Guns and 3-D printers

Seven states and Washington, D.C., sued and successfully obtained a restraining order against release of plans to make firearm parts using 3-D printers. Officials from Illinois called on President Donald Trump's administration to halt the release of blueprints for making a gun with a 3-D printer. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin have both signed on to efforts urging the department to reverse its July decision to drop its challenge against Texas resident Cody Wilson and his company to sell blueprints for guns online.

It is significant that Cody Wilson, his company, Defense Distributed, and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) won a four-year court battle in July, in which the Department of State agreed to pay the plaintiff's legal expenses.

As firearms can easily be assembled from ordinary hardware, felons are more likely to have a hacksaw than an expensive 3-D printer. Industry experts have expressed doubts that criminals would go to the trouble, since the printers needed to make the guns can cost thousands of dollars, the guns themselves tend to disintegrate quickly, and traditional firearms are easy to come by.

So-called "Zip Guns" have been around since the invention of firearms over 600 years ago. The only workable 3-D prints so far are magazines, and even they don't hold up long. Pistol cartridges produce at least 12,000 psi, well beyond the strength of plastic or low alloy steel, and are likely to explode the first time used. The anti-gun factions are once again crying wolf. Anyone who thinks a plastic gun is undetectable hasn't flown on a plane this century.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff