Photo courtesy thingiverse.com

Thingiverse is a site where you can download files for making all sorts of gadgets, doohickeys, and thingamabobs with your 3-D printer. You can even get the files to print toy pistols or stackable ammunition boxes. You can’t, however, download the plans for the Liberator or other “real” guns, but you can make your feelings on the whole idea of printable guns known there (as long as you’re agin’ it). The page with the sign above is titled “guns are bad.”  The designer (known only as “Gecko”) says in the description “After being asked 6 times in one day if I was going to print out a gun I thought I needed a simple concise sign. Maybe others will need it too.” . . .

He continues:  “I really don’t think guns are baaaad (m’kay). I worked in the firearms industry as an R&D designer for quite a few years and went through the long process leading to manned firings on new weapons. The idea that some idiot will now think its [sic] safe to print something off using any machine using any material with any ammunition type because they saw it on [sic] really scares. Don’t be an idiot please, there is a reason you make guns in a gun factory, not your kitchen.” Well, I guess he told us! And I still plan to try printing one on my 3-D printer the first time I have a couple of days to put into it.

Calvin Broadus…no…Snoop Doggy Dogg…no, uh…Snoop Dogg…no, dammit, uh…Snoop Lion thinks guns are bad, too. He says we need to “end the violence” and “move forward in peace and love.” The former Crips member, convicted felon, pimp, gun owner, marijuana aficionado and gangsta rapper has now started a “No Guns Allowed” movement which he says “is a call to action for people everywhere to come together and help end the senseless gun violence that claims lives every day.”

He’ll even sell you “one-of-a-kind bracelets engraved with a serial number of an illegal gun recently turned in through a gun buyback in Newark, NJ.” (How exactly he knows the gun was “illegal” he doesn’t say.) He also wants everyone to “use a #NoGunsAllowed hashtag on social media to share their personal stories about how gun violence has affected them.” Maybe the victims of his lifestyle and rap lyrics should be the first to do so.

In other celebrity news, actress Katee Sackoff says she lost 100K Twitter followers in 24 hours because she advocated for gun safety instead of gun control in response to a story of a four-year-old who accidentally shot and killed his father. Her story may be true, but that seems like a lot of people bailing in a very short period of time. And since a large number of celebrities have millions of fake followers, the cynic in me that creeps to the surface on rare occasions wonders if this isn’t just a publicity stunt.

The Second Amendment Foundation and the Calgun Foundation filed a suit in 2009 to challenge “California’s regulation that arbitrarily bans handguns based on a roster of ‘acceptable’ handgun models approved by the state.” They’ve now amended that suit to add the newly-activated microstamping regulation.

Gene Hoffman, chairman of the Calguns Foundation explained, “California’s attempt to limit the availability of handguns to her citizens is so broad that it makes it impossible to purchase the revolver that the U.S. Supreme Court has specifically ruled had to be registered to Dick Heller, whose case struck down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban and affirmed that the Second Amendment protects an individual civil right….

“The state cannot dictate that some common arms can’t be bought just as they can’t dictate which versions of religious texts are acceptable… Now that the state requires microstamping, it’s unlikely any new make or model of pistol will be added – making it even clearer that this is an incremental ban on firearms.”

An omnibus gun measure cleared the North Carolina Senate Judiciary I Committee earlier this week. It had already passed the House. Under the House version, the bill strengthens penalties for those who commit crimes using a gun and expands where those who have concealed handgun permits may take their guns, including bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

The Senate revisions eliminate the current requirement to get a pistol purchase permit from their sheriff before buying a handgun and expands the areas where concealed handgun permit holders can carry their weapons to include state parks, parades and funerals. It includes other provisions bound to produce weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth among the Gun Control Industrial Complex.

In Ohio, teachers and school staff are taking courses on how to take down a gunman – and it involves a lot more than locking classroom doors, standing behind a bullet-proof whiteboard or throwing staplers at a shooter. The Buckeye Firearms Association is running a program aimed at arming teachers.

When they announced their first class in December, they had over 1400 staff members sign up for the 24 slots. CNN isn’t too happy with this trend which is gaining momentum, but you know what? I’ll bet if the first staffers Adam Lanza had run up against had been armed, the massacre at Newtown would have been over before the police ever pulled onto campus.

The Virginia Republican Party has backed down from its request for information on concealed weapon permit holders. It seems that a number of the probate court clerks objected and refused to comply with the request. The negative publicity they got from it probably didn’t hurt, either.

There was another rally in Albany, New York yesterday to protest the state’s SAFE gun control legislation. Approximately 1000 people showed up expressing their disapproval of the law, the legislature, and the job Governor Cuomo is doing in (mis)leading the state.  This was the fifth such rally and most likely not the last.

In Cinncinnatti, Ohio, Glenn J. Chasteen has been arrested for allegedly robbing a bank using a hand grenade. He “displayed a grenade and gave a bank teller his demand note” then “left the bank with an undisclosed sum.” There was no word on whether the grenade was live or a fake. This just goes to show that when guns are outlawed, only the outlaws will have hand grenades.

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Re: Katie Sackhoff and “cynic in me … wonders if this isn’t just a publicity stunt.”

