3D-Printed 'Liberator' Handgun Successfully Test-Fired


On Friday, we reported that Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson had unveiled the world's first completely 3D-printed firearm (except for a steel nail used as a firing pin). On Saturday, Rep. Steve Israel fulminated that it should be illegal to actually use your 3D printer to make such a gun, or even to make ammunition magazines, though his proposed law has no potential for preventing you from doing anything of the sort. And now, Defense Distributed has released video of the aptly named "Liberator" (apparently named after the mass-produced, single-shot pistol air-dropped to Europe during World War Two) being successfully test fired. Oh, and the plans are available for download (the site seems to be slammed, now, so you might give it some time). The world moves fast, doesn't it?
From Defense Distributed:
Wired reports that the ammunition used in the test-firing was .380, which is a fairly popular self-defense round, at the low end of power (and therefore an appropriate choice for an experimental plastic weapon). Interchangeable barrels in 9mm and .22 are also planned, though the gun is definitely still experimental and suffered a burst barrel. The Defense Distributed blog shows what looks like a broken receiver, too, though that could be add-on damage from the barrel.
This is more of a very impressive proof of concept than a complete game-changer, but it's ample demonstration that technology is rapidly outstripping the ability of governments to control how it's used. Look at what was accomplished here in just a few short months, and extrapolate a future of empowered individuals and frustrated Steve Israels from that.
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I hope these guys are very careful about dotting all of their legal Is, crossing all of their Ts, and never driving over the speed limit or visiting 4chan. I imagine powerful people are very unhappy with them.
Chuck Schumer is already on the case. What the hell is wrong with New Yorkers?
Within 50 miles of NYC is the greatest concentration of douchebags outside of LA or DC. These people hold almost all the political power in NY.
Rural NYers are generally much better but are powerless against thier downstate betters.
Not all upstaters are rural. Three of the largest cities in the state are upstate: Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.
Duh. All NY outside NYC is upstate.
About the only thing that makes less sense than banning the manufacture of modern firearms (19th century technology) is requiring a license and such to make gunpowder (6th century technology).
But they're up for that idea, too.
Go look at some of the comments on that Youtube link, if ye dare. Thankfully the top comments are pro-DD, but there's no shortage of bootlicking slime talking about big bad guns.
Nothing drives the control freak parasites out of their minds more than guns (except possibly drugs). Free people have access to the weapons of their choosing for self defense, and they cannot abide that.
I'm thinking a gun made from marijuana. That would be cutting edge.
But then you'd have all those accidental deaths from people doing hits off the barrel when it's loaded...
Wasn't that part of the plot of a Cheech and Chong movie?
Or a gun that shoots marijuana out of the barrel.
You could do that with a shot shell and a loading press.
Have any of the big name gun manufacturers signed off on Israel's legislation yet?
Gun owners have learned how to keep the manufacturers in line since the quisling behavior of a few during the Clinton administration killed the reputation of a few.
Well they've learned how to fucking count. The civilian arms market dwarfs the government/military one.
You mean Bloomberg can't shut down the U.S. gun market by withholding NYC police contracts? [/sarc]
If he ever drops by Arizona, I'll be falling over myself to buy him a beer. I had some of the same ideas (which were inspired by the Holocaust Education and Avoidance Project gun in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon) but he had the will to actually implement them now.
Bravo.
People who hold power despise everything outside of their control. The rush to ban/control/limit this technology - a threat to thier control over the population and hence a threat to thier power - is going to create some very bad legislation.
From that Youtube link:
You know who else was from Austria and wanted to throw people in prison for exercising their free speech and gun rights...
Tell me more about my country. Please. I'm dying to hear.
Because I don't think you have a right to purchase and own a firearm, I get to kidnap and lick you in a cell fir supporting and doing so. /progtard.
I get to kidnap and lick you in a cell
No, they would never have the balls to do it themselves. They outsource to armed agents of the state to do the dirty work, their consciences free and clear, having to never think through the consequences of their beliefs.
I know it was only a typo, but some of us like the idea of being kidnapped and licked in a cell.
Have you been visiting with Warty?
