipping class too much and was sent to an "alternative placement center".

Everyone there had to wear a white shirt and pants. There was only one entrance and there was a metal detector right in front of it. But what all the "cool" kids were doing was seeing how big of a knife they could sneak through it. And there was a couple of 3 inchers that got through. It mattered were the knife was and how you held your hands as you went through, but can't remember the details (this was back in 2001).

Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by giancarlostoro on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:36PM (#17533133)
Re:‘Downloadable Gun’ Clears a Legal Obstacle, and Activists... by king_nothing on Saturday July 14, 2018 @08:45PM (#17533168)
The only completely polymer gun with a chance of not killing or maiming the operator is a shotgun cartridge blunderbuss with the shell/s place far away from the hands. With enough rubber bands, it should be possible to not need a metal firing pin.