You realise that it's a very shit gun? And that the printer required to print a working gun would cost tens of thousands of pounds? At this point, you may as well just buy a gun.
And while sure this stuff is going to eventually get better and cheaper to the point where most homes will have a 3D printer, you still won't be able to print ammo*. And we don't sell ammo here, so no problem.
(*until we get to like Diamond Age nano-printers, like)
I'm well aware of the shitty little plastic tube with a nail in the end. It's hardly a gun, though.
So you don't think that will improve?
>>(*until we get to like Diamond Age nano-printers, like)
I had a lovely chat with one of the top bio-engineers from NASA a few weeks back. She was telling me about the replicators they're working on for the Mars mission (which she reckons will be GO GO GO as soon as the Chinese start making any realy progress in space (by which time the USA will have no money left anyway :'D )).
Anyway, they sound really cool. She's designing bacteria things that can a) self replicate and b) turn the Martian soil into bricks which are then assembled into buildings by robots. She's also working on a bio replicator that can build pretty much any organic organism (bacteria, vacine, food etc.) from a selection of raw ingredients and some instructions - crucially instructions that can be uploaded from Earth, so if the astronauts on mars suddenly get ill and need a vacine we can send it to them :D
Seemingly NASA's Mars plan is to have a base built and ready by the time the astronauts get there. I kept thinking she must be bullshitting me, but she seemed totally serious (and extremely knowledgeable) about the whole thing.
Not until we can print materials with the same precision and strength of current manufacturing methods - and that is likely a /loong/ way off. And when that happens a 3D printed gun will be the least of our worries.
I didn't say it was a great gun but it shoots a projectile. Sure it will get better. And I'm sure they will come up with something for ammunition.
How long is a looong way off? We are printing house foundations and a bunch of other shit already. NASA is going to print food. I'd say 5 years max and they will have a pretty good printed gun.
Taking this carrying around weapons thing to extremes. Say you had a barbecue and I was invited (as I'd better fucking be) and at the barbecue I carried around... a glaive, would that be ok? Or an RPG launcher? Or a hand grenade? I mean at what point does it become unacceptable to you?
A glaive might be cool! It depends how big it is. If you had a knife like Rambo I wouldn't think much about it, but if you carried a sword around I'd think you were a little fucked in the head.
The other things I wouldn't think were acceptable. The items you listed are only used for military purposes, although I think some things like that are legal to own. I know you can own a tank as long as it can't fire. I have a friend who has a pretty good arsenal of mortar rounds too. Although I don't think you're allowed to have them.