Law enforcement agencies across Europe are on alert over the proliferation of gun-making software that is easily found on the Internet and can be used to make a weapon on a consumer-grade 3-D printer. So far, there are no reported episodes of violence committed with such weapons, but police officials worry it is just a matter of time.
European authorities are even more wary about this software than American lawmakers and law enforcement because gun regulations tend to be far stricter in European countries than they are in the United States. The article discusses a lot of the interesting issues that 3-D printers raise, including whether guns printed on them are practical, worries about whether they can be smuggled through conventional security systems, and the possibility of firearm restrictions taking place on the level of the private printer manufacturers:
A Danish company, Create it REAL, which makes 3-D printers, says it might have another possible solution. It has developed software that looks for the characteristics of weapon designs and, when detected, blocks the printer from making a firearm. “If certain features align, the software will not allow the user to view and print the model,” Create it REAL says on its Web site.
The company notes that hacking of the software is always possible. In any event, measures like the embedded-software approach may be the way to go when it comes to regulating 3-D printed guns -- especially when they can be designed in a gun-friendly state in the United States, but downloaded all over the world.
Continuing to assume that printed firearms will be low-quality may be a temporarily valid critique, but with ever-improving printing technology (including increasing forays into printing metal items), regulations will need to address what will soon become a technological reality.
