Gun Control: Still a thing?

The conversation about gun control is heating up again. But as a technologist, I find myself questioning the practicality:

Let's ignore for a moment the fact there are already more guns than people in the US.

Let's ignore the fact that the current 300-20k (depending on whose interpretation you accept) current gun control laws don't seem to be working.

Let's ignore the fact that there are a fair number of rabidly crazy 2nd amendment proponents who will require you to pry their firearms form their 'cold, dead hands'.

Let's just talk modern technology.

Over seven years ago, a handful of 20 somethings 3D printed a plastic AR lower and fired a half-dozen rounds through it before it failed. (I remember seeing the vid. Can't find it now).

Another individual at roughly the same time printed a .22-caliber pistol, based on the AR lower, which reportedly was still fully functional after firing 200 rounds (https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/133514-the-worlds-first-3d-printed-gun).

Since then, 3d plastic printers have dropped in price, and quality of plastics has improved. A good 3D printer can be purchased for less than $500. People are successfully printing standard AR lowers and firing large numbers of rounds without component failure. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKw8VVP5VmU)


Today, 3D metal printers are coming of age. In just a few short years they have dropped from million dollar to half-million dollar items. There are even a few in the low $100k range. There is also talk of start-ups trying to build desktop models, aiming for a price point around $1500.


"But can't we just enact laws forcing the printer manufacturers to prevent printing of firearms?"

Ignoring the difficulty of that being not dissimilar to making an antivirus program that can catch all current and future malware (i.e. people will just start building firearms that look like teapots)...

Many 3D printers use the Raspberry Pi, or the Arduino as their controller. The Raspberry pi is an open standards compute platform. It is trivial to re-program.

The Arduino is an open SOURCE platform. This means, with instructions you can build your own controller from scratch, using off the shelf parts; parts that have no code in them.

We are growing ever closer to the time when someone would actually be able to print all the parts for a printer. And build their own custom code for controlling it. And build tools that allow virtually anyone with a skill level sufficient to set the clock on their microwave to do the same.

"Well, let's restrict access to the 3D models people use to print the guns."

I recall a time when the US tried to control cryptography this way. Some geek published the code in a paper he wrote. He won the court case because of the first amendment right to free speech.

Exactly how much freedom are you willing to surrender in order to get control of firearms?

And will that actually fix the problem? A year ago I was in Ireland, listening to a new report of yet another mass-knifing incident in a UK town. The report showed a group of people demonstrating for tougher knife-control laws. This wasn't an isolated event either. (https://freebeacon.com/issues/knife-control-debate-heats-uk-amid-london-murder-spike-2/)


So, yes, is this gun control conversation really a practical endeavor? Or are we tilting at windmills?