this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2026
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3DPrinting

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[–] ShellMonkey@piefed.socdojo.com 48 points 1 month ago (5 children)

You can buy whole kits to build your own, the capacity to control what is made with the is about as much as if you tried to ban someone with a table saw from building a birdhouse.

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 31 points 1 month ago (1 children)

tried to ban someone with a table saw from building a birdhouse.

Thats a perfectly succinct analogy.

[–] lung@lemmy.world 14 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Pretty sure you could make a gun too, which is the point of this 3D printer thing

And like what about other CNC machines?

I like that California is on the frontier of many tech laws, but this and the age thing are particularly dumb lately

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (6 children)

I made an AR15 with a hobby drill press from Lowes at work. Give me a hunk of metal, a micrometer and a file and I can make you a gun.

Or worse.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure that's already illegal in CA

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think at this point it easier to list what isn't illegal in California.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Are the laws sound and moral? That's the only important metric, it doesn't matter how many laws you have. It's not like you go, oh shit, we have to keep it under a hundred thousand so now we can't make new laws around AI data centers because that's just too many!

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

lol you again, who decides whats "moral"?

And WTF are you bringing data centers into a post about 3D printing and California's draconian laws?

[–] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Shovel AK is a thing too. There are stencils out there for it.

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[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Neat, I would've assumed you'd need a mill or a lathe, not just a drill press. Kinda want to know how to do it myself, since I own the former but not either of the latter.

[–] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The upper reciever is the load bearing part on an Armalite, but it's also not the regulated part. The lower receiver is, and all you need for that is a box that holds the trigger components in vaguely the right place, a hole that lines up the magazine, a hole to stick the buffer tube into at the back, and some way to nail the upper receiver to it.

You could carve an AR lower out of wood if you were dedicated enough.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (7 children)

Guess I ought to go find a set of machining schematics.

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[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

It won't be accurate or be a long baller w/o a lathe to make a rifled barrel. Not that you couldn't mke a barrel with hand tools, it just would be very difficult.

And like others have said, only the lower receiver is the controlled item. You goto Brownels and can buy 98% of an AR w/o a background check.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And that is illegal, as it should be. The efficacy of a law has nothing to do with whether it's moral.

It's like saying "we don't have the manpower to police murder effectively, so we are gonna legalize murder". It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what the law is fucking for.

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No its not illegal:

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms

You can't make a machine gun or other items on the NFA list though.

A homemade AR15 is completely legal to be made at the federal level.

The rest of your comment is off base.

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[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Nobody tell California about a nail combined with certain diameters of pipe, because guess what, those can become guns too.

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

zip guns, lets bring in slam fired shotguns.

Never doubt the ingenuity of man killing other men.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 0 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thank god we have laws prohibiting and enforcing it then.

[–] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

No we don't, check the ppost with this link

https://www.atf.gov/firearms/privately-made-firearms

I can make guns all day long and you can't do anything about it.

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[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If I'm not mistaken, this DOES cover ALL manufacturing devices, and if it doesn't, it will in the future

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[–] turbowafflz@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Or just go to a bordering state, buy one, and come back

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Printer manufacturers won't make state-specific versions of printers. This is going to screw all of us.

[–] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 month ago

Printer manufacturers won't make state-specific versions of printers.

Likely not even country specific ones.

This is going to screw all of us.

This is the USA screwing the world (again)

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[–] apftwb@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You cannot put DRM in stepper motors. This law is dumb.

[–] TrippinMallard@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Hey now, don't give them any ideas... Next thing you know all stepper motors will require daily gustapo inspection before use by a robocop placed in every home.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 points 1 month ago

Can't stop those 3D printer pens, either. Someone could one day be literal when they say they are gonna draw a weapon.

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