Summary
Americans are posting videos about 3D-printed guns on the Chinese video app RedNote, despite the content being illegal in China.
While some users are uncomfortable with the topic, others see it as an opportunity for cultural exchange.
The future of TikTok remains uncertain as the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the ban.
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The 3D gun thing in China is frickin’ hilarious. Xi and the CCP are gonna go apeshit about that.
if you printed a gun in china, where would you get ammo
Or the metal parts needed to make a “3d printed gun” function as anything other than a random suicide generator.
You can’t print 100% of a functional gun on a consumer printer unless you are willing to accept it blowing up in your hand after a shot or 2.
If you have a 3d printer, and a bit of electrical know how, you can actually machine most of the metal parts.
Trying to machine parts for a gun with “a bit of electrical know how” sounds like suicide by stupidity to me. Especially if you’re going to DIY the ammo as well…
Not actually true anymore but they’re not very performant.
Fine for a handgun to kill someone up close with, but it’s not like making a machine to dohickey someone a la Abe is very difficult.
It’s funny how when something’s going offline it’s easy for people to just switch apps even if the barrier to switching is extremely high (like having to learn a new language high). Makes it seem almost like…maybe people are fine with the shitty politics on the garbage sites and it isn’t really about the switching costs after all.
You can’t look at switching costs in a vacuum. The real metric is the Expected Return. When the original app is going to remain open, there is a very high risk that, ultimately, most of the users you care about aren’t going to make the switch. Even if the switching costs are low, the ER is negative because the most likely outcome is that you waste your time trying to migrate to a new platform that doesn’t really take off.
When the original app might stop existing then the calculus switches and even a high cost option is worth it because the odds are much higher that your efforts will pay off.
Thanks, professor!
look, this content isn’t getting censored! it must be because rednote is Good, not that it didn’t have the english speaking moderation resources
3D printed guns are a meme. Most of them require parts of functional guns such as the barrels, And they require regular ammunition.
The part you can easily print, however, is the receiver.
The receiver is the part that’s legally a firearm. While I think it’s neat I can customize my firearms, I do acknowledge that someone who is prohibited from owning a gun can very easily print a receiver and order the rest of the parts from Palmetto State Armory to get a perfectly-functional firearm without any background check being performed.
I also don’t know the solution to the problem though. As 3D printing, desktop CNC, and other forms of DIY manufacturing improve in quality and decrease in price, it will be very hard to regulate home-brew weapons.
Electro chemical machining can make a barrel.
But, idk how any of what you said makes them a “meme”. You can buy a barrel online for cheap, also ammo, and I don’t have to go through a government check. That’s what a lot of these people want to avoid.
Electro chemical machining can make a barrel.
Yes, but that’s not 3d printing any more.
It’s a separate process requiring separate tools, materials and skills.
But you can make anything with that additional process. SO it’s going to be difficult for a government to lock down those additional processes.
I can make barrels and stuff like that on a milling machine and a lathe. Not just shitty parts but better than most big manufacturers put out. Government can’t control manufacturing.
Still not 3d printing.
edit: Typo
In most countries, the barrel or other pressures bearing parts are the regulated piece. We are the weird ones for regulating receivers instead.
Well, the article references Americans, I’m American, so okay?
Europeans can also get guns mailed to their front door, are we just comparing gun laws?
Europeans can also get guns mailed to their front door, are we just comparing gun laws?
I mean, there’s a lot of context surrounding licensing and pre-approval to get that mail order heater in Europe. Local laws vary, yadda yadda
And if you collect old guns and have a C&R license, you too can get guns delivered to your door in America.
In the UK you can also purchase a pistol with bitcoin on the dark web and have it delivered to a train station locker, but that is not legal at all.
This sounds interesting. Tell us more.
Oh yeah, 1000%. Also, with a C&R license, you’re not legally purchasing a “firearm”. It’s a curio or relic, but yeah, point still stands.
Also, none of that has anything to do with the discussion at hand, which was sorta my point.
I have my 03-FFL, and “Curio & Relic” is a classification that firearms can fall into, defined as firearms manufactured 50-years or more ago. Legally, by definition, you are still purchasing a firearm. You’ve just had more background checks to bypass some of the rules in most states about transfers, if the firearm you are buying qualifies as a “Curio & Relic”.
