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Comment by slurgfest | Hacker News Reader

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?

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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.

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