My comment about printing ammo wasn't too serious, and Barnbwt explains why.
It was meant to show exactly why 3D printing isn't realistic in terms of manufacture. Yet the general idea the public has is that all you do is push a button and voila, out pops a latte or Venizien ground hog aka interstellar lunch.
A well thought out and intelligent reply isn't what the average public commentator or anti gunner would respond with - you get overhyped gushing prose about how great it's going to be, or how the streets will run with blood because of it. Neither are accurate.
Thx, tho, for trying to explain it, B, simply because most of the public conversation, especially in the media, tends to be grossly lacking any thoughtful examination of how difficult it is. Nope, we can't 3D print ammo, and then backing up one step, guns aren't that likely either with the costs so high at present.
I give it 15-20 years before they are even affordable - we have nothing in the way of underlying technical support or an infrastructure to do it. And the ammo for 3D guns? Still done the old fashioned way. Loaded barrel sleeves have been around before, and beg the question why the firearm can't be designed to handle normal ammo.
Since there is a move afoot to get caseless or at least, brassless ammo for military use, how does a printed firearm address those working issues? The chamber is going to have to contain the burning propellant in direct contact with it - sounds like a major impediment to using a low melting point polymer.
Like cell phones - great concept but entirely unfeasible until the lithium battery and nationwide coverage by tower was implemented. That took millions to develop ane tens of millions of dollars to put up towers.
Printed guns take nearly that in equipment, which is why the few working examples - the 1911 series - aren't available except as a demonstration of the technology. And that is to sell aircraft parts making in a highly competitive environment. It's engineers talking smack to each other in a way that grabs them viscerally.
The public fallout means nothing as the public will never ante up the purchase price. Which we never hear, because it's stratospheric.
So, how much will 3D printed ammo cost? Goes to how we highspeed laser sinter a pyrotechnic compound. How do you melt a highly volatile composition that is heat reactive by nature?
It's a rhetorical question, no doubt, and should highlight just how difficult even printing a gun is.
