Summary
Americans are posting videos about 3D-printed guns on the Chinese video app RedNote, despite the content being illegal in China.
While some users are uncomfortable with the topic, others see it as an opportunity for cultural exchange.
The future of TikTok remains uncertain as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the ban.
3D printed guns are a meme. Most of them require parts of functional guns such as the barrels, And they require regular ammunition.
Electro chemical machining can make a barrel.
But, idk how any of what you said makes them a “meme”. You can buy a barrel online for cheap, also ammo, and I don’t have to go through a government check. That’s what a lot of these people want to avoid.
In most countries, the barrel or other pressures bearing parts are the regulated piece. We are the weird ones for regulating receivers instead.
Well, the article references Americans, I’m American, so okay?
Europeans can also get guns mailed to their front door, are we just comparing gun laws?
I mean, there’s a lot of context surrounding licensing and pre-approval to get that mail order heater in Europe. Local laws vary, yadda yadda
And if you collect old guns and have a C&R license, you too can get guns delivered to your door in America.
In the UK you can also purchase a pistol with bitcoin on the dark web and have it delivered to a train station locker, but that is not legal at all.
This sounds interesting. Tell us more.
Oh yeah, 1000%. Also, with a C&R license, you’re not legally purchasing a “firearm”. It’s a curio or relic, but yeah, point still stands.
Also, none of that has anything to do with the discussion at hand, which was sorta my point.
I have my 03-FFL, and “Curio & Relic” is a classification that firearms can fall into, defined as firearms manufactured 50-years or more ago. Legally, by definition, you are still purchasing a firearm. You’ve just had more background checks to bypass some of the rules in most states about transfers, if the firearm you are buying qualifies as a “Curio & Relic”.
Cool man
Reading my comment back makes it sound more dick-ish than I intended, my bad. You just happened to mention a special interest of mine that I know a lot about.
It mentions sending videos about them to China. Where most of those videos are useless because the parts and ammo are not sold there.
Let me introduce to you, the FGC9
Okay so a lot of work to create the barrel, but the gun still takes 9mm ammunition. And if someone in China can get their hands on ammo they can get their hands on a gun.
Okay? I don’t know what you’re arguing here? 3D printed guns aren’t a meme. Some don’t require any regulated parts. I don’t care if the average Chinese person can or will get their hands on one. You can just say you didn’t know what you were talking about when you said 3d printed guns are a “meme”. It’s not that deep
Yes, but that’s not 3d printing any more.
It’s a separate process requiring separate tools, materials and skills.
But you can make anything with that additional process. SO it’s going to be difficult for a government to lock down those additional processes.
I can make barrels and stuff like that on a milling machine and a lathe. Not just shitty parts but better than most big manufacturers put out. Government can’t control manufacturing.
Still not 3d printing.
edit: Typo
Barrels require rifling. It is fairly difficult to manually create the groove as it requires a lot of tooling. Not impossible. But not something people will do to create a single gun. Only the barrel would be more work than assembling the rest of the gun.
Purchased ammo and other parts are specific to the US. 3D printed guns give people the illusion that they can make the entire gun using a 3d printer and off the shelf consumer parts. But most 3d printed guns are made by buying all the required metal parts for guns and printing out the exterior.
Heres a rifled barrel for less than $100
Yes, that is a lot of tooling and a lot of work.
It’s really not.
All you need is a hydraulic tube for the barrel. to make the rifling you need some copper wire, electricity and water
I’m thinking that an octagonal x-section barrel with a twist could be done by electro-machining.
The part you can easily print, however, is the receiver.
The receiver is the part that’s legally a firearm. While I think it’s neat I can customize my firearms, I do acknowledge that someone who is prohibited from owning a gun can very easily print a receiver and order the rest of the parts from Palmetto State Armory to get a perfectly-functional firearm without any background check being performed.
I also don’t know the solution to the problem though. As 3D printing, desktop CNC, and other forms of DIY manufacturing improve in quality and decrease in price, it will be very hard to regulate home-brew weapons.
You could print an entire functional gun if you only intend for it to be fired successfully once. And no shit they require ammo. Ammo is easier to source than filament for the 3D printer. I can’t walk into a Walmart and buy printer filament; but I can get ammo.
You can buy ammo in the US but not in China. Or virtually anywhere else in the world.
So it’s just a meme in China is what you’re getting at?
A meme anywhere in the world. Except for the US where guns are rampant.
3D printed anything implies not needing specialized parts to create said thing.
Heat set thread inserts are specialized parts, but in many many 3d models for printing.
That said your point still stands, I’m just being pedantic.
Idk man when I was living abroad it was pretty easy to get a gun and a license for it in most places. The real difference is how long it takes to get the license — months to a year instead of a few days for the NCIS check.
Once you have the license, ammo was easy to purchase.
Ammo is regulated in California. Requires a background check.
Which you can get without the same screening process for buying an actual gun.
I like my ghost guns intangible as well. /$