If we're sharing herp-derp comments, from the CBC article we get gems like:
or
I gazed into the abyss so you don't have to.
The infamous weapon-fetishist Mohandas Gandhi, in his First Letter to Lord Irwin, March 2, 1930.
It's hilarious. They got nothing but ad homs and question-begging.
I never get a cogent argument as to why I, personally, should be disarmed.
I liked this one.
Austria, eh? "Shrimp on the barbie!"
Troll.
Here in Austria we have tighter weapon laws and guess what- we have less trouble with firearms than u folks in 'merica have^^
Or, you know what else Austrians didn't have trouble with?
Seaports?
Nazis?
Has anyone else noticed that when ever a neurologist talks about the subconscious, they always act like its not you and you therefore have no control over what you do? It really pisses me off.
"It's not my fault, and here's my psychologist to tell you why."
Consider the source.
I can't say I'll ever have a use for a single shot plastic gun in a rather anemic cartridge, but hey, why not? I just wish the video went into a little more detail in regards to the Liberator's operation.
The purpose of the original Liberator was to be something you'd ambush/backshoot a German soldier with and then take up his superior finely manufactured arms in further resistance. I'm sure we'll be seeing autoloading versions in not too long--the thought of 3D-printed Stens and the like fills me with amusement.
People said the same things about DD printed lower receivers. I think the most recent iteration of that fired like 600+ rounds without breaking down. Just give it some time. This is proof of concept.
I still think materials have a way to go before a 3D printed barrel will be particularly durable or be able to handle higher pressure cartridges.
I may be wrong, but I don't think a 3-D printed barrel is ever going to meet the demand. The 3-D metal printing is a sinter process, which is pretty brittle stuff. I'd thought for a while about a separate plastic barrel with fiberglass or carbon fiber overwrap for a few shots worth, but now I'm thinking a separate metal barrel, with the parts to make a pen out of it. Who'd bust you for a pen? Assemble when you want to be ready to use it.
Ah, yes, the Liberator; perhaps the first gun ever manufactured more quickly than it could be reloaded.
That would make Sen. Schumer the De-Liberator.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new.....-1.1335599
Mmmmmmm. This is high-quality shit here, Irish.
The sad thing is, they almost got the point.
That's why it's so delicious.
Uh if you were born with fingers to probe and legs to run away with, then you're already equipped to do just that.
All the factories are working three shifts I think.
Listen, the BBC is afraid of a ginger uprising. And rightly so. Those soulless monsters will kill and kill again if armed.
Why are you afraid of gingers? What did you do to them to make them mad?
I do not fear them, sir. I just deny them my essence.
More essence for the rest of us! Yay!
Take away the "get away with it" part and he's right. Distributing anal molestation technology is also part of freedom. Just don't use it on anyone. Some thing with guns. They are OK, and you shouldn't shoot anyone that doesn't need shooting.
I got to personally experience the ammo shortage this weekend. I managed to buy one box of 12 gauge and another of 20 gauge. But I guess that long-overdue trip to the range is going to be postponed.
I got excited for a minute thinking I could order in bulk online, but then discovered my Cook County address was going to cause some problems.
Did you happen to see any .30-06? .45 ACP?
I saw some .45, which may have been .45 ACP, but I don't remember. In general, besides plenty of shotgun shells and some .22, whatever was left was weird. Like rounds with triangular cross-sections, and musket balls for hunting wild mustangs, and a box of something with just a picture of Nicolas Cage on it.
Note to self: get a Glock in every caliber.
Except .380. Because cops only!
LOL. The. 22 ammo that is available is ridiculously special purpose or in dry rotted cardboard boxes that have been on shelves since 1983, or low powered stuff that won't run a .22 semi or full auto gun reliably.
Semi-related story.
You know that 5 year old that shot the 2 year old in KY? It happened in the bottom that my Mom is from.
I just found that out today (I didnt follow the story that closely to even notice the county). My Mom knows the family (well, like the great grandparents of the 2 year old).
Anyway, according to her, everyone in the county is "supporting" the family (in that way that they are calling them idiots behind their back).
