3-D Printed Handguns

It is clear, and has been for some time, that 3-D printers are going to destroy the entire “gun control” effort to disarm people. In order to assuage the fears of gun owners, gun prohibitionists have ensured that their laws only forbid the sale, purchase, gift, or inheritance of firearms, but not the ownership itself. How one is supposed to own a firearm without the ability to receive it is a mystery that is self-explanatory.

The 3-D printers therefore find the large loophole in the entire gun prohibitionist effort. People with a 3-D printer do not need to purchase or inherit a firearm. They can make the weapons themselves, and these firearms do not contain any traceable serial numbers that would enable the government to determine who had purchased firearms in the past.

While this is leaving most progressive hoplophobes confused, some are taking an interesting line to attack the 3-D printed firearms. They are deriding these firearms on the grounds that these firearms are fragile and of very low quality. If used seriously they would not last long.

This is a fascinating attack. It is analogous to saying that since Gutenberg’s press could only print twelve lines per page there is no way it would ever evolve into the modern newspaper and book publishing industry. Babbage’s difference engine is much too slow to handle millions of calculations per second.

The printing press and the difference engine did indeed improve after they were first invented by Gutenberg and Baggabe, which is why there is now the internet in which people can access phenomenal amounts of information instantly.

The same is true of the 3-D printer. It is in its earliest stages of development, which means that the current printer is much like a twenty line printing press. Those who deride the quality of the 3-D printed firearms are effectively saying that it is no use to develop the technology any farther much like it was not useful to develop the movable type printer.

Yes, the current printed firearm is not as of high quality as a manufactured firearm. That does not mean it will always be not as of high quality.

The Temporal Fallacy

Although it really cannot be done, there are those who attempt to find an era in some country in which libertarian ideas reigned. But there are valid attempts to show how certain eras qualify in one manner or another. Part of the problem is that conditions always change.

The United States, for example, has advanced liberty in some areas and degraded liberty in other areas. In the past there was much more economic liberty, but that was before slavery ended and before women and minorities were given the right to vote.

But generally it is assumed that the late nineteenth century in the western world, for all its flaws, had many of the characteristics of a libertarian society.

Many statists will immediately point to the flaws and say that it is the flaws that libertarians advocate. They are not interested in a true discussion or debate, only trying to find some ammunition, no matter how ludicrous, with which to try to tar libertarianism.

Then there's the temporal fallacy.

Due to advances in technology, there are amenities available today that were not available then. But there were advances then that were not available before then. True, compared to a modern factory, an earlier factory from the late 1800s would seem rather crude and dangerous – but it is better than what existed before then.

The fallacy is that everything that happened then is judged by today's standards. Thanks to advances in technology and worker productivity, companies can afford many more safety features than they were able to in the past. Those advances were not available then; therefore they were not implemented then. To the person committing the fallacy, that those advances were not implemented then is an unforgivable sin.

The fallacy is judging a factory from the 1880s by the standards of the 2010s. Of course it won't measure up. The factory must be judged in the proper context.

The factories of the day were, in general although there were exceptions, as safe as they could have been given the resources they had. People worked there because they were safer than other occupations and paid more than other occupations.

Yes, they didn't have closed circuit computer controlled safety systems. Of course those who commit this fallacy, when hard pressed, will admit that they don't expect closed circuit computer controlled safety systems, but then immediately turn around and deplore unmentioned safety protocols available today.

Conditions then were still an improvement over previous conditions. The economic liberty of the late 1800s created greater prosperity. And it is that same prosperity created then that enabled the more advanced technology available today - and the same prosperity that enables people to commit the temporal fallacy.