- [Narrator] It was Arthur C. Clark,
who famously once said that,
"Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic."
3D printing is a technology in its early stages.
But it's one that allows you to summon
a small inanimate object into existence
with basically speech.
Which sounds like magic.
- [Matthew] So, 3D printing is exactly what it is.
You're printing something out in three dimensions.
There's multiple ways to do it.
The most common way is FDM.
Imagine a hot glue gun, that's sitting on two tracks
and it has a plan that's uploaded to it
and it lays down the plastic in lines.
Then does another layer on top of that
and does this continuously,
until you have your completed product.
- [Narrator] When this technology became available
to the average person, it changed everything.
It allowed hobbyists and professionals
to print out an enormous array of objects.
Everything from replacement game pieces
to replacement machine parts, even medical prosthetics.
All of these objects started out as computer designs
which were then printed out in real space,
made with real materials.
- [Matthew] You start out with your 3D file,
that's your blueprint.
So, you take that 3D model
and you feed it to a program called a Slicer.
The Slicer lays out line by line
instructions for your specific printer what to do.
Hours later, you come back and you've got your product.
- [Narrator] But, some people have raised concerns.
What if you wanted to print a gun, would that be allowed?
Would that be safe?
(upbeat music)
The 3D printed gun debate isn't new.
It's been around for years, which makes sense,
because printing out a gun is actually
a lot more complicated than it sounds.
It's complicated physically.
- [Matthew] This isn't like printing out a PDF.
It's a little bit more involved
in that you have to know a little bit more about materials.
You have to know a little tiny bit of coding as well
in order to have a good result.
This is what people imagine when they think
about 3D printing guns.
They think that they're going to go home to their printer,
hit the button, and then they're going to come back
and there's just gonna be a Glock sitting there
and they're just gonna put rounds in the, you know,
in the cockpit and have it be good to go.
No, because if you try to print out a typical gun
in all plastic and you,
went and fired it with a normal round in it,
it would explode and it would injure you.
The technology is pretty advanced,
we've seen a lot of good progress,
but it is certainly nowhere near the point
where you can just hit print,
and then have a fully competent firearm.
- [Narrator] It's also complicated legally,
at least in the United States.
- [Matthew] Basically the ATF,
bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives,
will make a determination on a firearms design
and they will declare what part of the gun is the receiver.
This is the part of the gun,
where you need a background check
to purchase through a dealer.
You know that can't be shipped directly to your house.
What they decide is the receiver is kind of random
and unprincipled.
So on the AR-15, it's the lower receiver,
which is just the box, which holds the trigger unit.
On the AK-47, it's a hunk of steel.
That is like, basically the barrel is connected to it,
everything is connected to it.
On the FN-FAL, it is where the barrel screws into,
in fact, there's no trigger components in it whatsoever.
So it could be random, it could be random completely.
So, on a lot of these designs, like the AR-15,
the receiver is not under a lot of stress.
So, for those types of designs,
3D printing can produce a pretty effective receiver.
And then you can assemble the rest of the gun with off the
shelf parts and have it last,
you know, a few hundred rounds.
They generally haven't gotten to the point
where they're as reliable,
or as effective as an off the shelf weapon.
But it's, it's definitely matured.
For other guns, where the receiver is under stress.
Like the AK, like the FAL and like many other designs.
There's just no way, to print it out of plastic.
In other countries, all of the stuff is regulated.
So, there's not really much advantage or concern
about whether, what the us government considers a receiver.
So, that's when you get into talking
about the fully 3D printed guns.
That is not developed.
- [Narrator] The thing to remember
about guns in the United States
is that it's actually not illegal to make them yourself.
And 3D printing, doesn't change that.
- [Matthew] You are allowed, to make your own guns.
And you've always have been in this country.
There's nothing different about 3D printing.
When you make your gun,
you can't make it with the intention of selling it.
So, you can't just start up your printer
and start pumping out lower receivers to, to sell to people.
You can't just make out a machine gun without registering.
You know, you can't just make out a short barrel rifle,
short barrel shot gun without registering it,
it does have to follow those rules,
but, if it does follow those rules
and it's just a normal firearm,
it's pretty much good to go, usually.
- [Narrator] Granted, 3D printed guns
are a little bit different, but for an unusual reason.
See, anything 3D printed starts as a computer file.
Usually a 3D model that someone has designed.
But that file, is just a file
until the person who wants to do the printing
takes that file and configures it specially,
so that it'll work on their particular printer.
This means that, if a designer sends the design for a gun
to someone else,
what they're sending is not a physical product.
It's speech, and speech is protected by the First Amendment.
- [Matthew] So a lot of people
try to separate 3D printable files from speech by saying,
well, this winds up making something, all right.
Something physical happens as a result.
Just because something can be used to create something
has nothing to do with whether it's speech or not.
So if I were to speak out my
mother's Jamaican oxtail recipe.
Would you say that I have cooked oxtail, that day?
No, I spoke, I mean, speech.
So a recipe is pretty similar to a 3D printable file.
You can use that information to create something.
You can also not.
Any design is speech,
whether it's painted printed or coded.
It really is a First Amendment issue because,
the only way you could regulate the technology
is by regulating the files.
- [Narrator] If blueprints and recipes are speech,
then 3D files are speech too.
And that means that,
according to the constitution we have today,
the government can't prohibit them.
- [Matthew] It's only a right,
if it applies to things you don't like.
You might hate seeing these gun designs,
it might bother you.
You might also hate listening to Nickelback on the radio.
- Look at this Photograph
- [Matthew] But that doesn't mean that you can take it down.
- [Narrator] So, how do we regulate 3D printed guns?
What about criminals who might print them
for nefarious purposes?
- [Matthew] So, There's a lot of people
who are concerned about criminals,
using this technology to their benefit.
Like, people are concerned that they'd print a gun
that could get through a metal detector, things like that.
That's really overstated, it's not a real concern.
It's certainly not at the point where you can just,
hit print and then have a semiautomatic firearm come out.
It's just not there yet.
And with the materials, I doubt it ever will be.
- [Narrator] Under our current constitutional framework,
regulating 3D printed guns is just about impossible.
The files are impossible to regulate
and regulating the printers themselves,
would destroy a budding industry
before it even fully got off the ground.
- [Matthew] The way you'd have to enforce something
to actually prevent spreading files would be, Draconian.
You'd have to either regulate the printers themselves,
thereby taking this hugely beneficial technology,
just off the table for a large number of people.
Or you'd have to be monitoring, you know,
who's posting what, where they're going.
It is really, really scary stuff.
Sure, there are risks,
but there are risks with every new technology,
there are risks with every development.
And I think that all of the objective benefits
that are beyond reproach with 3D printing,
should be enough to say,
just leave it alone, just don't touch it.
- [Narrator] The world might change.
3D printing might advance to the point
where printing guns might be easy, simple, and cheap.
But in the world we live in right now,
it doesn't seem like that's the case.
- [Matthew] If your only argument
against an emerging technology is that you're scared of it.
I don't think it should be enough
to bind the rest of the country.
- [Narrator] In the meantime, we should stop worrying
and enjoy the many amazing things 3D printing has to offer.
(downbeat music)