What an appeal! So twisted in its approach. Where do I sign up to jab at some bleeding hearts, humiliate them, STRIKE BACK!
He's demonstrated the concept with simple things like gun magazines. Theoretically, they're now out of reach of the government to control. Add in more time and better technology, and this concept is potentially a big deal for all manner of things. Interesting to think about at least.
Guns are just a current flash point that it's easy for people to get their heads around. But who knows what tomorrow will bring that governments will try to control only to find themselves unable to do so due to unskilled, cheaply available, distributed manufacturing capability?
We do have a number of extremely terrible incidents with resulting loss of life, many of these are very much preventable. My personal opinion, more laws restricting distribution will not prevent these, but better mental health services, safety tech and training will.
All this article really proves is that people who want to have a gun will have a gun. It might be extremely difficult, but those hell-bent on it will still succeed.
Free national PR. Besides Wired, I've seen him on documentaries and national news broadcasts.
"What are you shipping?"
"CNC Mill."
"Great, we'll be happy to ship that for you."
Don't try to confuse the customer service rep by saying things that have the potential to confuse them; they don't need to know what it's meant for.
It's doubtful that UPS, at a high level, cares enough to ban this. Rather, someone heard "something something GUN MACHINE," doesn't know anything about the relevant law, and made a snap decision that was least likely to get them in trouble.