3D printing has definitely come a long way since its early days, and this time around, the news surrounding 3D printing could be of concern since it could pose a potential hazard to the public instead of being a fashion object. The Liberator is a 3D printed plastic gun that was successfully smuggled across international transport, by-passing the standard issue security arrangements. Not only that, this sting operation did not require anyone from the Special Forces to carry it out, but rather, Mail on Sunday claimed that a couple of their reporters were the ones behind the act.
If this is true, then it would surely spark off plenty of questions concerning the massive international security risk that could be posed down the road by a gun which is easily obtained using nothing but a 3D printer. Hmm, this is starting to make me wonder whether plastic weapons are the future, as these are lightweight, easy to produce and of course, just in case you meet a mutant named Magneto, he won’t be able to get rid of your firearm that easily. The printed Liberator gun is capable of firing a live round, where its blueprints can be downloaded from the Internet, before it was smuggled onto a packed Eurostar train. Assembling the parts did not take too long at all, too. Is this going to be the face of future terrorism and assassination plots?
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