A 3D printed gun was fired successfully for the first time at a firing range in Austin, Texas in the United States on Saturday morning. Defense Distributed headed by University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, created the gun. The company now plans to make the blueprints available online, a decision which has gained some negative publicity from anti-gun campaigners. Wilson’s decision to make the blueprints available are, according to him, “about liberty.”

There is a demand of guns – there just is. There are states all over the world that say you can’t own firearms – and that’s not true anymore.

I’m seeing a world where technology says you can pretty much be able to have whatever you want. It’s not up to the political players any more.

I recognise the tool might be used to harm other people – that’s what the tool is – it’s a gun.

But I don’t think that’s a reason to not do it – or a reason not to put it out there.

Victoria Baines form Europol’s cybercrime centre was of the opinion that criminals were more likely to use a more traditional method for receiving a gun, but she added:

But as time goes on and as this technology becomes more user friendly and more cost effective, it is possible that some of these risks will emerge.

What we know is that technology proceeds much more quickly than we expect it to. So by getting one step ahead of the technological developments, we hope and believe we will be able to get one step ahead of the criminals as well.

An $8,000 (R71,547) printer purchased on eBay was used to make the gun, the gun is mostly plastic with only the firing pin being made of metal. And in order for Wilson to print the gun and distribute the gun he had to obtain a manufacturing and seller’s license from the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

[Source: BBC News, YouTube]