this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2024
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USA | Law enforcement leans on 3D-printer industry to help thwart machine gun conversion devices (apnews.com)
submitted 2 months ago by BrikoX@lemmy.zip to c/globalnews@lemmy.zip
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Justice Department officials are turning to the 3D-printing industry to help stop the proliferation of tiny pieces of plastic transforming semi-automatic weapons into illegal homemade machine guns on streets across America.

Archived version: https://archive.is/FzBzV

SpinScore: https://spinscore.io/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fmachine-gun-conversion-devices-justice-department-7bcdd06bcccc987c90da494f746d5765

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[–] Garbanzo@lemmy.world 18 points 2 months ago (2 children)

“Law enforcement cannot do this alone,” Monaco said during a gathering in Washington of federal law enforcement officials, members of the 3D-printing industry and academia. “We need to engage software developers, technology experts and leaders in the 3-D-printing industry to identify solutions in this fight.”

Good luck with that, it's basically impossible. The best they could hope to do is have commercial printing services watch for and refuse to print the devices. Anyone can look up the patent for a Glock switch and design and print one themselves. It can't be blocked on the printer level because that would require the printer to be a lot smarter than they currently are, and any such blocking could be bypassed by building a printer from scratch (not easy, but totally doable).

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

And it would require all printers to be closed-source, else people would just patch out the "is this a glock switch?" check.

The anti-counterfeiting EURion constellation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation) works because most printers are made by a handful of established companies. 3D printers, on the other hand, are made by dozens of tiny companies, many of whom are Chinese companies buying similar source parts and adding their own touches, and those companies don't give a shit about American law beyond the bare minimum to make a sale.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Plus it's not like fully automatic is really all that useful, as the military can attest.

They don't even use full auto on the standard issue rifles - at most there's a burst option, because full auto is inaccurate.

Full auto, because it's inaccurate, is mostly useful for suppressive fire. I've shot full auto 7mm and 223. 7mm is just spray and pray, 223 slightly more controllable, but still you'd have to be an exceptional operator to be accurate. The recoil of 7mm for a single round is staggering, let alone full auto.

So the question then becomes - if they want to prevent full auto conversion (something of questionable usability), why?

Oh, that's right. It's about surveillance and control.

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago

If your goal is to dump as many mags as possible into a crowd then your aim and recoil don't matter that much.

[–] ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

mostly useful for suppressive fire

I think the concern is about a shooter firing into a dense crowd (like the Las Vegas attack) which is generally an application that would not come up during military use.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

While I agree that it's completely impractical for accuracy, there have been many crimes committed with a switch and 30 round mags. It's not accurate, but it will 100% be an efficient killing device in a crowd. Which has happened.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sounds like they are trying to crack down on people trying to print bump stocks or something. Truly sounds like a damn stupid sisyphisian task that can be used to survail what is being printed on common printers.

[–] nul9o9@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There are small modifications that can be done to convert guns to full auto. Glock switches and auto seers, or what not. The idea of usi g this to spy on printers is frustrating.

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yep. Plus, what measures would be required to defeat basic printer blocks? Could it defect differences in tolerance? What if you redesigned an internal part to make the overall print slightly different? It an endless task that doesn't seem like it will be very useful for anything other than random surveillance.

[–] tilefan@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

probably some sort of comparison list of shapes that it can't produce. like how photocopy and printer manufacturers make it so you can't copy legal tender

[–] Addv4@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but when you are doing that you are basically just comparing to what it can't be. This would be looking at any possible way to design a mechanism to (for instance) turn a semi auto to a full auto, which is to say having something that can independently look at stuff, automatically redesign them in all of the unexpected ways, and ban those from ever being printed.

[–] tilefan@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

I think at best they're going to be playing a catch up game at all times. it might be nice and easy for printers that are connected to the internet and can get regular updates, but it doesn't take a genius to airgap his printer

[–] tilefan@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

people are making those out of plastic?

[–] BrikoX@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

3D printers are no longer limited to a single plastic. They can use wood, metal, carbon fiber and even organic materials these days.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Also, material sciences have flourished. Lots of plastics can even outperform metal in specific tasks

[–] tilefan@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

right, but are they making these out of plastic? the article says tiny pieces of plastic.

[–] Gerudo@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Yes they are made of plastic

[–] Tiltinyall@beehaw.org 2 points 2 months ago

I've never seen a 3D printer itself able to convert a gun to fully automatic. 3D printers don't kill semi-autos, people kill semi-autos.