14 DAY TRIAL // It's finally happened, though some might say it was more or less inevitable for something like this to come to pass: for the first time, a city has banned the manufacture of guns via 3D printing.
More specifically, from today onwards, it is illegal to 3D print guns in the city of Philadelphia, also known as the City of Brotherly Love.
Obviously, Philadelphia would not be a city of such love if it allowed everyone to build weapons that could kill anyone and everyone else.
Granted, some would argue that if it really were the City of Brotherly Love, people wouldn't feel compelled to use the guns for anything.
But then comes the argument that if that's the case, they shouldn't feel the need to make the guns in the first place, so the new regulations should not faze them at all. But we digress.
Basically, it's illegal to manufacture guns via 3D printing in Philadelphia, although we're not certain what the penalty is for breaking the ban. We imagine it won't be worse than a fine, maybe a day or two in prison, at least at first.
It's all just a preventive measure. While a wave of plastic guns hasn't descended upon the city, Philadelphia officials don't want to wait for something like that to provide incentive.
After all, if they did, the weapons would not fall under the purview of the law, so there would still be a bunch of firearms around the place, firearms that airport metal detectors can't pick up.
This isn't the first move against this type of product. In fact, there's at least one senator that wants the practice banned everywhere already (New York senator Chuck Schumer).
There probably will be a black market for 3D printed guns despite all this, but the same can be said for everything else, and it's not a reality likely to be resolved any time soon. Alas.