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It's funny. I was looking into 3D printing again, just because I'm in one of my periodic gun obsessions. They usually don't last too long, but they're fierce.
Home manufacture of firearms is already illegal in Illinois, but the march for progress never stops. It is not enough that it is illegal. The movement must be struck until it stops breathing. There are a lot of things I criticize about my political opponents, but one thing that I must admire is the unending struggle they put up. It's pretty obvious to me that Blue Team is going to win to the extent that their position is winnable solely because they really want to win, and no one else does. Everyone else just wants to not lose.
A Brief Look at One 3D Printed Gun
If you're plugged into the 2nd Amendment Bro space at all, you've probably heard of the FGC-9. It's famous because it appears to be semi-decent, and it can be manufactured without any commercial gun parts at all. It's interesting in design and as a cool looking scientific curiosity; hobbyists have figured out how to electrochemically machine barrels so that they are rifled, which is extremely cool. Many notes have been made about its uptake in Myanmar, which is a dirt-poor nation that's currently engaged in some kind of civil war that I'd really like some other Mottizen to post about in detail someday.
But it's 2026 and there have been a lot of designs since then. I don't follow that space very closely, but Google Gemini actually has no qualms about telling you everything it knows about firearms, firearm parts, and firearm laws, and it knows a fair bit about 3D printed hobbyist-designed weapons, too. It told me that the Urutau is the easiest complete gun you can make without any commercial gun parts. Unlike the FGC-9, you don't have to do any welding, which means it's simpler and cheaper to get started. Like the FGC-9, and like the Luty SMG from ages ago, it's another pistol caliber carbine in 9mm. Closed bolt, bullpup, kinda looks like a P90. It takes CZ Scorpion magazines, stepping away from the Glock magazine meta. It looks awesome, actually. Or terrifying, if you're of the other political persuasion and have a working imagination. Here's a video of a dude shooting it. If you're in a country that doesn't arrest you for it, you can find the files and associated documentation in the references for that Wikipedia page. The documentation is very detailed, with many images and explanations.
The Urutau can be almost entirely homemade, but certain parts can be substituted; for instance, a lazy American might just buy a CZ Scorpion magazine instead of printing one and buying a Glock magazine spring to make it functional. In particular, you can substitute the homemade barrel with an AR-9 barrel. If you don't have an AR-15 hammer spring available to you, you can undertake the great joy of making one yourself. You need at least $400 in tools; first, a 3D printer that you know how to use (no, it's not as simple as just pressing "print", and the fancy easier-to-use printers cost a lot more), a bench vise, a handheld drill or a drill press (second one preferred), you need a chop saw or miter saw or hacksaw for cutting and squaring steel, you should probably have a dremel, a caliper, a soldering iron, hex key set, drill bits of various sizes, a flat file for steel, a 2.5mm hex screwdriver, an M6 tap of certain pitch and a tap driver, and a whole additional set of equipment for the ECM process for the barrel. You can print most of the parts, but the bolt carrier assembly is a 36-step process in this documentation, with many opportunities to screw up requiring you to try again, or opportunities to screw up that you don't catch until you notice that your gun sometimes goes off randomly. The lower receiver assembly is 30 steps, rear cap assembly is 7 steps, upper assembly is 17 steps.
What I am hoping to get at here is not to encourage you to start making homemade guns right now, it's actually to tell you that it's a massive pain in the ass, with a lot of measuring, cutting, twisting, screwing, filing, pumping, and it's no certainty that you'll have something usable at the end, but in either case, it will be worse and probably more expensive than a commercial gun. It's not intended for window shoppers and dabblers and gawkers like me, though the movement does create very cool looking concepts that are fun to think about. This is a significant time and money investment for diehard hobbyists.
