This is the same story we keep hearing over and over again. Cops hears about Defense Distributed’s Liberator, test it out for themselves, and watch as any last shred of hope of being able to control the proliferation of firearms disintegrates. It’s something that supporters of the Second Amendment are loving, but gives police state advocates nightmares. The latest example comes from the former prison colony of Australia . . .

From The Age:

From 16 parts it only took police 27 hours to build the guns. Despite the how-to guide being removed from the web earlier this month at the request of the US government, it has already been downloaded 100,000 times across the world and remains available on file-sharing networks.

“Make no mistake they will kill at both ends,” Mr Scipione said.

“It is an offence to make, an offence to possess and an offence to use,” he said.

Yeah, their gun blew up. But I get the distinct impression they wanted it to blow, and did everything in their power to make it do so. As they said in the article, everything about this gun is already illegal in Australia. But there’s not a single damned thing keeping every Aussie with a 3D printer from cranking them out 24/7. So the only thing they have left is fear, trying to scare Ozzies away from making them.

The Tarkin doctrine has never worked. The tighter your grip, the more star systems will fall through your fingers. But it isn’t going to keep them from trying.

As I have said before, the Liberator design is not the end-all, be-all of 3D printed firearms design. It’s just a baby step. The original design has already been modified and remixed for increased durability and reliability. But that’s not something that the older generation understands. But it’s just beginning to dawn on them that it represents the destruction of the last hurdle that’s keeping every person in the world from owning a gun. Maybe not this specific gun, but the designs that it will inspire.

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61 COMMENTS

  1. “the former prison colony of Australia . . .” LOL, sounds like liberal journalism to me.

    • If you had not taken all the REAL GUNS away from the Honast Citizens there would not be a NEED for the Liberator…..

    • Actually, Australia was originally settled as a penal colony by the British. It wasn’t until 1901 that they became an actual nation.

      • Replaced “Spanish” for “British” and you’ve described Florida pretty well. We Americans are more enlightened, though; we just send our old people there.

      • You’re right. Australia was settled by prisoners. I thought Nick’s use of “former prison colony” was fitting sarcasm.

  3. “The Tarkin doctrine has never worked. The tighter your grip, the more star systems will fall through your fingers. But it isn’t going to keep them from trying.”

    LOL! Love the SW reference, Nick.

    • +1 Tarkin Doctrine. LMFAO!

      I am going to have to start calling gun grabbers as Tarkins… Oh I can’t wait!

      • “Sir, we’ve looked at the list of questions Congressman Issa and Senator Cruz are demanding answers to, and there is a danger..,”

        “Evacuate!? In our Moment of Triumph!?!”

    • Tarkin Doctrine: Rule through force and fear. “The Regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line.”

      Leia Corollary: “The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

      Indeed, the Tarkin Doctrine is what lead to the American Revolution.

  4. And the govts will just make it a felony to possess the file on your computer. Once everybody is a felon world govts will have achieved Utopia.

    • it is already a felony to possess a weapon illegally. yeah, that scares the criminals, too. or not.

    • Actually, it is legal to have the file on your computer here in Australia… You just can’t do anything with it!

  5. This Liberator Pistol and all of it’s possibilities take me to a happy place. Not quite as happy as my Naked Woman happy place, but still a very happy place.

  6. I’m waiting for the first bad guy to be stopped by a Liberator. Course in Australia that will be the shooter too, Randy

  7. The Aussie popo shouldn’t worry, law abiding Australians won’t print them out, just like law abiding citizens don’t illegally import or manufacture firearms now. Utopia is great as long as everyone is on board.

  9. You need the video of this, not just a photo of the program.

    http://youtu.be/9taL4svjH_g

    The concern troll tone of this is just funny to me. These are dangerous because there are no standards.

    I mean, he’s not wrong, but the way he says that makes it sound as if there were standards, it would all be hunky-dory.

    • @2:27: “And of course make no mistake about it, not only are these things undetectable, untraceable, cheap, and easy to make, but they will kill.”

      What’s not to like?

      • I’m going to stop replying to myself here in a second, but seriously, you have got to watch this video. From my point of view, this is stupidly exciting. In addition to the line above, he says things like:

        “This particular file was downloaded 100,000 times before it was removed from circulation at the request and direction of the U.S. government.”

        “We know that… download one file, and it will grow exponentially in terms of its redownloading, and so we couldn’t give you an estimate of how many of those files are out there, but we certainly know that they are.”

