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When Cody Wilson unveiled his 3D-printed Liberator pistol, gun control advocates had what my father used to call a knipsh*t. The idea that someone – anyone – could produce a pistol with a relatively small 3D printer and appropriate software (both banned in New South Wales) is deeply worrying to anyone who believes the government should dictate who should and should not be able to keep and bear arms. Of course, The People of the Gun know that rolling your own is a relatively simple process. You can make a rudimentary shotgun with 20 bucks worth of plumbing supplies. Zip gun? Easy peasy. But this, this miniature dart gun, that will strike fear in the hearts of gun control advocates everywhere. Or not. Still, it looks fun!

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21 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry, wimpy! When I was in high school, a long, long time ago, we would take straight pins, insert them through a paper spit wad and load them in the barrel of a Bic pen (the original style) from which we had removed the tip/ink cartridge assembly.

    We got quite proficient at using them as blow guns that were highly accurate and penetrating at up to 10 – 20′ depending your level of skill in both spit wad sizing and aim, and your lung capacity. Much simpler and faster to construct than the lighter spear gun and much more effective. It was also easier and quicker to hide, and even to return to its ball-point-pen state, after shooting. Many a student got stuck in the back of the neck and looked around to see no one who was the apparent assailant!

    I fantasized that a person could dip the pin in a fast acting poison and it could be an effective assassin’s weapon!

  4. PLEASE don’t be encouraged to make those shitty black pipe shotguns. A lot of people are idiots, and still more simply don’t know any better, and both groups have no business playing with tens of thousands of PSI or thousands of pounds of bolt thrust. They see Royal Dumbass on Youtube (the guy linked here is admittedly much more professional than that tool) not blow himself up despite all odds and think it’s the coolest thing ever, and a project their untrained/unpracticed hands can take on. A quality shotgun barrel is like 20$ from any number of parts companies like Numrich, and doesn’t have a crappy Chinese welded seam down the side waiting to let loose like a hurricane. This stuff often leaks out of the gate; you really don’t want it for a gun barrel. Cheaping out on literally any other part (including the breechblock, since it can be easily beefed up safely by anyone with the least bit of sense) won’t get you maimed or killed, but the barrel easily can. Black pipe or conduit or whathaveyou from Lowes is less reliable in a shotgun barrel than the old wound Damascus SXS’s we’re all aware should not be used with smokeless ammo. If nothing else, use DOM seamless tubing in a better alloy like 4130; it at least will fail predictably, unlike pipe. Be safe, and have fun, fellow builders.

    • Maybe. I wouldn’t advocate for people to roll their own. Then again, I was building effective and safe zip shotguns when I was ten years old. Yes, ten. And I still have all my original equipment.

      • The average bigbox is currently stocking nothing but Chinese-junk black iron pipe.

        It has issues functioning as gas pipe at 13PSIA. The options are more limited than they were even 15 years ago.

    • The world needs more shitty black pipe shotguns. It really does. Everyone everywhere needs to know how to make one.

    • The trick is to choose a pipe with a diameter thats wide enough to let the pressure escape around the wad. Or thats what a You-tube black pipe shotgun maker (cryptic cricket, or something like that) who seemed a lot more sensible than RN said.

  6. Well, to quote our mutiple-handed Katie…

    One one hand, it looks like fun. On the other hand, in today’s climate, they might put your ass on a terrorist watch list. On the third hand,…

    “You can put your eye out, Kid…”

    (‘Tis the season to quote ‘A Christmas Story’, doncha know…)

    😉

  7. People who keep track of Australian mass murders know that the cigarette lighter is mightier than the sword.

  8. Actually second biggest mass murder in Australia was $2.00 of petrol in the Wiskey A Go Go nightclub with 15 dead in 1973. I use it as an example with the antis over here.
    Childers backpacker hostel in June 2000 was also 15 and close to home as I worked in the town for nine years and helped build the hostel
    The Port Arthur with 35 by stolen firearm is the biggest

    • She’s commenting on the CO2 output of current cars. And she actually does have an excellent point about electric cars:

      “In the US, you are literally shoveling coal into your EV.”

      • Depends on where in the U. S. Around here 95% of our electricity is produced in nuclear plants according to ComEd.

        • The key is *your* area.

          Total electric production using nuclear, hydro, and all other renewable sources is roughly 30 percent.

          Meaning roughly 70 percent of plug-in electrics are fossil fuel powered.

    • “Got problems? Ban something.”

      We’ve been living with that idea for some time now here in Cal.

      If you don’t like something, Regulate it.
      If that doesn’t work, Tax the hell out of it.
      And when all else fails, Ban It.

      Sound familiar?

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