US legalizes the gun that anyone can print at home

US legalizes the gun that anyone can print at home

Prohibited in 2013, the legalization of this type of weapons capable of firing live ammunition and that are created with a common 3D printer open a debate on safety

An internet search of barely half a minute and a common 3D printer will be enough in the United States to obtain a firearm from next August 1. And although its appearance is harmless - it looks like a toy -

these types of pistols have enough power to kill a person since they are capable of propelling real caliber ammunition at high speed. The plans of 'Liberator', which is how the pioneer model is called, were published openly and free on the web in 2013 and have gone from being prohibited to being legal for a matter of «freedom of trade».

This is at least determined by the Department of Justice of the nation presided over by Donald Trump, which ends abruptly with a five-year litigation, when it forced its creator, Cody Wilson - a 30-year-old Texan who defines himself as a post-anarchist - to remove them from the website in which they were posted for violating the protections of the International Arms Traffic Regulations to be able to be downloaded from any other country.

The sentence, which the court was not expected to give its arm to twist. "We had asked for the moon and we imagined that the Government would reject our proposal; he planted battle to us from the beginning and all this time and, suddenly, they have made withdrawal ", has explained Alan M. Gottlieb, representative of the Foundation of the Second Amendment and collaborator in this case. The Department of State has even agreed to court costs.

This decision establishes jurisprudence and has opened a great debate in the American society, hit in the last years by massive shootings with victims in several schools of the country. The associations that ask for more control in the possession of weapons have put the cry in the sky for what they consider a public danger .

 "We are surprised and disgusted that the Trump Administration has reached a secret agreement in such a short time," Avery Gardiner, co-chair of the Brady Campaign for the Prevention of Violence with Arms, told CNN.

In principle, to print at home enough to have the right equipment (prices of 3D printers range from 150 euros to 10,000) and l ICENSE corresponding weapons . Although this last point, when occurring in the privacy of the home, is difficult to control by the authorities.

In Spain, the Ministry of Defense, through its group of experts from the Institute for Strategic Studies Spanish, presented a report warning of the danger s of this technology by 2016. "The rapid development of information technology and the possibility of materializing 'that information' through the use of 3D printers have generated a new risk scenario, both for conventional arms trafficking and for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, "they explained in the text.

Spanish law, meanwhile, leaves no doubt in this regard and p rohíbe possession and manufacture of firearms, like most surrounding countries.

Difficult to control

These types of weapons are already called 'fantastic pistols' because they are impossible to trace , that is, they do not have a serial number that identifies them or their owner. In addition, by not having ferromagnetic materials can pass undetected through the metal detectors of airports or public buildings.

The issue of ammunition, however, is another matter. The gun needs real ammunition to work properly, this makes it more vulnerable to all types of security controls and in the specific case of Spain will be an important limitation, since in our country it is not easy to acquire bullets without having the proper license.

However, as long as occurred with a new threat, it is more than possible that, popularize this form of creating weapons, security checks at airports v uelvan to increase again to deal with a situation that , until now, it was not counted.

Another issue is that this type of guns also poses a risk to the person who wields it, since it is not manufactured with the security controls that are required in the arms industry and could fail in case of being poorly calibrated by the printer.