        • They don’t know how many are out there? Oh come on. They can at least get an estimate. Doing a quick search on pirate bay shows…

          …approximately 2,903 active seeds from the last time the tracker checked; spread across several discrete torrents. That makes it the largest seeded file in the entire Other/Miscellaneous category of Pirate Bay – which is itself the most active torrent tracker site in the world.

          So, yeah. Pretty widely adopted.

        • “approximately 2,903 active seeds from the last time the tracker checked; spread across several discrete torrents. ”

          Thanks for reminding me to restart my bittorrent client

  10. If I wanted to make a nonmetallic weapon I would find a chunk of Live Oak wood cut from a large overhanging limb and start cutting and drilling. I suspect that it would withstand many more firings.

    • Or use virtually any kind of wood, and reinforce with epoxy and glass or carbon fiber.

      • The old trees develop massive horizontal limbs and the wood has an interwoven grain structure. It’s the wood that bounced cannonballs on “Old Ironsides”. I’ve seen muzzleloader round balls bounce off of it and scarcely leave a mark.
        We are stuck with legislators who, while they may have fancy degrees, are basically ignorant. They have no idea what can be done with intelligence, imagination, and simple hand tools.
        They are just going to piss people off and make them more determined.

  11. Downloaded 100,000 times already huh? Try 100X that and you might get close. Files like these set up as torrents, especially the ones that used to be on Defcad’s site, regularly have 3000+seeders per file. They must be on millions of HDD around the world by now.

  13. People that don’t have a 3D printer have downloaded and shared this with their friends and the files move on

  14. At this point Nick, I know there will be a good proper nerdy reference in each story.
    No, Theyre on Dantooine! You may fire when ready!

  15. Arent the police of Oz routinely running into Luty style subguns?
    Not long ago a massive factory pumping out these things was discovered. One of what is bound to be many.
    When their “bikie” gangs are running around shooting each other with scrap metal folded and welded subguns I dont think they should be overly concerned with a plastic tube.

    • Those people are just engaging in non-taxed commerce, and using those weapons to defend their business. An armed populace could start demanding their rights and ultimately threaten an entire bureaucratic establishment.

      Yeah, scary.

  16. NSW Police Commissioner to Aussies: “We can’t stop the signal”

    The best part about these are the conniptions they are giving authoritarians.

  17. Yes, freak out over a single shot pistol. If they as police officers are that terrified of one of these, then its a miracle they go out there doors to work in the morning.

  18. We should start sending a pair of knotted panties to every one of these hand wringers weeping about this evil technology.

  19. “It is an offence to make, an offence to possess and an offence to use,” he said.

    OOOH, that is SOOO bad! and offensive! AND it only cost $35 Aus. to make!!!!

    I have a solution for the angst of the authorities: Close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and say “there’s no place like the past.”

    Then start trying to stuff genie smoke back into the bottle.

  20. I really like the broader sweeping implications this has for statists/utopians in general. You can look past the obvious signs of it not working, but they’ve now met something they cannot control without being overtly totalitarian, and even then their chances of success in stopping distribution are near zero.

    • Exactly. The creator said this would cause a collision between the 1st and 2nd amendments. Force governments into positions they absolutely do not want to be in.

  21. Nick why the “older generation ” comment? Do u really believe crap like that? I thought you might be smarter than that. Can I ascribe stuff to brainless arrogant snots that have no life experience worth a sh%t?

  22. Heh. Dang whippersnapper.

    Seriously, what does age have to do with understanding the concept of redesign? Anyone of intelligence knows this is often needed and inevitable. Sort of like how psychotherapy has moved on from Freud’s emphasis on the early Mother-son relationship to explain mental disturbances.

    See what I did there?

  24. Older generation my butt. My grasp of the implications of this is as accurate as anyone’s at any age. You might want to modify your concept of old folks and not be so condescending. The old folks that are stone stupid are usually the ones who were stone stupid at 40.
    Nothing like only having single digits of life left to focus your attention.

  25. IANAG (I Am Not A Gunsmith), but if the required tensile strength of the plastic barrel is a function of cartridge pressure, and the .380 ACP has a max pressure of 21,500 PSI, couldn’t you make a proportionately scaled-up version chambered for .45 ACP at 21,000 PSI or .44 Special at 15,500 PSI?

  26. I may be ignorant on this matter but I have a question. If guns are illegal in Australia then where would they get ammo to use a 3d printed firearm?

  28. “It is an offence to make, an offence to possess and an offence to use,” he said.”

    I find that offensive.

  31. What do you expect from the cheeky leftist statist descendants of felons?
    I’d rather go the New Zealand than a dismal penal colony.

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