Cool man
It mentions sending videos about them to China. Where most of those videos are useless because the parts and ammo are not sold there.
Okay so a lot of work to create the barrel, but the gun still takes 9mm ammunition. And if someone in China can get their hands on ammo they can get their hands on a gun.
Okay? I don’t know what you’re arguing here? 3D printed guns aren’t a meme. Some don’t require any regulated parts. I don’t care if the average Chinese person can or will get their hands on one. You can just say you didn’t know what you were talking about when you said 3d printed guns are a “meme”. It’s not that deep
Barrels require rifling. It is fairly difficult to manually create the groove as it requires a lot of tooling. Not impossible. But not something people will do to create a single gun. Only the barrel would be more work than assembling the rest of the gun.
Purchased ammo and other parts are specific to the US. 3D printed guns give people the illusion that they can make the entire gun using a 3d printer and off the shelf consumer parts. But most 3d printed guns are made by buying all the required metal parts for guns and printing out the exterior.
I’m thinking that an octagonal x-section barrel with a twist could be done by electro-machining.
All you need is a hydraulic tube for the barrel. to make the rifling you need some copper wire, electricity and water
Yes, that is a lot of tooling and a lot of work.
It’s really not.
I like my ghost guns intangible as well. /$
You could print an entire functional gun if you only intend for it to be fired successfully once. And no shit they require ammo. Ammo is easier to source than filament for the 3D printer. I can’t walk into a Walmart and buy printer filament; but I can get ammo.
Ammo is regulated in California. Requires a background check.
You can buy ammo in the US but not in China. Or virtually anywhere else in the world.
Idk man when I was living abroad it was pretty easy to get a gun and a license for it in most places. The real difference is how long it takes to get the license — months to a year instead of a few days for the NCIS check.
Once you have the license, ammo was easy to purchase.
So it’s just a meme in China is what you’re getting at?
A meme anywhere in the world. Except for the US where guns are rampant.
3D printed anything implies not needing specialized parts to create said thing.
Heat set thread inserts are specialized parts, but in many many 3d models for printing.
That said your point still stands, I’m just being pedantic.
Which you can get without the same screening process for buying an actual gun.
As much as I hate people going to an even more security disaster of an app, the amount of “fuck you” energy I’ve been seeing from everyone that’s moved over there is so god damn funny.
If it keeps going maybe they will start roaching out of Facebook and Twitter too. The network effect works both ways.
Oh for anyone not actually on Tiktok, there is a huge movement to delete their FB and other Meta accounts on Sunday… we will see how huge it really ends up being.
It will be relatively small, but every person who does it is a win regardless.
Now do Tiananmen Square.
I have been told that China pushes NO PROPAGNADA on RedNote because they have a NO POLITICS policy.
And the person who told me that did not see the issue.
Now do &%$!@$+×# &%;%$.
Second time I’ve seen this in a day. Wow what are you guys talking about?
See to you, you see &%$!@$+×# &%;%, but we see Hunter2
But how do i do Hunter2?
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Idk why you americans think that you have soo muuuch freedom, lol. You can talk about Tiananmen square, sure, and that somehow suffice to make y’all think you live in an utopian country with unlimited freedom, lol
Not sure who is saying any of that, seems like you’re jumping to conclusions that no one has said
Also as a southern American I’d appreciate it if you stopped saying y’all, it’s cultural appropriation
Bless your heart.
Every language has been culturally appropriated from another.
I’m with you in the first half, but complaining about using the word y’all and calling it cultural appropriation is a strange take to me. Maybe it’s because I don’t believe in cultural appropriation (in the general sense of the term). Culture that’s shared is strengthened and grows. Rome became the strongest civilization in history on the basis of incorporating foreign people into their society (against their will most often) and through long distance trading. I’m less educated on dynasties in the far east and how they functioned because there’s far less documentation of their history, but that kinda proves my point.
This seems like a super long response to just a throwaway comment, but I’ve been really thinking lately about what it means to be human and I think I’ve narrowed it down to one word. Sharing. Sharing information, culture, land, resources, experience, fortune, pain, ideas…etc. So maybe I helped convince you to share aspects of your culture or not, but I at least wanted to try.
i can’t tell if his joke went over your head or if your joke is going over my head
Idk, that was just the vibe i was feeling. And since when “y’all” is cultural appropriation? Or are you ironic? I’m not sure
Seems fairly obviously sarcasm. Nobody who says y’all is ever upset someone else uses it.