"Aw, bless their hearts..."
I see the handgrip is now black instead of blue. Small detail, but it improves the esthetics quite a bit.
I'm waiting until they get an autoloading design worked out. Prototypes are rarely pretty (or durable).
But, yes, the black grip does look more suitable than the blue.
They should add a bayonet lug, just as a fuck you to the senators.
Sure, it has less reach and is clumsier than a real knife, but if I get close enough to shoot you, I can stab you when it misfires.
I think just about any 3D printed item should be made with a bayonet lug for that purpose.
Beer mug? Needs a bayo lug.
Cell phone case? Needs a bayo lug.
Bong? Needs a bayo lug.
Dildo? Needs a bayo lug.
Sombody made a mug out of a 4 rail handguard. They're pricey, but you can mount anything you want on that bad boy.
Someone already did. I'll have to look it up, but it's for sale online now.
Well, it may not be 100% the same thing... http://www.battlemug.com/
Oh sorry, I thought you said "someone needs to make..."
My appologies for poor reading comprehension.
I read today that my Senator, Patrick Leahy thinks that Syrians need assault weapons to protect themselves from their own government. Not even a mention of a waiting period or background check.
Jesus Christ, the cognitive dislocation is unfathomable to me. Exactly how fucking stupid do you have to be to hold office?
Passive-Aggressive Notes
Right on cue, io9 starts the pantie wadding process.
I bet if fuckass Dr. Who printed a wimpy Space Fuckhole Gun, they would love the goddman piece of shit.
Why did you direct me to the comments?
...
He's right. Someone should use this thing to kill a fascist.
Someone should use this thing to kill a fascist.
*Fires up 3-D printer, goes online to book flight to D.C.*
Any preferences for which one? There's so many choices.
*Note to DHS: I'm just kidding, I don't even own a 3-D printer.
"Can't be too careful with these things. And since we can't feasibly arrest you (you may have an arsenal of 3d printed killing machines ready to massacre any arresting officers), a drone has been deployed. You may hear a faint buzzing sound followed by a loud noise and a burning sensation. It will only last for a moment" /DHS
Nice try, terrorist.
For the love of god, STOP! No more! You people have an inhuman tolerance for pain.
Welcome to libertarianism, where being a glutton for punishment is mandatory.
I wondered why you kept some of these characters around.
That comment is from the author of the blog post, by the way...
Stop being so glib, HM. Or else I might pretend not to have a problem with your ideology, even though I hate it because I am a violence fetishist although I'm much too chickenshit to ever commit violence myself.
Bonus points for 'glibertarian.' And what the fuck is the difference between an internet educated 'glibertarian' and a 'true libertarian' outside of the progressive fever dreams of this delusional madman?
A true libertarian is someone who rejected libertarianism. Duh.
The fucker is an honest-to-goodness, card-carrying, "bioethicist".
I don't have to say anything else.
So what's the difference between a bioethicist and a shitty sci-fi writer? Shitty sci-fi writers are more realistic?
I imagine he does have one or two problem with even "real" libertarians, after all.
The answer is here.
I'm shocked, shocked at this revelation.
Bioethicists almost routinely want people to die painfully if the alternative option is technologically enabled freedom from TOP. MEN.
Is it okay to want bioethicists to die painfully if the alternative is listening to them?
I don't have to say anything else.
Yes you do. Specifically,
Ha ha!
/Nelson Muntz
There were fascists killed 22 minutes ago?
Also, screw this guy for equating his design with the historical Liberator pistol. The former is libertarian posturing. The latter killed fascists.
And what suggests the former isn't going to kill fascists? Oh, because the guy writing the comment is the fascist, so he's no longer comfortable with killing fascists.
Also, screw this guy for equating his design with the historical Liberator pistol. The former is libertarian posturing. The latter killed fascists. 22 minutes ago
No, it didn't. At least as far anyone knows:
I almost hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that the Liberator pistol was never used in Europe. The vast majority of them were dumped into the ocean.
The hysteria is hilarious, but do they not know any kid with two years of machine shop under his belt can make a simple gun?
Progtard Guns Are Magical Mentality.
