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"While I am as impressed as anyone with 3-D printing technology and I believe it has amazing possibilities," said California state senator Leland Yee (D-San Fra

"While I am as impressed as anyone with 3-D printing technology and I believe it has amazing possibilities," said California state senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), "we must ensure that it is not used for the wrong purpose with potentially deadly consequences. I plan to introduce legislation that will ensure public safety and stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors and that can be easily made without a background check." Why are even bay area politicians so completely dumb about tech. Why can't we get a Jared Polis?

tiredofcareer 14y ago
Oh, he's savvy on tech. Just not the way you want him to be. Leland Yee is a heavy, outspoken critic of the ESRB and was one of the most vocal politicians during the "Hot Coffee" debacle. Not a fan of video games.
huhtenberg 14y ago
What would be a better way to handle this situation? (edit) I'm not saying that this is the best option. The government is tasked with ensuring public safety and this is an issue with major public safety repercussions. They cannot just sit and watch this unfold, and what this guy said is basically the most obvious way of dealing with the situation.
- michaelfeathers 14y ago
  Reconciling themselves to the inevitable, perhaps? That is too much to expect from any government, however.
  - huhtenberg 14y ago
    Elaborate, please. In practical terms. A month from now here are the measures in place to reduce the public safety risk of this development: *write here*
    - smsm42 14y ago
      Here you go: A month from now here are the measures in place to reduce the public safety risk of this development: None needed.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
- smsm42 14y ago
  It is not. Nobody was threatened with this, nobody will ever be threatened with this. This thing is un-concealable and unusable as a real-life weapon in any public safety scenario. If you think anybody with this prototype can threaten public safety you are badly mistaken. The idea that any time anything new happens the government should jump in and prohibit it until it is proven safe is exactly why politicians like this thrive. Instead, people should use their brains and let the government intervene only when actual threat is there, not theoretical lets-cover-our-asses invented threat is touted by politicians.
  - huhtenberg 14y ago
    I'm guessing that one can carry it through the airport security easily enough. It's not that it's printed, it's the fact that it's printed in plastic.
    - smsm42 14y ago
      Have you been to any US airport recently? These guys grab my freaking nuts and touch me in places that usually only myself and my wife are allowed to access. And you say it'd be easy to get through them a piece of a size of a large brick without them noticing? Do you know what mayhem an explosive of a similar volume could create? Something does not add up here with your theory.
      - huhtenberg 14y ago
        You put it in a bag, obviously. As a bonus, you redesign it into larger number of smaller pieces and spread them over several bags. You can stick your head in a sand as much as you want, but this is a game-changing development. If one can print a working gun, one can conceivably print other interesting things that to date were assumed to only exist in metal, the assumption that was the foundation of respective detection technology. The assumption that is no longer valid.
        yummyfajitas 14y ago
        You put it in a bag, obviously. You mean the bag that goes through an X-Ray scanner which detects high density objects?
andyjohnson0 14y ago
Are you saying he's dumb for wanting to restrict gun fabrication , or dumb for thinking that legislation will work when the information is already on the net?
- smsm42 14y ago
  Can I have both please?
madaxe 14y ago
"I will ensure we stamp out and remove those things that we can't detect that can be made with off-the-shelf goods." Uh huh.
smsm42 14y ago
Because people vote for them. People like politicians that say words like "common sense measures" and "ensure public safety" while taking away rights and freedoms. Who needs those rights and freedoms anyway? Think of the children! If you think Bay Area people smarter in this regard that any other people, you have to only look up what politicians are doing with budgets, local regulations, pensions, public welfare, public transportation, etc. around Bay Area and you'd see that knowing tech is not the only area politicians are failing.
temphn 14y ago
Don't usually link to Reddit, but this is worthy of note. In a thread with 3600 comments and 3000+ upvotes was the following exchange: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1e0ybl/3d_gun_blueprints_taken_down_defcad_files_are/c9vxa8x http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1e0ybl/3d_gun_bl... I'm sorry, I seem to have stumbled into bizarro-reddit. On that other reddit they want to ban guns completely. No, what's happening is that the government just made reddit choose between guns or the internet. Guess which reddit chose? The US government is run by people who just don't understand the internet.
hga 14y ago
"stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors" Hate to interject a fact here, but this is one of many reasons RKBA types don't respect gun grabbers: their gross ignorance, of which Yee is a choice example. There's already a Federal Undetectable Firearms Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undetectable_Firearms_Act_of_1988 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undetectable_Firearms_Act_of_19...): "The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 (Pub.L. 100–649, H.R. 4445, 102 Stat. 3816, enacted November 10, 1988) makes it illegal to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm that is not detectable by walk-through metal detectors or has major components that do not generate an accurate image when subjected to inspection by airport x-ray machines." ADDED: and I've read the design includes a metal insert to satisfy this law.

