3-D-Printed Guns Worry Europeans
【By GEORGI KANTCHEV／聯合報／馮克芸譯】
PARIS — The gun fired four shots into a gelatin block. Each nine-millimeter bullet punched deep into the substance, which was meant to mimic the density of a human body. For the experts at the Austrian Interior Ministry performing the test, it was a clear sign: This was a deadly weapon.
But it was no ordinary gun. The officials had downloaded the gun’s digital blueprints from the Internet and “printed” the weapon on a 3-D printer for sale online for about $1,360. It took the Austrian authorities 30 hours, and $68 worth of plastic polymer, built up layer by layer , to make the gun.
“Our interest was to see if the manufacturing of a working gun using this technology is possible,” said Karl-Heinz Grundböck of the Austrian Interior Ministry . “The answer was a very clear ‘Yes.’ ”
Law enforcement agencies across Europe are on alert over the proliferation of Internet software that can be used to make a weapon on a 3-D printer. Police worry that it is just a matter of time before such weapons are used in episodes of violence.
In May, after a law student from Texas, Cody Wilson, posted his designs for a 3-D-printed handgun online, the files were downloaded more than 100,000 times in two days before the United States State Department demanded they be removed. Spain led the ranking of downloads , followed by the United States, Brazil, Germany and Britain. A full version of the gun, called the Liberator, went on display in September in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Despite the State Department’s attempt to block them, the designs for Mr. Cody’s Liberator have continued to spread on sites like the Pirate Bay.
There have been reports recently of people evading airportstyle security scanners with 3-Dprinted plastic weapons, whose only metal components are firing pins no bigger than a short common nail.
Although the technology has been around as an industrial process since the 1980s, it has only recently gained broader currency with the arrival of affordable consumer-level printers. According to Wohlers Associates, a 3-D printing research firm in Fort Collins, Colorado, a total of 35,508 personal printers were sold worldwide last year, up nearly 50 percent from 2011. Most were sold to hobbyists, do-it-yourselfers, engineering students and educational institutions, according to Terry Wohlers, the firm’s president.
The gun designs are evidently getting better by the month. Although early versions of the Liberator could be fired only a few times before the barrel needed replacing, a YouTube video emerged in August that apparently shows a 3-D-printed rifle called the Grizzly 2.0 successfully firing 10 shots.
The manufacture of weapons using 3-D printers is already banned by a European Union directive to member nations. Enforcing that rule, however, may prove a challenge.
And many active users of the printing technology are skeptical about the extent of the real threat posed by 3-D firearms. A sampling of discussion forums of 3-D enthusiasts finds widespread cynicism about the capabilities of such weapons.
“Three-D printing a gun or a knife is akin to building a car out of cheese — it’s just not going to work,” wrote someone posting as “thejollygrimreaper” on the RepRap forum, one of the biggest 3-D-printing online communities.
A RepRap forum member identifying himself as a 21-year-old Finnish student from Tampere said he succeeded in printing a working gun and in testing it. “The gun’s receiver got a crack after just one shot,” he said, referring to the firing chamber. “No sane person would fire the gun again.”
They may not need to.
“Even if these guns can only fire a couple of shots, they can still have a lethal effect,” said Michael Brzoska, the director of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Studies at the University of Hamburg. “And you can easily build several of them.”
中譯
那把槍朝一大塊模擬人體密度的凝膠發射了四次，9米釐的子彈每次都深入凝膠之中。對執行此項測試的奧地利內政部專家而言，這清楚表示，那把槍是致命武器。
但那不是普通的槍。奧國官員從網路下載那把槍的數位藍圖，且以網購價格約1360美元的3D列印機，把槍「列印」出來。奧國當局花了30小時，以68美元的塑膠聚合物為原料，一層層打造出這把槍。
奧地利內政部發言人格倫德博克說：「讓我們感興趣的是，是否可用3D列印技術製造實際可用的槍。答案很清楚：可以。」
歐洲各國的執法單位都已注意到，可藉3D列印機造槍的軟體，已在網上廣為流傳。警方擔心，這種武器遲早會用在暴力事件中。
今年五月，美國德州的法律系學生威爾森在網上貼出他的3D列印手槍設計圖，美國國務院在兩天後要求移除，但圖檔已被下載超過10萬次。下載次數最多的國家是西班牙，其後依序是美國、巴西、德國及英國。一把名為「解放者」的完整版3D列印槍，今年九月於英國倫敦的維多利亞與艾伯特博物館展出。
儘管美國國務院力圖防堵，威爾森的「解放者」設計圖仍持續透過「海盜灣」（Pirate Bay）之類網站流傳。
最近有報導說，有人攜帶以3D列印機打造的塑膠武器闖關，未被機場安檢掃描設備查出，這種武器上唯一的金屬零件，是不過一根普通短鐵釘大小的發射撞針。
雖然3D列印技術這種工業製程1980年代即已存在，但直到最近隨著消費者買得起的3D列印機出現，這種技術才流傳開來。總部設在科羅拉多州柯林斯堡的3D列印研究公司沃勒斯統計，去年全球賣出3萬5508台個人用3D列印機，幾乎比前年多出50%。該公司總裁沃勒斯說，買家多半是喜愛此種技術或喜歡自己動手做東西的玩家、工程科系學生及教育機構。
槍枝的設計顯然每個月都在進步。早期版解放者僅可發射幾次，就需更換槍管，但今年八月出現在YouTube上的一段影片明確顯示，一把稱為「灰熊2.0」 的3D列印步槍，成功發射了10次。
歐盟已向各成員國發出指令，禁止以3D列印機製造武器。可是要落實這個規定，只怕並不容易。
許多3D列印技術的使用者都懷疑，這種技術製造出的武器能形成多大威脅。針對各大3D列印迷論壇所做的抽樣調查發現，他們大都把這種武器的性能當成笑話看。
在最大的3D列印網路社群之一RepRap論壇上，自稱為「肯定恐怖收割人」的網友說：「用3D列印機造槍或製刀，就像用起司造車一樣，是行不通的。」
同論壇另一名來自芬蘭坦佩雷的21歲學生說，他已用3D列印技術列印出一把可用的槍，且做了測試。他說：「只開一槍，槍匣就裂了。腦袋不正常的人才會再用那把槍射擊。」
他們或許無需再開一槍。
漢堡大學和平及安全研究所主任布索斯卡說：「就算這種槍只能開幾槍，還是有致命效果。而且你輕輕鬆鬆就能打造好幾把。」
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