No clue whatsoever. They are 100% mechanically illiterate.
In the Philippines they have backyard gun smiths in which untrained Filipino 14 year olds churn out handguns by the truck full. Somehow they haven't figured out that the moment guns are banned, Mexican drug cartels and backwoods meth cooks are going to get into the gun making business.
Don't forget Pakistan. They make copies of modern firearms by hand, in some pretty primitive workshops.
So, background checks before you can get a permit to attend a chop class now?
We should write a letter as convincingly as we can make it sound to Schumer demanding shop class background checks. Completely try to convince him to make it an issue. A few more nudges and we' ll have the total statist boxed in.
Of course, he's not going to give direct attention to a civie. Find out who the new cute young thang on his staff happens to be, and try to convince her that this is an unknown issue ready to boil over this generation of Klebold and Harris's are taking shop classes to bully and kill their fellow students. She'll think bringing this to the fore will boost her career as being on the cutting edge of banning shit defines their cred in progtard land.
Replace 'as' with 'given' in the last sentence, it will excrete more sense.
Thousands and thousands of boys and girls are killed every day by home made (or shop class made) zip guns. Innocent children are tricked into believing what they are actually crafting is a high-quality bird house, or perhaps a clock with photographs of their grandparents where the numbers should go. But what actually comes out of the Easy-Bake oven or PlayDoh factory is a terrible killing machine meant only to kill and maim and kill! Please, urge your local representative to just ban everything. For the children.
Illegal in NY!
Please, stop banning things for NY, I have enough problems as it is.
No, because remaining willfully ignorant of how firearms actually work is frequently a point of personal pride and desired tribal signaling.
Two years of machine shop experience?? Hell I made a "cannon" from steel tubing when I was 12, it shot wamo ammo through the neighbors steel tool shed. Yes it was stupid and I did live to tell about it
Your special, I mean for a typical kid, he's going to need those two years to get it right.
You're
In such a rush right now I need to do an ass check to make sure its properly attached.
do they not know any kid with two years of machine shop under his belt can make a simple gun?
Fucker probably never took shop. It certainly wouldn't have come up while pursuing a degree in Permanently Aggrieved Class Studies.
No, they really don't. Trying to explain to someone that the real magic of an AK is the fact that it can essentially be built out of sheet metal by someone with a 4th grade education and minimal tools never sinks in. All guns are forged in a complex and mysterious process by evil NRA scientists/shamen, sprinkled with evil spells, and transported to Seedy Gun Stores by the Nazgul riding Koch brothers.
Which makes for some hilarity - to me at least - when I point out that basically any jackass with a HF drill press can finish an 80% AR receiver, and this capability has existed since forever. Which means that unless UBC covers 'blocks of vaguely gun part shaped metal' there's never been a reason for a moderately non-lazy criminal to ever have to get a background check.
I'm glad DD is doing this--it tends to give more evidence to discredit the idea that gun control has any hope of working.
It teally is amazing, though, just how many people, eveb the ones who own and shoot firearms, have no idea about the inner workings of them and what makes them work. I have had conversations with folks about guns that left me scratching my head quite literally in astonishment at their complete lack of understanding of the mechanics of a firearm.
I guess it's like a car or a TV. If it works, not too many people give a shit why.
But those three things are simple, and of the lot, the one I'd give myself the best chance of being able to manufacture from scratch (without plans from the internet) would be some form of firearm. What aren't people learning these days where common devices seem magical to them?
Fuck, dude, I bet it would be pretty easy to adapt one of these into a real weapon.
Eh, I'll cop to it: I need a YouTube video to totally break down my guns. I mean, I can field strip, rough clean, and lube in like five minutes, no problem, but I need that YouTube video to break them down totally.
I know that John Moses Browning (PBUH) made certain things a certain way, and mortals trifle with them at their peril.
What kind of baroque fucking guns are you shooting? Even my stupidly overdesigned Walter breaks down completely in 30 seconds.
You can detail strip it that quick? As in take it apart into a mound of springs, cams, levers and such?
