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Comment by rdl | Hacker News Reader

The one part of a firearms system which can't be relatively easily made by an individual in a decentralized way is primer (it's super sensitive and also toxic chemicals). Propellant/powder is also difficult to make cheaply and well.

It's not really an issue as long as some firearms (and thus some ammunition) is relatively unregulated; you could easily have a world where only single-shot hunting weapons are available, then use the ammunition from those (either intact or by disassembling and reloading) for other weapons.

Still, I aspire to owning an ammunition company; I wish ATK were for sale.

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You say that everything but primer could be relatively easily made by an individual in a decentralized way. Do you mean a skilled machinist with excellent tools? I would have imagined that making a reliable reusable weapon required a number of small parts with rigid tolerances. Is that not the case?

The barrel is probably the only part that has "rigid tolerances". The AK is famous for a stamped receiver with minimal machining.

http://ultimak.com/AKReceiverID.htm

While barrels benefit from quality (and even things like titanium firing pins, $200 special wooden grips, $3000 optics, etc.), I am confident I could show a minimally literate 8th grader how to make a serviceable open-bolt fully automatic weapon (say a 9mm SMG I guess) with a random high school machine shop in 3 days, capable of firing <4 MOA, >900fps muzzle velocity, >95% reliability with Wolf 9mm ammunition for 500 rounds.

Basically the same thing was done in WW2.

I think you are correct and your point serves to de-sensationalize the 3D printed gun hysteria.

Until 3D printers capable of printing firearms-grade metal, they aren't actually making it easier to for the vast majority of people to acquire firearms who would otherwise have to go through the regulated process. Of course, the entirety of the hysteria is based on the flawed logic that if everyone suddenly has easier(subjective) access to firearms, then everyone will start killing each other.

Right now, the sale of ammunition isn't regulated in the same way that firearms are.

The reason people are looking at ways to "print" banned firearms parts is because they aren't available or are restricted in some fashion.

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