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A model of 3D printed rifle called the FGC-9 (which stands for F*** Gun Control) is being used by rebels fighting against the authoritarian genocidal military junta in Myanmar which regained power after a military coup deposed the democratically elected leader in 2021. If that's not enough, the government of Myanmar is not at all shy about killing civilians, from what I've heard.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/guns-are-being-3d-printed-myanmar-199401
https://observers.france24.com/en/asia-pacific/20220114-3d-printed-weapons-myanmar-rebels
Apparently they've got 3D printers set up in guerilla jungle hideouts. The creator of the FGC-9 was a young German-Kurdish man named Jstark who died recently, possibly of a heart condition.
My thoughts: It's sad that some progressive organizations might be reluctant to bring positive attention to the rebels or the tools they use because it arguably hurts their cause or something.
If I was a guy like Jstark or Cody Wilson, and I was concerned about PR, I might say something truthful but strategic like "the most important thing to me is getting these files somewhere where they can't be taken down and where they can be accessed by anyone, because that's the only way for me to help rebels like these. I care about the downsides of making these guns available, but I've calculated things and it is greatly overshadowed by the upside." Or something. I didn't phrase that well.
Edit: A cleaner way to say it: "the moral benefit of 3D-printed guns to citizens living under brutal authoritarian dictatorships in places like Myanmar is so great that the harm caused to the rest of the world would need to be truly massive in order to outweigh it, and I do not believe it is so massive, if it is indeed a net harm to the wellbeing of other countries."
Are these 3d printed guns remotely useful in combat? I can't imagine any plastic parts---let alone printed plastic---standing up to the pressures/temperatures created when firing a bullet. And AK47s are already dirt cheap.
I could see a 3d printed gun being useful for an easily concealable, single-shot assassination weapon, but that's not what a jungle guerrilla needs.
Printed weapons include machined parts, including the barrel and springs. It's possible tp machine those parts using basic printed tools, for instance rifling can be done electrically with a current and some water. Generally the plastic parts are the complicated fabrication of the frame and trigger casing, and the screws, spring, and barrel are metals.
The FGC-9 has, to my knowledge, been regularly tested out to 1000 rounds with minimal wear. Printed parts greatly reduces the overhead of getting tactically useful parts for cheap and on demand, and makes repairs and part-replacement fast, cheap, and easy. I've been watching the space for years now and it is significantly more sophisticated than you seem to give credit. Most major form factors have a printable version that can be found online, with instructions and requirements, at a significantly reduced price for materials.
I'm not an expert in shop, but what's stopping people from publishing digital, open source schematics for using more traditional metalworking to make firearms? Would it be too effective, a kind of "how to build a nuke in your kitchen" type thing, or are 3d printers really that much more accessible?
What does it take to make an AK, probably more than just a lathe right?
Nothing is stopping them. If you have a metalworking workshop you can make a Sten SMG. Or an AK. The benefit of things like FGC-9 is that you don't have to be seen around a lathe or a clapped-out Bridgeport machining something that looks very much like a gun barrel or a receiver.
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I read a decent primer on making zipguns (the name for what you're talking about) a while back. Takes some skill to make a weapon that isn't going to blow your hand off but it's definitely not rocket science. Sufficiently motivated people do it; Shinzo Abe was recently assassinated with a zipgun.
I'd take a zipgun made of metal over a plastic one any day.
These aren't plastic, though. It's a metal gun with plastic frame and some minor parts.
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Because the people doing the publishing generally rent apartments or reside in condos without garages. Autistic single nerds in their 20s and 30s don't generally own homes.
It's hard to make schematics when you don't have the tools to test them with; by contrast, even a shoebox apartment can accommodate a 3D printer, a vise block, a bucket for EDM rifling, and some hand tools.
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Nothing. It's easily accessable. You can just search "AR lower CNC file" and it should show up as the first result.
Building a gun from entirely from scratch is extremely difficult and costly for one person, but most of these files assume you're only interested in making the part that's actually regulated (the lower reciever).
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I’ve assumed that’s already the case. Not sure how amateur gunsmiths are most likely to learn. I guess it wouldn’t be too surprising if (at least in America) it’s one of those skills managed entirely by cultural norms.
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