It seems the world has got itself hooked to 3D printers, from Big Bang Theory to all major Tech blogs to newspapers all keep churning out something about this almost magical device. “The Liberator” which looks nothing more than an ultra cheap toy gun has kept many tech writers spellbound and rather interestingly it has managed to give sleepless nights to security agencies around the world. Australian police is the latest to succumb to its probable dangerous uses. NSW police force bought themselves a very basic 3D printer for $1700 and downloaded the blueprint for The Liberator.


They printed two guns; it took them 27 hours to print 15 components of the gun and only 60 seconds to assemble it along with its firing pin fashioned out of a steel nail. These guns are only made for a single shot quite similar to the original “liberator” which was used in WWII. One of the guns managed to fire a bullet that penetrated 17cm into a resin block. But the second gun gave way to the bullet’s brutal force and exploded. The commissioner of NSW police force called it a very dangerous weapon as it’s extremely difficult to trace it and wants to make it illegal. This move was badly ridiculed by the online community; some posted scalding comments and called the Australian Police overtly paranoid.

[Via – Gizmodo]