Sure, dude. There's only like 8 parts in the slide. Although I haven't done it in about 10 years, so it would probably take like 5 minutes, plus another 30 to find the springs that shot off behind furniture.
That's the real issue.
The .22 pistol is the real pain in the ass. My 9mm and my revolver are no problem. The AR is a bit tricky, but not too bad.
Plus I don't want to be the guy who brings in a cardboard box full of parts to his gun store asking them to put it together for him.
Yeah, the springs are what make me nervous. Some operations are very hard to reverse.
Plus I don't want to be the guy who brings in a cardboard box full of parts to his gun store asking them to put it together for him.
It's not too embarrasing if it's your own gun.
Had a rather seriosly ticked off lady call me one time. Her husband had "checked out" her new Beretta, before she even got it to the range, and couldn't get it back together.
She came over with the gun in a paper sack. After I showed her how to un-field-strip it, she wanted to know how much she owed me. When I said not to worry about it her response was, "You don't understand. This is my husband's checkbook. Now, how much do I owe you?"
I think I charged him enough to keep him off the couch, but I wasn't about to go find out.
Perhaps he has an extensive Colt Double Eagle collection.
The Double Eagle is an abomination. It is a sin, and a blasphemy.
That only seems to make me want one more.
No no no
Single action, single stack. If Browning had wanted a double action trigger, he would have put one in it.
I shot one back in the day. Crap.
Aww, man, why cna't abomination, sin and blasphemy be in good quality merchandise?
Everyone needs a guide at first to properly disassemble and reassemble a gun to its very component parts. I'm talking about people who have no curiosity to do so or to explore why the gun does what it does, and why the parts and their arrangement are necessary to tge particular design.
Well that's the flip side of Tactical Tupperware. I mean, you could probably put 10,000 rounds through a Glock before it locked up on you.
As tech gets more and more reliable, fewer and fewer people bother to learn the ins and outs of it.
While I don't think one has to be a gunsmith to be qualified to shoot a gun, I believe that a gun owner should be able to take the gun apart, clean it, and put it back together again. I would think that in the process of disassembling and reassembling the firearm, one would gain a semblance of understanding of how it works.
At this juncture, I have to cede one point to the internet, I didn't even know my Mosin-Nagant had a safety until I decided to read the manual online. Mind you it takes more time and effort to work the safety than to load the gun from empty, so it's never been used. Though I will never again remove the central screw from the bolt assembly, as getting that thing back together correctly was not fun.
Is gun. Is not safe.
Huh. When I asked to owner of one if it had a safety he said, "Don't point it at anything you don't want a big hole through."
Well, yeah, but there is a mechanical safety in the design. No one ever uses it because it's a pain in the ass. It literally involves pulling back against the strongest spring in the bolt assembly to move the firing pin far enough back that it can't reach the chamber, then locking it on a lug to keep it there. It is easier by far to use other means of keeping it safe than to fight the machine.
Either that or I have a mutant nagant with a super-strong safety spring, but I doubt it.
*wiggles index finger*
"Well, this is my safety, sir."
^this^
It's why I carry a gun that doesn't have a mechanical safety. If I pull the trigger, I expect the gun to go bang. no secondary steps necessary. Pull, squeeze, bang.
Same principal: "The only safety that makes a difference is between your ears."
I agree. I have just heard so many people saying blatantly wrong things about how certain firearms function that I don't know where to start in correcting them.
On another note, think just how simple most 1st and 2nd generation submachineguns are: a heavy bolt delays blowback long enough to see bore pressures reduced to safe venting levels before the breech opens. A fixed firing pin on the bolt face pre-ignites the cartridge as the bolt closes on it, actually using some of its forward momentum to further seal the breech for a few extra milliseconds. Understand those concepts and a subgun is a simple project for those inclined. The magazine is the most complicated part of the system.
Yeah like a Sten or a Grease Gun right? Or a Swedish K?
Yup. Those suckers are probably the most simple automatic weapons to make. Much easier than making a semi-auto, actually.
Speaking as someone who carried a grease gun in the Army, I have to agree. Those things are bone simple. Wildly inaccurate, but simple as hell.
