3D Printers Can Now Pump Out 30-Round Magazines

A video from Defense Distributed popped up just in time for Barack Obama's momentous address to the nation about, among other things, banning the sale of 30-round magazines.

The video shows a test fire of an assault rifle using a 3D-printed 30-round clip. The capability adds another layer to the loopholes and problems that exist in a 'high-capacity magazine' ban.

The implication is that, as technology becomes more available, it won't be long before regular people can put 30-round magazines in the printing queue next to their TPS reports.

In an Andy Greenberg post on Forbes, Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson talks about weapons bans and his polymer, printed 30-round magazine:

Wilson argues that the high capacity magazine ban wouldn’t just be wrong, but also impossible to enforce, as his project aims to show. Even if Defense Distributed’s original goal of printing a gun from scratch remains out of reach, the restrictions on magazine could be far more easily bypassed, he says. “[Lawmakers] are taking a giant step backward, and it makes everything we’ve talked about more practical,” says Wilson. “There’s more opportunity to demonstrate the usefulness, the consequences of our project. I can already print this magazine and show that prohibition has run up against a problem.”

The next best step for the government would be to ban the manufacture of 30-round magazines, but the U.S. already manufactures and exports those by the millions to support American and foreign military demand.