Comment by vmception | Hacker News Reader

Comment by vmception | Hacker News Reader

I'm trying to think of a crafty was to respond to this.

There is the free for all approach where we resign to accept the presence of 3D printed guns and let our county mail us instructions on how to 3D print polymer-kevlar vests

There is also a way to work within the constitution to restrict their presence. I don't think any seizure is an affective public policy measure, since that means it was already printed and subsequently found. I'm thinking a tariff on the polymer can be done but that would penalize all 3D makers although stranger things have happened, or an attestation of how the polymer won't be used, or a straight up license with reporting guidelines and a regime that requires the printers to phone home. Of course, non-licensed use being prohibited or severely restricted. And now, same result but without even brushing near the 2nd amendment, and it gives enforcement a pre-emptive reason to act on non-compliance.

Disclaimer, I'm not advocating for anything, I just know a sure-fire approach to making a prohibition stick in the US system: 1) regulate the intermediaries instead of the specific action itself. 2) deputize private individuals or a specific private sector to do the reporting and compliance for you.

> I'm thinking a tariff on the polymer can be done

Criminals would steal the polymer, and not pay the tariff.

Your scanner likely won’t scan money, photoshop may refuse to edit or print images of money (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bank_Counterfeit_Deter...), your printer may black them out, etc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EURion_constellation), all to prevent the easy counterfeiting of money.

Problem, of course, is that, for guns, the exact looks aren’t important. That’s true for child pornography and pirated movies, too, though, and those are being worked on.

So, I foresee tech in commercially bought 3D printers that attempts to disallow printing anything remotely looking like a gun or gun part, and people circumventing that by tweaking models, say by adding easily cut of images of flowers and kittens.

It’s just motors and belts. You can’t stop them from being directly controlled.

Good news, we can arrest people for stealing

Even if they're in a place (like LA) where the DA isn’t trying to arrest people, they can still prioritize certain kinds of thefts

Existing laws like getting a gun from out of state and literally getting back in your car circumvent most local regulations

And yet the municipality is worried about this polymer vector

So it can be reduced by raising the compliance burden and creating other chokepoints that allow for preemptive action

The real answer is that you'd have to essentially ban the internet to keep this from happening. As the recently deceased JStark, designer of the FGC-9, said: "Can't stop the signal".

Instead of trying to craft legislation addressing 3d printed guns directly, it might be more effective for governments to target the 3d printing hobby using environmental rhetoric. They could point to and ridicule the number of "Benchy" boats printed over and over again. A hobby that, at least at first glance, seems obsessed with creating useless plastic trinkets, seems vulnerable to social criticism in this age of environmental awareness.

PLA, the most common 3d printing filament, is biodegradable.

Not really, not in the sense that most people think of it. It can be composted, but certainly not in the backyard pile of vegetable matter most people will imagine when you talk about composting.

Yeah, but it's definitely a step up from petrochemicals, or in firearms uses, glass-filled nylon.

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