I think, however, these guns are being designed for times and places that are not 21st century America. The designer of the Urutau is Brazilian. Since the FGC-9 was designed by a European, it's safe to say the 3D printed gun movement is properly global. It's not difficult to imagine a Pakistan-like manufacturing cell churning these out by the hundred. Perhaps one garage gets really good at making bolt carrier groups, one group gets really good at making barrels... This situation could not exist in almost any affluent European nation. Possibly it could exist in America, if someone in the cell got an FFL and dedicated themselves to selling this one thing. Hey, I'd buy it, support local businesses. But really, it's a lot easier to see it happening in a place like Myanmar or Brazil, where powerful factions have need of homemade guns that might be pretty good. Perhaps in 50 years, we'll see how many of these designs have endured, how many have been taken up by the timeless mountain-dwelling gunsmiths of Pakistan.
Pivot to Culture War Angles
I just watched this video of this dorky Vice reporter consensually infiltrating a Ghost Gun Rally. I say he consensually infiltrated because he needed a lot of help to make his own ghost gun so that he could actually participate. He got this help from the apparent organizer of the entire rally. The right wing in America has some of the friendliest extremist sects, if you ask me. Every time he inserts some casual gun control framing, he is pushed back upon by his helper. They get it built; it's just a Glock frame he printed, along with a parts kit he bought. He had to do some filing and drilling to get the frame to take the parts. After creation, it becomes clear that his gun does not work very well. It jams after each shot, even when he's not limp-wristing it. The situation is not very resolved when the rally rolls around.
The gun rally - well, actually a 3D printed gun shooting competition hosted by AWCY (Are We Cool Yet?) - looked like it would be really fun if you're not a Vice reporter. It looked exceptionally friendly for something in the gun sphere, which is plagued by elitists, mall ninjas, and dipshits. Many people came with weapons that they had designed themselves. Many of those weapons also functioned horribly, much like Vice Reporter's gun. Malfunctions did not seem to be the faux pas you'd expect, though. When Hostile Interviewer's turn came up, the gun jammed on every shot, as before. Another member lended him a different slide to attach, which allowed him to shoot perfectly, letting him take 3rd place.
What I was struck by is how so many of the participants willingly spoke to Hostile Dorky Reporter Guy. They talked to him at length, countering his narrative with their own, as respectfully as they could manage, even though his company edited the video to tell them how the creator of the Liberator is a sex offender who had sex with a 16 year old and got a suspended sentence of 7 years. The host was unfazed even as Vice Guy decided to performatively burn his own Glock frame and put harmful plastic fumes in the air right in front of him. I wonder what the participants thought when they saw that Vice Man had showed photos of all their designs to a slightly amused ATF agent, who was a little concerned that some of the guns could be mistaken for toys, but otherwise totally uncaring about this section of the populace.
What I'd like to compare this to is Will Stancil's treatment by the organized leftists in Minneapolis. They abruptly kicked him out, told him he couldn't record anymore and wasn't allowed to help them anymore, and treated him like absolute garbage over on Bluesky every time he posted anything about it. This is in spite of the fact that Will Stancil was almost entirely on their side, with positive media framing guaranteed. In comparison, these right wingers didn't take Vice Will Stancil seriously at all. It doesn't seem like they take much of anyone seriously at all; Vice Will Stancil (VWS for short) was just another amusing part of the gathering. They knew he would frame them badly and they didn't care.
I think the leftists are able to see a much fuller picture of how serious their own movement is, and they have a much easier time coordinating with other leftist aligned spheres. On the other hand, these particular right wingers are hyper-focused on exactly this one aspect of Red Tribe, and nothing else. There's no telling what other beliefs they have. They'd probably be actively hostile to coordinating with other red tribers on anything. What could the other red tribers offer them, anyway? Any politicking would probably just get in the way of the hobby.
On the other hand, they are pretty good at pushing the boundaries of the gun rights movement. The end of the Urutau documentation reads:
This is the same unending willingness to fight that I admired in Blue Tribe at the start of this post. Good or bad, the gun guys are gonna be around for a while.
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