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Three dimensions of weaponry

Texans revolutionizing
firearms production

By Aidan Mouellic, Contributor

A the United States
government tries to make
public access to firearms more
difficult, a group in Texas

has been using technology to
make firearms easier to get a
hold of. Using emerging 3-D
printing technology, Wilson,
the co-founder of the Texan
arms manufacturer Defense
Distributed, is revolutionizing
how firearms are made and
regulated. With the help of

manufacturing companies such
as MakerBot, the prices of 3-D
printers have fallen to the point
that it’s possible for individuals
to now go online or to a store
and purchase a 3-D printer for
less than $2,000.

To print objects with a
3-D printer, you need to have
a computer assisted design

(CAD) file to send to the printer.

Websites such as MakerBot’s
own Thingiverse.com and
even torrent aggregator, Pirate
Bay, are places where people
can find CAD files for objects
they wish to print at home.
Thingiverse hosted CAD files
for parts of firearms, but after
public backlash last year took
down the files. To fill the void,

the decidedly anarcho-capitalist
Wilson founded Defense
Distributed as a way to sell his
own 3-D printed firearms and
also setup DEFCAD.org, a site
for hosting free CAD files that
are firearms related. Earlier
this year, Wilson and his team
released the CAD file for an
AR15 lower receiver that was
able to withstand close to a
thousand shots.

The two main firearm
components being printed
using a plastic polymer are the
controversial 30-round rifle
magazine and the lower receiver
of the AR15 rifle system.

The lower receiver is what
the Canadian and American
firearms authorities consider to

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3-D printed assualt rifle | Photo courtesy of www.digitaltrends.com

be the sort of “heart” of the gun
and it is the only part of the rifle
that is regulated. The other parts
that make an AR15 rifle able

to fire, such as the barrel and
trigger, are able to be purchased
in Canada without a firearms
license if you are of legal age.

“There are people from all
over the world downloading our
files, and we say, good—we say
you should have access to this,”
said Wilson.

DEFCAD.org, combined
with a 3-D printer, gives anyone
the ability to manufacture the
only part needed for an AR15
that is traceable and difficult to
get a hold of legally in Canada
within your own home. It is
also illegal in Canada to own a

Douglas research shared with community

Geography department
partners with Fraser River
Discovery Centre

By Dylan Hackett, News Editor

Given Douglas College
geography students have
partnered with the Fraser River
Discovery Centre, located

down the road from the New

Westminster campus, to educate

the population on the reality
of pollutants, storm-runoff,
and industry on the 1,375-km
river. The students, most of
whom are first year, will have
their research papers adopted
for Discovery Centre’s training
materials, giving outreach
volunteers the most up-to-date
information on the longest river
in the province.

“It’s fine to read about
these things in textbooks or

hear about them in lectures, but
now the students are actually
seeing how they work, and
they have the chance to help
prepare educational materials,”
says Mike McPhee, geography
department chair. “It’s also a
chance for students to give back
to the community, as opposed to
just turning in a term paper.”
The discovery centre boasts
a kid-friendly pollution model
toy which allows guests to
observe effects that pollution
has on the scaled map of Metro

Vancouver.

“It is fun to play with the
toys and water at the pollution
model,” says Shannon King,
education coordinator at the
Fraser River Discovery Centre.
“But our enviro-savvy visitors
also want to know what the
real deal is, and I am grateful
that these students are helping
update our training resources.”

“It’s only recently I learned
that fresh water could be in such
high demand in the future that
wars could be fought over it,”

rifle magazine with a capacity
of more than 10 rounds. In the
US, Defense Distributed has a
federal license to produce and
sell their own 3-D printed 30
round magazines in Texas where
it is illegal to own such items.
The owners of Makerbot
intended their printer to be used
for legal purposes, but Wilson
sees his use of the technology
as an exercise in anarchism.
In an interview with Glenn
Beck, Wilson says that he “is
doing this project and using
this technology as a form of
resistance, so it’s just a critical
use of this technology...we
see liberty under threat and
sovereignty under threat and we
must respond.”

says student Leon Yee says. “If
we don’t make changes soon,
this valuable resource could
become so scarce that not only
people living in arid conditions
would have to worry about how
to get it, but those of us living
close to large bodies of water
would have to as well.”

The Fraser River Discovery
Centre will be hosting an Earth
Day celebration on April 21,
coinciding with the start of its
volunteer appreciation week.