    Cui bono?

    We have enough issues dealing with those who want to do damage to things we hold dear to be sniping at each other over nothing, in my opinion.

    The SAF filed that suit in 2009? The wheels of justice turn slowly, indeed.

    • CT gun owners recently filed theirs. We have been told it could take up to 4yrs.

      This is exactly the game they play, they know the legal system is not quick. For the polls in charge, they know they may loose, but in 4yrs they may not be office so they don’t care.

    • The 2009 suit was held up because of an appeal–or actually several appeals–in Nordyke v. King, a case contesting a ban of gun shows in Alameda County. The first decision in Nordyke recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms and suggested an intermediate level of scrutiny–but that decision went back down for further proceedings. Meanwhile, Pena got stayed pending the decision in Nordyke. After its final decision (which was a disappointing fizzle), Pena got started again.
      We are also waiting for the Ninth to decide three California cases and one Hawaii case (all argued last fall) that address “may issue” CCW laws. These cases also necessarily address the issue of the right to bear arms outside the home. [I suspect that the Ninth is hoping that one of the other cases e.g., Moore v. Madigan, gets certified for review and decide the issues presented before it has to.]

      • Nordyke was a total letdown. The state totally dodged the bullet by capitulating on the issue before the very likely adverse verdict could be inflicted on them.

  2. Sackoff apparently isn’t our ally. The version I read said she recognises that getting rid of guns is impossible so she pushed safety training. She also said she didn’t think automatic weapons should be sold. I don’t know what her take on an automatic weapon is.

      • Agree. She at least acknowledges a gun-free world is a purple unicorn fantasy, so it’s better to educate your children. We can turn on her if she starts doing one of those Demand a Plan videos.

  3. That’s Sackhoff not Sackoff. I don’t care how pretty a girl might be; if her name is sackoff she’s not getting a lot of dates.

      • Tell her you thought her name was Ballsoff or C0ckoff. I’m sure she’ll get a good chuckle out of it.

      • Think she’d go out with me if I register 100,000 phony Twitter accounts and subscribe to her from all of them?

    • Ralph, if you’re not interested please refer her to me. Pretty sure I could get a once-in-a-lifetime pass from my wife with an opportunity to spend quality time with Katee.

  4. Go North Carolina! Allowing CCers on public campuses to at least lock up their guns in their car is an especially nice change.

  5. A rather Omnibus article…. I’m with the sign that says “No I will not print you a (blank)ing gun!” I don’t trust plastic firearms, and even if we were talking about something that was robust and reliable, I don’t have the time or inclination to assure that the person I am dealing with is responsible. THEN I don’t have the time and inclination to deal with the necessary paperwork to keep the BATFE from putting me behind bars. So I’m not gonna be manufacturing guns or gun parts, no thank you.

    As for Snoop, and his “one-of-a-kind bracelets engraved with a serial number of an illegal gun recently turned in through a gun buyback in Newark, NJ.” How do we know they were illegal? I think it’s safe to mention that we’re talking NJ, where damn near everything is illegal. And possessing it is doubly so. Though frankly, if you’re gonna scrap the guns anyway, you could include the serial plate IN the bracelet… which is about the only way I’d trust the New Jersey gun grabbers. Not that I’d buy anything from that manky old hypocrite Snoop, but still, it IS an idea.

    And then the happy news from North Carolina.

  6. Good for Calguns! The micro stamping issue is clearly bullsh!t, and the CA legislature needs to be called on it.

    As for Katie S, I just starts following her on twitter and sent her an encouraging message. I’m not sure how much that helps, but it is something.

    • Must… Resist… Stalker… Joke…

      Unrelated: let me know if you get advance notice of any fun weekend shooting events in your area. My Costa Ludus class got rescheduled to October (dammit!) and I’m good for a trip south to meet up.

  7. While I do not agree with the entire quote by the 3D printer “Gecko” he has a valid point in a way. When Joe Public or his son Joe Jr. decides to build what is basically a zip gun of their own design using sketchy materials there is a strong potential for an accident or mechanical failure leading to injury. Those who are not confident of their mechanical and engineering skills or the quality and strength of the material they are working with should maybe not attempt the task. For those who are competent with the technology and are using a tested design with quality materials I say have at it, and take pictures for the rest of us.

    • I agree, though I would stress that it’s the individual that
      needs to think things through.

      It occurs to me that Gecko might just be playing it safe.
      There’s no telling exactly how the feds will respond to
      these “plastic death machines”; but it’s probable they’ll
      go overboard trying to regulate everything. 3D printing
      shops and file hosting websites could be raided and
      investigated for supplying/making unregulated firearms
      (because trying to remove the idea from the internet has
      worked so well). By openly refusing to make or provide
      files for components, Gecko might avoid being hassled
      by over-zealous bureaucrats.

  8. I think those of us that use Twitter should hijack the #NoGunsAllowed hashtag. Everytime there is a shooting in a “Gun Free Zone” it’s the perfect way of letting everyone know just how rediculous those laws are.

  9. “The idea that some idiot ….”
    Right off the bat everyone else he considers a fool and incompetent, or takes the default position that only an idiot would print a gun.
    Just remember, he gets to vote too.

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