Look, I get the point - excessive regulation is silly. But the idea of a 3D printed gun is without comparison in today's society.
Anyway, that said, I think you're wrong factually too -- 5-axis milling machines have existed for a long time and they can create practically anything a 3d printer can (with much, much higher resolution if you've got the money).
Now, either everyone should be allowed a gun without background checks etc., or lathes/3D printers/whatever that can manufacture a gun are a problem.
With computers, prices dropped and the learning curve wasn't much of an issue anymore. CNC Mills and lathes still require a much greater skill and up-front cost than a 3D printer needs. With CNC machines, there's usually still an additional necessary step required to turn a model into a tool path, based on your machines. So you still have a learning curve no matter which way you cut it (pun intended).
I don't think 3D printing will be a viable way to distributively mass-produce weapons, it's the fact that somebody already has been able to produce functional weapons with 3D printing, and it's comparatively much easier buying a $10K mill and generating tool paths.
I think you're not up to date with recent developments in this space. What you say is no longer true with things like Carbide3d and Carvey. With this new line of "Desktop CNC milling" machines, it's as easy as 3dprinting (if not easier). And the price is comparable (if not cheaper). E.g., compare the Carvey with a Makerbot... or an Ultimaker. It's cheaper than both. If you're willing to be brave and buy a kit, it's even cheaper. Heck, even before this wave you could get a CNC router for very cheap. You could be under the 4 figure range -- with 3d printing it's hard to go below 4 figures and get a decent and reliable machine (though admittedly it very much is possible).
When it's accessible to everybody it's accessible to the people we forgot were also included in "everybody", those with bad intentions -- or simply different ones, such as maximising their personal profit from an apartment rather than living there and being part of the neighbourhood. If we start seeing mainstream magazines talk about desktop CNC milling machines and classes pop up to teach kids how to use them -- and you know, with the Maker movement that's certainly possible and is probably already happening somewhere -- then these technologies become just as "dangerous" as 3D printers.
Systems can be abused through many mediums. If hobby CNC machining had gotten big like 3d printing earlier, certainly we would have seen exactly the same kind of rebuke as some in the 3d printing circles are receiving now. I think now it's particularly hard to come up with good answers. Regulating 3d printers seems difficult. After all, building one yourself from scratch isn't that hard (indeed, many do do this). So you don't know if and when the bad actors with intent to harm are making weapons. I'm an anti-gun person, so I think the answer is having no regulations of 3d printers, but coming down hard on people who misuse 3d printers in making very dangerous things.
You can't make a handgun with a lathe, though.
different tools for different jobs.
They're to mass-produced firearms what cheap bathtub hooch is to Jim Beam.
Wikipedia mentions them along with much more sophisticated designs:
... if you invest a lot in the proper materials, tooling, and skill set.
Not to mention, the results you'd see from a mill are much safer, reliable, effective, etc.
Well, you'd need a ball end mill, but you can definitely convert an 80% handgun to a 100% handgun in your garage, and it is 100% legal to do so.
I can personally 3D print one, turn one on a mill (CNC or not), drill-out an 80% AR lower with a drill press, purchase one, be gifted one.
A 3D printer is a poor, poor device among most of those options (and mostlikely more expensive).
You'll also notice that none of the above manufacturing devices are outlawed or regulated in any form.Why do 3D printers need to be called out?
The firearm itself serves no commercial purpose.
That is what I meant by "personal use."
Both activities are protected by the Constitution of the United States of America.
Instead of looking at it as a licensing opportunity, they are doing the same as music industry did with every new recording medium that came about.
But by then it will be too late, and the true disruption will happen and change everything about manufacturing small goods at home.
New sensors coming down the pipeline will allow your smartphone camera to image objects down to micron resolutions from ~1 meter away.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2906232/camera-chip-could-tur...
Consider everyday things around you: smartphones, laptops, etc. None of these can be 3dprinted. Things you can 3d print are... smartphone cover, smartphone stand... things you can afford to be plastic in its entirety. I think you guys are overestimating what 3dprinters are capable of. There's a lot of tinkering required to create anything of even moderate complication. And it's almost always cheaper to just buy it if it's available at the store, because the printer costs and the consumables (pla, abs or whatever filament) costs, and time costs.
I don't know about the RIAA and mixtapes, but the MPAA tried to get VCRs banned. As Jack Valenti (MPAA) explained to a congressional panel, "I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone."
Just wait until Disney finds out that you can make Mickey Mouse shaped pieces of plastic on an Ultimaker.
I expect part of the reason is that the genie was already so far out of the bottle with cassette tape (and even reel-to-reel) that even they probably felt that it was pointless at that point to fight. However, a number of countries did impose a fee on blank media: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy
Au contraire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Taping_Is_Killing_Music
Whereas with 3d printing, we're currently stuck with a kind of plastic that's optimized for compatibility with a 3d printer. It's unclear whether we'll ever be able to print from other, better plastics. And that's saying nothing of other materials like steel, glass, and ceramic, which are often necessary in useful consumer products.
I'm not sure I'd want an amateur's DIY 3d printer in a 40 story apartment building. These things are usually left running unattended overnight.