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This whistle fights fascists | How thousands of 3D-printed whistles are derailing ICE.
(www.theverge.com)
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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Has anyone heard of “3D GUN’T” software that’s apparently being put into new 3d printers? It can apparently block prints based off the shape or whatever to prevent the printing of gun parts, and keeps tabs on who printed exactly what. It’s basically DRM for 3d printers. Also laws in certain states demanding printers be legally required to start blocking gun parts. It may be the beginning of something worse as it adds the infrastructure needed to further block “bad shapes” down the road.
https://3dprint.com/314218/daring-am-software-advances-aim-to-curb-illegal-3d-printing-of-firearms/ https://printandgo.tech/blog/3d-gunt-solution-to-prevent-3d-printed-ghost-guns
Whatever people in power try to stir up about this, it's literally impossible to legislate and block shapes from being 3D-printed. Any attempts to do so are a fool's errand, and/or just being used to justify misguided (and doomed) attempts to lock down 3DP technology for other reasons (read DRM/copyright forces in big business.) Blocking parts that might be for a gun from being printed simply cannot be done.
https://blog.adafruit.com/2026/02/04/what-a-load-of-filament-the-case-against-3d-printer-gun-detection/
https://michaelweinberg.org/blog/2026/02/04/3d-printer-gun-screen/
If I understand correctly, this affects 3d printers that can read STL. What if someone, hypothetically, uses an open source slicer, like Orca, and print from gcode?
Good luck adding drm to a microwave to prevent it from microwaving "fish and fish adjacent shapes". 3d printers consist of a couple of motors and a hot bit. No computer in there, unless you go for the high end stuff and even then they can't run that sort of software. MCUs are clocked in MHz, but even a 10 year old computer is clocked in GHz. Even with a cloud connections, how much money have companies poured into "AI" only to have it still get things wrong? Do lawmakers expect a podunk garage team to figure out what Google, Meta, Apple, and literal billions of R&D haven't?
Since this is effectively a ban, it would result in "healthcare CEO shot by wooden ghost gun" if gun kits are still sold, because 3d printers don't print guns. They print the "lower" that has the serial number, which is legally, but not practically, defined to be the "gun". Any gun that doesn't have a serial is a ghost gun, but the point is moot.
More realistically, it would result in: "healthcare CEO shot by a 2026 special edition 9mm VEHHFU746582 on sale for 1984$, get it before it is banned" because for some reason the legislature is running on rich people feelings, and this shooting is special because of the gun, and not because of EVERYTHING ELSE.
Not super into guns but I'm a bit frustrated with the technical ineptitude of some of these lawmakers. Gun control existed before 3d printers did, this is just half assed. Feel free to correct me if I missed something.
You're right, 3D printers and filaments simply need to be made illegal to own and use without a license, like a still. People should be buying from corporations anyway, not designing and printing things at home. Who do we think we are?
What happened is that the skill requied to manufacture a lower receiver out of metal dropped quite sharply, enabling a large number of people to make weapons without serial numbers
If nothing else I feel like more people would be killed with Shinzo Abe guns and similar hardware store contraptions
Yeah, these laws are incredibly invasive, and potentially crippling to smaller manufacturing operations.
"Yeah? And your point is?". ~ Billionaires
Wow! No sovereign citizen is advocating for this!