Avish Zindal Week 10 - The Duality of Power
Plants around us all have cellulose, and nitrogen is in the air we breathe every day. Alone, they’re weak. Put together, they have a new power.
An average human finger easily has the power to pull a weight of 10 lbs. Only 4 lbs are needed for a different power.
3D design and 3D printing are valuable skills that give people the power to excel at a wide variety of things. All it takes is a slight lack of morals for an even greater power to be provided.
We humans have the power of creation, of technology, of life. Very quickly, we can turn that into the power of death.
The ease with which anyone can acquire a firearm nowadays is scary. Not only are 3D printed guns legal in all states, but they can be produced quite easily. While a license is needed to purchase a gun, anyone with a good enough 3D printer can produce a gun that ignores all gun laws. They could print a gun without any serial numbers for identification, they could print a plastic gun that’s undetectable to x-rays, and they could even just print a fully-automatic machine gun.
While these are illegal to make, there really isn’t any easy way to stop their creation. A future shooter or criminal could easily print an untraceable gun one day, use it to commit a crime the next day, and dispose of it all without being able to be discovered.
The best solution to this problem may just be to criminalize personally 3D-printed firearms and to enforce background checks for purchasing a 3D printer that is capable of printing with the materials needed to make firearms, as we humans keep finding ways to turn our power against others.
Hi, Avish! If there’s one word I can use to describe my reaction to your blog, it would be shock. I use 3D printers and CAD often to make projects or as part of robotics, but I’d never even realized that this technology holds the power of death, as you describe it. The easy access that 3D printers provide anyone to creating their own, real guns is honestly unnerving.
ReplyDeleteApart from the solutions you present, I think another effective way to battle this problem is by incorporating a function in 3D printers to print an identifiable number unique to the printer on each item created. This, along with the other “fingerprints” left by a certain printer, can help trace these illegal guns back to their origin, providing a method to use technology to monitor its own creations.
Overall, your blog post is really engaging, and I especially appreciate how you’ve addressed the problems along with possible solutions. Thank you for bringing light to such a crucial issue regarding the power of 3D printing, and I really enjoyed reading and learning from your blog.
Hello Avish! I found your blog to be really intriguing. I have no experience with a 3-D printer and had no idea that it had the capability to produce guns. I think your blog addresses a critical issue within the rapidly involving tech industry. As more machinery that grants its user access to tools of destruction what would the consequences of said developments entail? All that aside, I personally think that 3-D printers are a dangerous machine and as u said, should definitely be regulated. On top of what you said I think certain models of 3-D printers that are less developed should be reserved for the average citizen and the more capable printers can be used in warfare or given to trustable individuals. I definitely think that if any one can just purchase a printer it would cause many problems in the future. I really enjoyed your blog and hope to read more in the future!
ReplyDeleteHey Avish, your topic is especially important considering that only a month or so ago a 3D printed weapon was used to kill the health care CEO. Whatever your stance on the assassination is, the truth is that 3D weapons are becoming a serious threat to our safety. As you mentioned, 3D printed items are super easy to make. Just get the raw filament and buy a STL file off the internet and boom, you get a weapon which can end a life. These weapons, unregistered and not requiring any license, are fragile but still are lethal.
ReplyDeleteI think one of the only possible ways to prevent this from becoming an issue is to either regulate online services selling models or regulate printers to refuse to print anything that resembles a firearm. The first option is possible but is impossible to enforce. There’s billions on the internet and no amount of government resources can regulate every file sent across the internet. The second option is possible, but may get a lot of backlash for violation of rights or something ridiculous. Even with your proposal, it’s difficult to discern the motives of someone buying a 3D printer: it could be a kid printing out his first Onshape model or the next Luigi Mangione.
Your blog was very enjoyable to read, especially with the assassination of the CEO fresh in our minds. If there was a small suggestion I would make it would be to add an image of what a 3D printed firearm looks like. I never knew what they looked like and since your blog focuses on that, it would be nice to have a visual. Obviously that’s probably not school appropriate so please take my suggestion lightly. Thanks for the enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to reading your next one.