Even if they are legitimately pissed-- ignore them. Fusing the singular and plural second person pronouns was a mistake and “y’all” has come to deliver us from misery and confusion.
It may not be a utopian country with unlimited freedom, but at the end of the day we are still more free than China with the insane focus on our policies and problems.
Delusional much?
Me? How so?
It’s not my job to educate you
americans and bringing guns places they absolutely shouldn’t be, name a better duo
Look man, I just don’t see why my 6 year old shouldn’t be able to bring his sawed off in his back pack. If someone tries to shoot up the school he’ll be able to defend his class. I always tell him to keep 1 chambered just in case.
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i made a joke
hi spujb
hi kate
helo do u like orange soda
yes but i prefer lime
imo pineapple soda is underrated
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oh my bad then your joke seemed confrontational and i still don’t get it but i apologize
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damn removed by mod your joke must have been rly bad 😜
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Tiananmen Square is like, a huge tourist attraction and plaza near their equivalent of the White House and other important government complexes I’m sure they’ve seen a ton of photos of it. They hold national events there.
You know that’s not what they mean.
But sure, you go ahead and post this “tourist” photo on RedNote and see what happens. Please do report back to us.
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No, I don’t think we would get along since you both blame me in specific for something the entire moderation team across the entire server has been told to do and for upholding Lemmy.world’s Terms of Service so that illegal things to say in The Netherlands don’t get the server shut down.
Sorry, I don’t get along with people who blame me for things like that, but I wonder what you would say if I died tomorrow and those comments still got moderated (since they absolutely would)? Blame my ghost?
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And, there are two sides sweetie, for or against the ruling class.
I see you’re still enjoying your white and heterosexual privilege.
When are you going to give me that legitimate email address?
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If that’s all he was, please post it there and tell us what happens.
Did you post it yet? What happened?
Eh, not public ally. They would have cuffed him, put him in the back of a cruiser upside down without a seatbelt on and left him to suffocate or something.
China mods:
I was not ready for this flavor of shitposting
If youre an anarchist for fucks sake use a federated platfrom
Name one that isn’t trash lmao
are 3D printed guns legal in the US?
Home made guns are legal (for the most part) as long as you are making them for yourself.
Until very recently, making a decent gun took a lot of skill, and was pretty dangerous if something wasn’t done correctly.
Part of the issue with gun laws is that gun parts, by themselves, are fairly unregulated. You can buy a gun barrel off the Internet with zero paperwork. You can buy optics, grips, springs, pins, etc without any regulations.
So you can print a gun frame, then buy everything else online, and it’s all perfectly legal… In most states… If you don’t resell, or do anything illegal with it.
The main catch is, if you can legally buy a gun, you can legally make that same gun.
If that gun would be illegal to buy, it’s also illegal to make (full auto, suppressed, high capacity, etc.) but the biggest problem is, with the rise of CNC machines, and high quality 3d printing, how would anyone know?
I used to lurk in s homemade gun forum back in the 00’s. My favorite was the yooper assault rifle made out of 2x4’s and hydraulic tubing with a grease nipple primer holder.
Of fucking course it was a Yooper.
Man that is some Slingshot Channel level genious.
Joerg laugh
Yes, that’s my concern too. I’m in the UK and I have friends with 3D printers. Of course I know they wouldn’t 3D print a gun, but I’d also never know if they did and it’s a much bigger issue here
3d printing guns is a gimmick. You have been able to buy 80% lowers for years and years, it requires as much effort as setting up and dialing in a 3d printer, and the end result is a real gun made of real steel that will last forever.
It’s also more expensive. The use-case for 3d printed guns isn’t as an heirloom that you’re passing down. It’s either a niche hobby, a way of doing something illegal, or you’re running an insurgency(which I guess falls into the illegal territory lol) in which case, you don’t need something that’ll last forever, you need a tool for a job.
Until very recently, making a decent gun took a lot of skill, and was pretty dangerous if something wasn’t done correctly.
We haven’t seen a lot of 3D printed gun usage yet, but I would bet that they aren’t exactly safe to use themselves. We’re talking about things that are generally made with milling to a much greater precision than your standard 3D printer is capable and which contain something explosive.