It's like a crossbow...but for bullets!
Stens and grease guns are technically second gen. UZIs and the one Czech gun the name of which escapes me and the M10/11 series are good examples of third gen guns where the bolt actually telescopes over the barrel, making the gun shorter overall.
The MP5 is a 4th gen gun that fires from a closed bolt. Closed bolt eas suppozed to get more accuracy and maybe a little more safety but the UZI had already addressed the safety issues and the accuracy problem is only an issue if you don't practice with open bolt guns.
The Thompson is a first gen gun that was more complex than needed at furst but got improved over its lifecycle into a great (if brutally heavy) SMG.
So many weird mispellings. Are you having a stroke? Should we call you help? Or did John hack your account?
If you're having a stroke, mash a bunch of random keys and hit submit.
There could be a cat on his keyboard. db, if there is a cat on your keyboard, adssqqqqqdddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd
My cats are actually really good about no walking on my keyboards. They walk on Dr. Girlfriend's with impunity, however.
Plus, not a stroke, just a mobile phone and an inpatient typist.
Sad state of being if you ask me. As a kid, it killed me not knowing how the internal combustion engine worked so I took the time to find out with the resources available to me. This, even though cars were never in my top twenty interest in life.
That's the thing. The author of the blog post and his ilk are completely into DIY, as long as one only makes useless hipster fad shit.
You can't hug your arms with artisinal mayonnaise!
Yeah, the Make magazine crowd is almost pathologically liberal. I say this as a charter subscriber.
Yeah, I was brought up to be inquisitive about how stuff worked. By the 7th grade I had already figured out how Semi-auto pistols and full auto machineguns worked.
In Marine boot camp I was the guy who had "Joker's" job (from Full Metal Jacket) - I had a short list of names of the slow recruits to whom I was assigned to provide extra coaching to teach them how to dissassemble their rifles.
Progressives get all of their opinions from T.V. and movies. This is why they believe that waving a gun in someone's general direction will magically kill them.
That's what made me laugh about the 'why do you need that many bullets?' argument. I've heard that in wartime a thousand rounds are fired for every death. Yet somehow having 8 bullets is beyond the pale.
Well, on TV firearms have no recoil and even tiny handguns can pick up grown men and throw them through plate glass windows, usually in slow motion.
Conservation of energy and Newton's Third Law, what's that?
And a fifteen round pistol-caliber magazine will mow down 147 ninjas.
What a stiff ass. I can fire a handgun more casually than that.
With a 20% it blows up in your hands?
I've blown a lot of things up in my hands.
I think he was worried about it blowing up in his hand.
Norway? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
What a retard.
I'm pretty sure his spelling has killed more people than my AR.
This guns is dildos.
Nah-uh is real cool cod piece.
And yet, Norway's "super strict" laws were impotent when a certain Norwegian decided to kill 77 and injure 319.
Funny, that.
"Anders Breivik likes this comment."
make the rules super strict and no one gets hurt.
Most of what I know about guns comes from playing FPSes. Though I completely support 2A and gun rights, I get the feeling I am a total outlier on personal gun ownership round these parts. Seems like just about everyone else is big into them.
I don't think you can truly enter adulthood without owning a gun. Besides, they're freaking sweet. Go get one.
Yeah I mean, I've started off like 15 or 16 people with guns. No one has hated it. Then again, those are the people who are open to actually going to the range.
Still, it's very interesting to me that not one of the people I've introduced to shooting has said "ok, thanks but I don't think I like it."
I've had one. In 30 years of teaching.
Woman got involved with a gun owner, who wasn't going to change. She asked me for a class on handling guns safely and unloading them, but not shooting them. So that's what I gave her.
You're like me and drugs/alcohol. I am a lifelong teetotaller. You should see the looks I get when I say I would be perfectly fine with heroin being sold in corner stores.
"But you don't even drink!"
Fuck has that got to do with anything?
I drink, but same deal with drugs. Except for nicotine. And caffeine.
It's truly fucking hilarious watching the statist retards melt down as their dream of All-Powerful Government creating Nerfworld dribbles pathetically out of their ears.