With inexpensive consumer grade CNC (Computer Numerical Controlled) milling machines, specifically optimized for home manufacture of firearms, and new consumer grade printers that will make 3-D printing even in metals relatively affordable, the future can be said to have arrived. Practical, safe firearms can be made at home even by people without metal working or advanced gunsmithing skills, or even particularly advanced computer skills. Still, although the prices of this equipment are falling, and will inevitably continue to do so, the necessary investment is currently significant.

For those who can afford only an entry level 3-D printer, using some of the least durable plastics, one can expect a very limited barrel life, and firing a printed firearm, particularly one of significant power, can be something of a dicey proposition for every shot. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, perhaps hoping to discourage aspiring home gun makers, even published a video of a printed "Liberator" pistol blowing up when fired.

An article in Wired, however, notes that an ingenious individual has discovered a way around this risk:

Michael Crumling, a 25-year-old machinist from York, Pennsylvania, has developed a round designed specifically to be fired from 3-D printed guns. His ammunition uses a thicker steel shell with a lead bullet inserted an inch inside, deep enough that the shell can contain the explosion of the round’s gunpowder instead of transferring that force to the plastic body or barrel of the gun. Crumling says that allows a home-printed firearm made from even the cheapest materials to be fired again and again without cracking or deformation. And while his design isn’t easily replicated because the rounds must be individually machined for now, it may represent another step towards durable, practical, printed guns—even semi-automatic ones.

In other words, the heat and pressure that previously had to be contained by the plastic barrel and breech of a printed gun is now instead contained in a thick steel cartridge case. Moreover, although, as the article acknowledges, the cartridge cases require some painstaking machining, they can be used over and over. Crumling is not manufacturing ammunition for sale, as doing so would require a federal license, although he has said that he would be willing to obtain such a license if there is sufficient interest in the rounds. If he sold only the steel cases themselves, without loading them with a bullet, the propellant powder, and the primer, the license would be unnecessary.

A safe 3-D printed gun, by the way, would disappoint certain "gun control" advocates who apparently do not expect their claims of being concerned about violence to face much scrutiny. Andrew Goddard, father of Colin "The Alchemist" Goddard, left this charming comment on the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Facebook page:

I think they should have let him print a "fully plastic" gun, he would no doubt have blown his "fully plastic" head off!

Goddard, though, cannot touch the vile evil of this bravely anonymous commentator on a gun ban zealot's blog:

I'm gonna download that plan, modify it to blow up in the hand of the shooter, and dump the modified plan back into the source. We who oppose guns can flood the printing dump with defective plans, and no one will be able to tell the difference.

Most likely idle fantasy on his part, but clearly a quite fond fantasy. People like him and Goddard want us disarmed--want their beloved "government monopoly on force" protected even in the face of technology that promises home gun manufacture for the masses--and would be perfectly happy to see us maimed or killed for their sick agenda.

Crumling's innovation brings some more bad news to those pursuing that agenda, and that's very good news for those of us who believe liberty is worth fighting for.

http://www.examiner.com/article/new-type-of-homemade-ammo-could-make-3-d-printed-guns-more-practical-accessible