The Department of Homeland Security has a situation on its hands

May 24, 2013 09:12 GMT  ·  By

3D printing started out innocently enough, but history has showed that humankind can be incredibly apt at coming with ways to hurt one another, or blow things and animals to smithereens when annoyed.

Which is to say, humankind can turn basically anything into a weapon, and while using 3D printers to bash someone might be hard, given their size, using them to make weapons is much easier.

Case in point, the Liberator 3D-printed gun was revealed a relatively short time ago, only for the 3D printed gun schematic to be downloaded 100,000 times in short order.

Obviously, the Department of Defense was alarmed by this, and immediately banned it.

Yet that wasn't the end of it. Just a short time ago, we wrote about the second 3D printed gun.

Even more recent is the news about 3D printed shotgun cells. Since printing guns was banned, inventors chose the next thing on the list.

At least this limits ammunition to those who already have a shotgun and, presumably, own a permit for it.

None of it is enough to assuage the fears of the Department of Homeland Security though.

The DHS, as reluctant as it is to admit it, said that it might be very hard, if not impossible, to prevent the creation of 3D-printed firearms.

"Significant advances in three-dimensional (3D) printing capabilities, availability of free digital 3D printer files for firearms components, and difficulty regulating file sharing may present public safety risks from unqualified gun seekers who obtain or manufacture 3D printed guns," reads the document, reportedly obtained by Fox News.

The Liberator 3D gun is specifically mentioned. Lawmakers are now putting together legislation that will, presumably, ban the 3D-printed guns themselves. Little will be possible to do about the design files though. At least without stepping on the toes of a lot of people. Besides, it's not like Internet piracy is gone.