On May 1st, Wilson assembled the 3D-printed pieces of his Liberator for the first time, and agreed to let a Forbes photographer take pictures of the unproven device. A day later, that gun was tested on a remote private shooting range an hour’s drive from Austin, Texas, whose exact location Wilson asked me not to reveal.
The verdict: it worked. The Liberator fired a standard .380 handgun round without visible damage, though it also misfired on another occasion when the firing pin failed to hit the primer cap in the loaded cartridge due a misalignment in the hammer body, resulting in an anti-climactic thunk.[...]
The group’s initial success in testing the Liberator may now silence some of its technical naysayers, too. Many skeptics (include commenters on this blog) have claimed that no plastic gun could ever handle the pressure and heat of detonating an ammunition cartridge without deforming or exploding. But Defense Distributed’s design has done just that.
The gun is composed of 16 parts. Only the firing pin was not made with the 3-D printer, a nail was used. The gun was made using a 9000 dollar 3-D printer. Defense Distributed is currently working to improve the gun so that it can be made with a less expensive 3-D printer. The current design is still fairly crude. The accuracy, reliability, and safety of the gun is questionable but this will be improved upon in time.
Almost immediately after the successful firing of the world's first 3-D gun the government is already working to regulate the technology. The gun's creator has faced many challenges and roadblocks along the way, and there is no doubt that this technology has many more to come. This technology in its early development, but it will continue to be improved upon. Eventually this technology has the ability to prevent the government from being able to completely ban guns. This is a "game changer".