tiredofcareer 14y ago

Oh, he's savvy on tech. Just not the way you want him to be. Leland Yee is a heavy, outspoken critic of the ESRB and was one of the most vocal politicians during the "Hot Coffee" debacle. Not a fan of video games.

huhtenberg 14y ago

What would be a better way to handle this situation? (edit) I'm not saying that this is the best option. The government is tasked with ensuring public safety and this is an issue with major public safety repercussions. They cannot just sit and watch this unfold, and what this guy said is basically the most obvious way of dealing with the situation.

michaelfeathers 14y ago
Reconciling themselves to the inevitable, perhaps? That is too much to expect from any government, however.
- huhtenberg 14y ago
  Elaborate, please. In practical terms. A month from now here are the measures in place to reduce the public safety risk of this development: *write here*
  - smsm42 14y ago
    Here you go: A month from now here are the measures in place to reduce the public safety risk of this development: None needed.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
smsm42 14y ago
It is not. Nobody was threatened with this, nobody will ever be threatened with this. This thing is un-concealable and unusable as a real-life weapon in any public safety scenario. If you think anybody with this prototype can threaten public safety you are badly mistaken. The idea that any time anything new happens the government should jump in and prohibit it until it is proven safe is exactly why politicians like this thrive. Instead, people should use their brains and let the government intervene only when actual threat is there, not theoretical lets-cover-our-asses invented threat is touted by politicians.
- huhtenberg 14y ago
  I'm guessing that one can carry it through the airport security easily enough. It's not that it's printed, it's the fact that it's printed in plastic.
  - smsm42 14y ago
    Have you been to any US airport recently? These guys grab my freaking nuts and touch me in places that usually only myself and my wife are allowed to access. And you say it'd be easy to get through them a piece of a size of a large brick without them noticing? Do you know what mayhem an explosive of a similar volume could create? Something does not add up here with your theory.
    - huhtenberg 14y ago
      You put it in a bag, obviously. As a bonus, you redesign it into larger number of smaller pieces and spread them over several bags. You can stick your head in a sand as much as you want, but this is a game-changing development. If one can print a working gun, one can conceivably print other interesting things that to date were assumed to only exist in metal, the assumption that was the foundation of respective detection technology. The assumption that is no longer valid.
      - yummyfajitas 14y ago
        You put it in a bag, obviously. You mean the bag that goes through an X-Ray scanner which detects high density objects?

andyjohnson0 14y ago

Are you saying he's dumb for wanting to restrict gun fabrication , or dumb for thinking that legislation will work when the information is already on the net?

smsm42 14y ago
Can I have both please?

madaxe 14y ago

"I will ensure we stamp out and remove those things that we can't detect that can be made with off-the-shelf goods." Uh huh.

smsm42 14y ago

Because people vote for them. People like politicians that say words like "common sense measures" and "ensure public safety" while taking away rights and freedoms. Who needs those rights and freedoms anyway? Think of the children! If you think Bay Area people smarter in this regard that any other people, you have to only look up what politicians are doing with budgets, local regulations, pensions, public welfare, public transportation, etc. around Bay Area and you'd see that knowing tech is not the only area politicians are failing.

temphn 14y ago

Don't usually link to Reddit, but this is worthy of note. In a thread with 3600 comments and 3000+ upvotes was the following exchange: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1e0ybl/3d_gun_blueprints_taken_down_defcad_files_are/c9vxa8x http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/1e0ybl/3d_gun_bl... I'm sorry, I seem to have stumbled into bizarro-reddit. On that other reddit they want to ban guns completely. No, what's happening is that the government just made reddit choose between guns or the internet. Guess which reddit chose? The US government is run by people who just don't understand the internet.

hga 14y ago

"stop the manufacturing of guns that are invisible to metal detectors" Hate to interject a fact here, but this is one of many reasons RKBA types don't respect gun grabbers: their gross ignorance, of which Yee is a choice example. There's already a Federal Undetectable Firearms Act (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undetectable_Firearms_Act_of_1988 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undetectable_Firearms_Act_of_19...): "The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 (Pub.L. 100–649, H.R. 4445, 102 Stat. 3816, enacted November 10, 1988) makes it illegal to manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive any firearm that is not detectable by walk-through metal detectors or has major components that do not generate an accurate image when subjected to inspection by airport x-ray machines." ADDED: and I've read the design includes a metal insert to satisfy this law.