second amendment

U.S. Government vs. DEFCAD 3D Printable Gun: You Can’t Fix Stupid

"They’re like the Society Matron who walks into the dining hall in a Three Stooges short and demands 'What is the meaning of this?!!' To them the Internet is just a big Series of Tubes, and all they have to do is shut off a valve somewhere to control the flow of information. Only the Internet doesn’t work that way. In John Gilmore's phrasing, it treats censorship as damage and routes around it. Their legal rationale — export control legislation — displays the same conceptual failure. They couldn’t quite grasp that the 'goods' that DEFCAD was 'exporting' arrived in their destination ports around the world the second the files were uploaded to the website." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingU.S. Government vs. DEFCAD 3D Printable Gun: You Can’t Fix Stupid

Missouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control Measures by a Veto-Proof Majority

"All federal acts, laws, orders, rules, and regulations, whether past, present, or future, which infringe on the people’s right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution shall be invalid in this state, shall not be recognized by this state, shall be specifically rejected by this state, and shall be considered null and void and of no effect in this state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMissouri Legislature Nullifies All Federal Gun Control Measures by a Veto-Proof Majority

State Department Demands Takedown Of 3D-Printable Gun Files For Export Control Violations

"On Thursday, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson received a letter from the State Department Office of Defense Trade Controls Compliance demanding that he take down the online blueprints for the 3D-printable 'Liberator' handgun that his group released Monday, along with nine other 3D-printable firearms components hosted on the group’s website Defcad.org. Wilson compares his new legal troubles to the widely-followed case in the mid-1990s of Philip Zimmermann, the inventor of the cryptography software PGP who was threatened with indictment under ITAR for putting his military-grade encryption software online." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingState Department Demands Takedown Of 3D-Printable Gun Files For Export Control Violations

3D-Printed Gun’s Blueprints Downloaded 100,000 Times In Two Days (With Some Help From Kim Dotcom)

"That’s the number of downloads of the 3D-printable file for the so-called 'Liberator' gun that the high-tech gunsmithing group Defense Distributed has seen in just the last two days, a member of the group tells me. The gun’s CAD files have been ten times more popular than any component the group has previously made available, parts that have included the body of an AR-15 and the magazine for an AK-47. 'This has definitely been our most well-received download,' says Haroon Khalid, a developer working with Defense Distributed. 'I don’t think any of us predicted it would be this much.'" Continue reading →

Continue Reading3D-Printed Gun’s Blueprints Downloaded 100,000 Times In Two Days (With Some Help From Kim Dotcom)

2 Virginia Boys Suspended For Using Pencils As Guns

"Two Suffolk second graders have been suspended for making shooting noises while pointing pencils at each other. Media outlets report the 7-year-old boys were suspended for two days for a violation of the Suffolk school system’s zero-tolerance policy on weapons. They were playing with one another in class Friday at Driver Elementary. 'When I asked him about it, he said, ‘Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,’' said Paul Marshall, one of the boys’ fathers. Suffolk Public Schools spokeswoman Bethanne Bradshaw said a pencil is considered a weapon when it’s pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made." Continue reading →

Continue Reading2 Virginia Boys Suspended For Using Pencils As Guns

Gun Violence in the USA Has Declined for 20 Years

"Gun violence has been falling in the United States for two decades. Between 1993 and 2010, the gun homicide rate fell by 49%. The public does not perceive this, thanks to media attention to specific cases of gun violence. Rates for all categories of violence have fallen. This includes gun violence. The same study revealed that 56% of those surveyed believe that gun violence is worse today than in 1993. Another 26% think it is about the same. Only 12% think it has declined. What about mass shootings? These account for 1% of all homicides. But stories about them attract readers. The public is uninformed. This comes as no surprise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGun Violence in the USA Has Declined for 20 Years

California, New York and DC look to ban 3D-printed guns

"A handgun made almost entirely using a consumer-grade 3D printer fired a bullet over the weekend for the first time in the history of the infant technology. If some lawmakers have their way, it will also be the last. Defense Distributed of Texas announced on Sunday that researchers fired a bullet designed for a traditional .380-caliber firearm with a gun built all but exclusively using digital blueprints, some plastic and an $8,000 printer. The only item aside from the bullet not printed out was a single nail that served as the firing pin. As early s Tuesday, though, California State Senator Leland Yee was already looking to pass a bill that would outlaw other 3D weapons." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCalifornia, New York and DC look to ban 3D-printed guns

Bill Bonner: Americans pose a bigger threat to themselves

"With the numbers before us, you'd think we would at least stop wasting time and money protecting ourselves from terrorism and other bugaboos. The US 'security' budget, all in, is a fabulous sum -- about $1 trillion a year. It seems foolish. The return on investment is paltry. By comparison, suicide prevention - as near as we could make out - is barely a footnote in the federal budget, only about $56 million a year. This despite the fact that the risk to the typical reader posed by himself is about 1,000 times greater that the risk from 'terrorists.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Bonner: Americans pose a bigger threat to themselves

FBI releases April 2013 NICS report; January through April renunciations up by 78%

"The FBI released their latest report on Active Records in the NICS Index last Friday. NICS now contains the records of 21,823 persons who renounced U.S. citizenship under INA § 349(5) (or, theoretically, the wartime provisions of INA § 349(6)) and are thus barred from purchasing firearms in the United States. This is an increase of 319 records as compared to March 2013, and 1,169 records since December 2012. Since last year one additional un-American (or someone using the identity of one) attempted to purchase a gun and got caught during the background check, increasing the total number of denials to renunciants since the inception of the NICS system from 57 to 58." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI releases April 2013 NICS report; January through April renunciations up by 78%

What You Need To Know About The Liberator 3D-Printed Pistol

"The barrel of the gun is threaded but I wouldn’t expect this weapon to be very accurate. Think of this gun as a controlled explosion generator. It uses a very small .380 caliber bullet which is deadly, to be sure, but quite small. Could I print one? Yes. You can easily download the 3D-printable files from DEFCAD.org (here is a private mirror) and if you have a 3D printer you can easily print any of these parts. The creators built this gun using the Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer, a high-resolution printer that works similarly to the Makerbot but offers a far finer and more durable print. This printer has a layer thickness of .25mm, however, which the Makerbot can easily match." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWhat You Need To Know About The Liberator 3D-Printed Pistol