3D printers
 

I often wondered about this.

3D printers are getting better and better with all the things they can now print, question is though, how long until someone prints out a gun or even a multipart gun and easily gets it past the scanners? (think of the movie "in the line of fire" but made much much easier)

Getting the gun through security will be easy. Having ammunition that will work without blowing the gun up and the shooters hand 's still an issue as well as getting it through security. Do a web search and you may learn more. Or go over to one of the many gun forums.

Where have been for the last two years?

There's a plastic pistol out there already, admittedly a bit unreliable and certainly not good for more than a few shots. The only metal part is a common nail.

It fires a standard metal-cased bullet, though.

While I haven't heard of it being done one could no doubt make a muzzleloader version that omitted the metal of the casing. Also, I'm sure there are chemical means of firing it that wouldn't require a metal part. You're not going to be able to get around a metal bullet, though.

I suppose my point wasn't so much can it be done, it was more how long until they are widespread enough to start getting them on board planes causing security to get even tighter.

No one is going to print a gun that gets past the screeners (unless they are jacking their jaws with their co-workers or playing on their cellphones while they are supposed to be working and they miss it just like they miss real firearms).

It doesn't matter what the materials are: a 2-inch plastic toy gun, a sock monkey's tiny gun or a plastic replica (one side only) on a woman's purse were confiscated. You can't even take a kid's squirt gun through the checkpoint, and it would almost certainly get confiscated from a checked bag.

It's going to be interesting to see if the printers themselves are allowed through the checkpoint.

not too many flights are long enough that there would be enough time to print your own weapon while on board. So, they might only prohibit 3D printers on flights over 15 hours. :)

If you can manufacture a 3D gun you can also manufacture negative-space pieces to turn it into a solid object that looks nothing like a gun.

They wouldn't be a threat--printing a gun takes too long and can't be done on an airplane anyway.

A sock monkey's toy gun isn't a threat, either. ;)

Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised to see them challenged at some point, whether or not it actually makes sense.