A recent post by Navi of Boomhandia (a well-known name in the 3D-printed gun community) about the politics and culture of 3D-printed guns really impressed me, and I think it bears sharing and discussing further here. It came after a dustup where some said that LGBT (especially the T) enthusiasts were too loud about 3D-printed guns, and thus were discouraging people from getting into it.

Instead of taking a side, Navi took the high road, and explained that one of the key benefits to a truly open and free gun community is that nobody can dominate it, chase people off, or gatekeep one way or the other. Here’s a key quote for people who don’t like to click links:

“This pure marketplace of ideas wasn’t created by accident, even if it’s wildly more successful than Stark or I ever imagined – back when we first contemplated what a “the community” would actually look like, when we first thought about how to build such a thing.

And even as we imagined it, fostered it, an watched it run wild, if Stark was still with us, even with him and I working together, even if we both wanted to, we couldn’t change the simple fact: the guns will still be there. That is what “the community” means, this is what it stands for.”

He says over and over that “the guns will still be there”, which is true. No matter how awful any particular faction of developers, printers, promoters, enthusiasts, or detractors might get, the designs are still readily available and anybody can work on them.

There’s no Fudd in an orange cap telling people that they can’t have an AR-15. There’s no old man who runs the only range in town who says bigoted things to run people of any skin color, religion or sexuality off, because it’s literally impossible for that to happen on the internet. If one group of developers don’t like you, another group will. Or, you can start your own group.

There are people on all sides who want to cancel, discredit or destroy people they disagree with, but nobody can reach through the anonymous internet and do that. Even governments, with all of their power and weaponry, haven’t been able to stop the signal.

It all starts to look at lot like this scene from Lord of the Rings:

The people who think they can wield power over others and control the means of self defense are finding that they can’t play dirty tricks and dominate people like they used to.

Even better, the skill needed continues to drop while the quality of what you can get through technologies like 3D printing continues to improve. So, not only is gun control dying, but freedom for everybody is winning along with it. That’s going to make narcissistic people of all kinds very angry, but they can’t do anything to stop it.

In many ways, what Jeff Cooper said of the rifle is only being taken to the next level:

“Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons.

The rifle is a weapon. Let there be no mistake about that. It is a tool of power, and thus dependent completely upon the moral stature of its user. It is equally useful in securing meat for the table, destroying group enemies on the battlefield, and resisting tyranny. In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.”

Between this and other technologies like private internet communications, cryptocurrencies, and other things we haven’t though of yet, authoritarians and narcissists of all kinds are going to have a rough time during the remainder of the 21st century.

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30 COMMENTS

  1. “Personal weapons are what raised mankind out of the mud, and the rifle is the queen of personal weapons.”

    What’s the king of personal weapons? I want that.

    • The rifleman’s own spirit is the king. The rifle becomes married to the man who knows and wields it.

      • For those that think “You can’t stop the signal”, what will you do when the pressure-bearing components like barrels and breeches become impossible to buy without a background check? When gun deep drills and chamber reamers become controlled devices?

        That’s what places in Europe are doing…

        • Hydraulic tube and ecm using copper wire and printed mandrels are already a thing. The FGC9 is a 9mm that can be built using zero traditional fire arm parts.

  3. “In fact, it is the only means of resisting tyranny, since a citizenry armed with rifles simply cannot be tyrannized.”

    I wonder what the “3D-printed gun community” thinks about that — especially the “LGBT (especially the T) enthusiasts.” The T’s seem to be content with shooting innocent children with store-bought AR-15s.

  4. Cultures overlap. Plain and simple. It may be to a lesser or greater degree, but they don’t exist within a vacuum. Some are of better quality than others as well.

    That said, one of the things of being in a free culture is you’ll have a wide variety of people in it some you agree with some you don’t. The 3D print community or even personally made firearms of a non-printed nature are a new counter culture. I expect we’ll see that for a long time at this rate and a lot of evolution as well.

  5. What is the current state of 3D printed guns? Last I heard, they were still a long way from printing barrels for any real self defense cartridge.

    • Look up the FGC-9. A decent 9mm sub gun that uses a select few metal parts.

      Metal pipe intended for other purposes can be rifled using a plastic jig, copper wire, a bucket of salt water, and a 12 volt battery charger.

    • I think everyone is just buying barrels. They (unlike receivers) aren’t serialized parts, and aren’t subject to background checks.

      • In the US yeah. Other countries have different considerations and what makes this design so useful is with a printer and ubiquitous pipe you can make various 9mm firearms.

    • Hydraulic tube is cheap, as are power supplies, washing soda, tap water, and wire. Gun control has failed.

      But so has the 3D printing “community” by not pushing washing soda for the electrolysis. Chlorine gas is bad, m’kay?

  6. “Between this and other technologies like private internet communications, cryptocurrencies, and other things we haven’t though of yet, authoritarians and narcissists of all kinds are going to have a rough time during the remainder of the 21st century.”

    Well said. The people who are trying to control who we are, what we eat, where we live, what we do, and where we do it, have lost track of this one fact: Guns will always be there because the knowledge of guns is there. With the internet you cannot control this knowledge. It is everywhere for the download. Joe and his group of Communist tyrants cannot stop the flow of knowledge. That is why they they try to ban everything in our home. F__k them and the house they live in!

  7. According to libertarians you’re out of luck getting access to 3D printed files. Since this is not a 1st amendment issue according to the smartest people in the room.

    • Odd Libertarians pioneered putting 3d Printing on the Internet specifically to circumvent the Governement. Typical nonsense from Chris.

    • That’s also completely contradictory to the Libertarian Party official statements regarding 3D Printing as well. You can see it posted on their Facebook page. If your looking for misinformation Chris is the leader in that.

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