D printer for creating untraceable AR-15 rifles hits market

Defense Distributed has offered a pre-sale of its new milling machine which allows buyers to print and assemble a steel AR-15 rifle in the comfort of their own home. The weapon is completely untraceable.

Ghost Gunner is the company’s new computer-numerically-controlled (CNC) milling machine. Unlike its so-called Liberator gun, which is a plastic gun design to be created via a 3D printer, the Ghost Gunner is the PC-connected hardware for manufacturing the lower receiver of the popular AR-15 rifle.

The receiver is the control part of a firearm which houses the operating parts and serves as the frame of the gun. Without it, the weapon is inoperable. It is also where the manufacturer places the serial number, which is required by law.

The US does allow for creating a firearm from parts or kits, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which states: “[An] unlicensed individual may make a 'firearm' as defined in the GCA for his own personal use, but not for sale or distribution.”

Sharks can be 'social or solitary'

The researchers studied ten groups of small spotted catsharks

The most feared predators in the sea have individual personalities that affect how readily they socialise, according to a study by UK scientists.

Individual sharks, studied in groups of ten, showed consistent social habits - either forming groups with other sharks or finding camouflage on their own.

When a group was shifted into a new environment, individual sharks showed the same patterns of behaviour.

This is the first study to show that sharks have their own personalities.

The research was done in large tanks at the Marine Biological Association of the UK, in Plymouth, in collaboration with the University of Exeter. The findings appear in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 881