It might work for its intended use or it might blow up in your hand. The old fashioned ‘Saturday Night Specials’ that people would make in their garages had that issue.
(Also, I’d be really careful where you downloaded the plans from, because unless you know the source, it might be designed to blow up in your hand.)
We have seen a lot of 3D gun usage. Not sure why you think we haven’t or what scale constitutes “a lot”. But, yeah. They’re out there. I have one, and they’re only improving. Here’s an entire PDW.
Well for one thing, as far as I know, we have no way to collect statistics on them right now because they aren’t being used very much. They learned the dangers of the old Saturday Night Special thing because they kept being used in crimes.
Not that I’m suggesting these should be used in crimes.
The FGC-9 is being used a lot though? Myanmar’s rebels have been using them for at least three years.
Granted that most of that use is broad use, as opposed to long use. As is customary for insurgents in seeking more robust weapons.
Beyond that, it’s really hard to collect statistics on safety of even one particular model of 3D printed gun thanks to the inherent variations between builds: different filament plastics will yield differently, as will different layer orientations.
Beyond that, it’s really hard to collect statistics on safety of even one particular model of 3D printed gun thanks to the inherent variations between builds: different filament plastics will yield differently, as will different layer orientations.
But that’s really my point about not trusting them. Because we’re not talking about precision milling of high-grade alloys here.
I mean you do you, but I think firearm safety is kind of a big deal.
Oh for sure, don’t go buying critical/expensive 3D printed shit unless you know or trust the printer, but to me that’s a far broader category than just gunstuff.
Well, that, I suppose, or the fact that they’re almost untraceable so we don’t have selling/download stats on them as you’re not legally allowed to sell your own manufactured firearms, and they haven’t been used in crime much so we don’t have crime stats. What statistics are you after?
Ones regarding their safety and reliability. What statistics do you think I would be after?
I’m not trying to be snarky, I can see how it might come off this way. I’m just having a discussion.
Anyway, a lot of that sorta testing is inside the files you download/in blogs of the file makers. You are correct though, there are no studies.
Now, it does definitely get into “he said, she said” type territory there however, I would find it somewhat telling that you don’t hear about people being hospitalized after messing around with them. Someone would have posted it somewhere, and those files wouldn’t be circulated.
Now, my opinion on that is based on as much data as “3D printed guns are dangerous and blow up” is. So anecdotal for sure.
You just might be surprised how well these things actually function, and yes, I’ve had multiple. Honestly, it’s an interesting rabbit hole to go down just to come to grips on how simple(or not) firearms actually are.
We’ve seen plenty of usage, and they’re perfectly safe to use. The important parts are the exact same steel parts used in non-3D-printed firearms. Please stop commenting on matters you don’t know about.
Except for all the 3D printed guns that don’t use a bunch of steel parts, just a firing pin. You know, like the original one? The Liberator?
But then I wouldn’t know anything about that matter otherwise I wouldn’t know that the Liberator is a myth like Australia and homosexuals.
For personal use, if you sell one you need to serialize and register it.
Pretty much yes they are
Some places yes, some no. Mostly yes however.
This timeline is quite a ride
Huh. Didn’t expect that lol
The US is gonna ban RedNote so fast. Watch and see. A special session of Congress. Matching funds on bribes to the Supreme Court.
They can’t let this go unchecked.
It’s up to the president now.
The bill basically says, “if the president thinks a foreign government controls an app that could be bad, he can ban it.” Section im referring to: “(2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary country and determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security”
Actual law: DIVISION H-- PROTECTING AMERICANS FROM FOREIGN ADVERSARY CONTROLLED APPLICATIONS ACT
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
(Sec. 2) This division prohibits distributing, maintaining, updating, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok). However, the prohibition does not apply to a covered application that executes a qualified divestiture as determined by the President.
Under the division, a foreign adversary controlled application is an application directly or indirectly operated by (1) ByteDance, Ltd., TikTok, their subsidiaries, successors, related entities they control, or entities controlled by a foreign adversary country; or (2) a social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary country and determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security. (Here, a social media company excludes any website or application primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.)
Sidenote: I’m fairly certain that means the law would not allow the President to ban a social media site run via activity pub and hosted by the people, because it is not controlled by a foreign government.
It won’t get banned because it does not directly compete with Facebook. It will however have some changes in China I’m sure.
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