3D Printed Lower

[Frye]

I was wondering if anyone has any insight into my question:

If you are legally able to create firearms for your own use, if you are using a 3D printer at what point is it considered created by you?

Does it begin at the file creation, when you click the print button, when you clean up the actual print, or when you actually assemble the firearm?

Since there's not really much to downloading a file off the internet and clicking the print button if someone else wanted to make one if they came over and they were one to physically click the print button does that mean it was built by them?

Perhaps only the owner of the printer can be considered the person legally able to create a 3d printed lower?

 

[Outlaw Man]

I think those will probably all have to be hashed out in the court system in the years to come.

I would think that the firearm doesn't actually exist until you have it printed to a form close enough to be considered a firearm (see 80% AR-15 receivers).

Although, if drugs are any indication, there are likely some jurisdictions who will say that owning a printer and a computer are "possession with intent to manufacture" or some bogus charge like that.

 

[Frye]

Yeah it would seem there's a lot of gray area in regards to this subject currently. Not everyone has a 3D printer in their home... yet. Once the technology matures I'm sure politicians won't hesitate to legislate the hell out of what can be done on these.

Cool stuff though.

 

[Schwing]

I think 3d printers are going to pose legal questions unlike anything we have seen in recent history. It isn't just going to be firearms that have folks concerned. It is going to pose a lot of challenges in the intellectual property arena as well. If the technology takes off the way I suspect it will, whole sectors of manufacturing are going to drastically change over the next few years.

Of course, like any other thread they can get their beaks on, anti-gun folks will be watching and looking for an opportunity to pounce.

 

[MErl]

I think the only guidance that exists so far on this is from CNC milling. The ATF does not like companies selling 80% lowers and donating/selling machine time where you put in the lower and hit a button to complete.

So, If the printer is yours you are probably safe. If you borrow the printer but setup the program and debug all that you are probably safe. If you borrow a printer that is already setup by someone else with a "press here for your lower" button you are probably not safe.

A whole bunch of probably there, nothing has really been decided yet.

 

[Frosty Dave]

Previous posters have basically answered all of the OP's questions and none of us have a crystal ball to tell us what laws or regulations ATF might be enforcing in the future and by what authority.

If I were in Future ATF and tasked by an administration like this one do something about the horrible 3D gun problem, I would try to rationalize a clampdown that goes something like this hypothetical 'determination letter':

You asked, “At what point in the process does 3D printing of an AR-15 lower receiver for my personal use become a firearm?”

Previous ATF guidance on homebuilt firearms has been in response to queries and submitted samples of partially-finished receivers manufactured by means of traditional metal machining processes. However, 3D printing of plastic is a new and completely different process. Previous determinations of receivers manufactured by conventional metal machining processes largely do not apply to firearms manufactured via 3D printed technology.

In order for a so-called “3D firearm” to qualify as “home built” ATF has determined that it must be manufactured under the following conditions:

1.Something too expensive.
2.Something too difficult.
3.Something nearly impossible.

Thank you for contacting the ATF Technical Bureau. We trust this information is responsive to your questions and will totally discourage you from manufacturing a personal firearm.

 

[NOMI WASP]

All I know is if you shoot someone with one, they will burn you at the stake. They will say you made a firearm to pass through metal dedectors and air port scanners..... which we all know they wouldn't work without steel parts.

Risk out ways the reward when stripped lowers are under $50..

 

[dogtown tom]

Frye I was wondering if anyone has any insight into my question:

If you are legally able to create firearms for your own use, if you are using a 3D printer at what point is it considered created by you?

When you build it.

Does it begin at the file creation, when you click the print button, when you clean up the actual print, or when you actually assemble the firearm?

Seriously? You think a firearm is manufactured when a computer file is generated?
Simply having a file, blueprints or design drawn on a napkin does not equal having a firearm.

It's a firearm when the receiver is completed to the point ATF considers it a firearm.

Since there's not really much to downloading a file off the internet and clicking the print button if someone else wanted to make one if they came over and they were one to physically click the print button does that mean it was built by them?

Supposedly that's the determination ATF has used on firearm frames made via a CNC machine.

Perhaps only the owner of the printer can be considered the person legally able to create a 3d printed lower?

Do you think Gaston Glock is the only one legally allowed to create plastic pistol frames?

Outlaw Man.....Although, if drugs are any indication, there are likely some jurisdictions who will say that owning a printer and a computer are "possession with intent to manufacture" or some bogus charge like that.

Unlikely. Owning a CNC machine and a computer file is no different.

NOMI WASP All I know is if you shoot someone with one, they will burn you at the stake. They will say you made a firearm to pass through metal dedectors and air port scanners..... which we all know they wouldn't work without steel parts.

Nonsense. Numerous manufacturers have produced nonmetal firearm frames and receivers....they are wholly and completely legal. If you manufacture a firearm you are required to abide by the Undetectable Firearms Act.

If they will "burn you at the stake" it's because you used your firearm in an illegal or negligent manner......not because of the material used in its manufacture.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I know it doesn't exactly address your question, but if you're wanting to do a home build, It'd be a lot more cost effective (not to mention more durable) to buy a benchtop milling machine and some cutters. The kind of rep-rap machines you can assemble for a couple grand are nowhere near capable of producing a precise and sufficiently strong lower receiver. Manual milling machines and lathes are and will continue to be for the foreseeable future the most pragmatic means of building quality home made firearms. Requires more skill than downloading a CAM file, of course, but nothing one can't learn how to do in a relatively short time.