4 ms·

The article says the alarm is over a perceived increase in the ease of obtaining an unregistered and untraceable gun. If that’s your goal, isn’t it still lucky

The article says the alarm is over a perceived increase in the ease of obtaining an unregistered and untraceable gun. If that’s your goal, isn’t it still lucky easier to obtain a manufactured firearm, grind off the serial number, and then (somehow) modifying or distort the refiling? Even excluding that option, I’d imagine it’s essier for these types to find a buddy who owns a mill and lathe and make a gun the old fashioned way than it is to build or obtain a working metal-capable 3D printer (and the result will still need finish machining on a mill and large anyway, right?)

CapitalistCartr 8y ago
The 3D printed guns aren't metal; they're plastic, and this is as good an idea as it sounds.
- em3rgent0rdr 8y ago
  The guns made with the Ghost Gunner CNC mill are made out of 7075 billet aluminum, which is strong enough for multiple shots.
niij 8y ago
Tampering with a firearm serial # is a felony (up to 10 years in prison).
- bnolsen 8y ago
  because definitely people died due to the filing.
AngryData 8y ago
Yes, it is done very commonly although filing the number isn't 100% effective. As for changing other parts of the gun, matching the rifling on bullets or marks on the shell or primer is 99% of the time impossible unless you got some significant manufacturing defects or wear marks. They could possibly tell it came from a certain certain manufacturer's model, but mostly they just know what caliber it was, and there are tens of thousands of identical guns of that model all over too, it's like having the fingerprint of 1 of 20,000 clones. Some of them you can rule out due to unique defects or scars, but at least half of them are going to be too closely indistinguishable from another to tell.
- jimmywanger 8y ago
  For a semi, once you want to get rid of it, ram a file down the barrel, take a hammer to the extractor, file the surface of the fireing pin, field strip the gun and toss it in different places (preferably in salt water). That sounds like a lot of work, but without disposal it takes like 10 minutes. For a revolver, you slam a file down the barrel, forcing cone, file the striking surface and the chamber, take that apart and ditch it separately (again in salty water). Even if they manage the find all the parts, they will never be able to match up ballistics. And hey, somebody stole your gun, you have no idea why they would do all that.

CapitalistCartr 8y ago

The 3D printed guns aren't metal; they're plastic, and this is as good an idea as it sounds.

em3rgent0rdr 8y ago
The guns made with the Ghost Gunner CNC mill are made out of 7075 billet aluminum, which is strong enough for multiple shots.

niij 8y ago

Tampering with a firearm serial # is a felony (up to 10 years in prison).

bnolsen 8y ago
because definitely people died due to the filing.

AngryData 8y ago

Yes, it is done very commonly although filing the number isn't 100% effective. As for changing other parts of the gun, matching the rifling on bullets or marks on the shell or primer is 99% of the time impossible unless you got some significant manufacturing defects or wear marks. They could possibly tell it came from a certain certain manufacturer's model, but mostly they just know what caliber it was, and there are tens of thousands of identical guns of that model all over too, it's like having the fingerprint of 1 of 20,000 clones. Some of them you can rule out due to unique defects or scars, but at least half of them are going to be too closely indistinguishable from another to tell.

jimmywanger 8y ago
For a semi, once you want to get rid of it, ram a file down the barrel, take a hammer to the extractor, file the surface of the fireing pin, field strip the gun and toss it in different places (preferably in salt water). That sounds like a lot of work, but without disposal it takes like 10 minutes. For a revolver, you slam a file down the barrel, forcing cone, file the striking surface and the chamber, take that apart and ditch it separately (again in salty water). Even if they manage the find all the parts, they will never be able to match up ballistics. And hey, somebody stole your gun, you have no idea why they would do all that.