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[Dram]

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1620813/man-sentenced-two-years-jail-japan-making-guns-3d-printer

A Japanese court has jailed a man for two years for making guns with a 3D printer in what is believed to be a first in a nation with strict gun controls.

Yoshitomo Imura, 28, was found guilty of making two guns at his home and publishing a video online detailing the process, said the Yokohama District Court.

"The criminal responsibility for this act is serious" as it could encourage others to replicate the act, said the presiding judge Koji Inaba.

Imura, a former employee of the Shonan Institute of Technology, used internet-based information to build the two functional guns, according to the ruling.

He then posted a video online detailing how he built them. Imura's lawyers argued that he did not know his acts were illegal, a notion that the court rejected.

The debate about home-made guns took off last year in the United States when a Texas-based group, Defense Distributed, posted blueprints for a fully functional 3D-printed firearm: a single-shot pistol made almost entirely out of hard polymer plastic. In December the US Congress renewed a ban on guns that contain no metal.

While Japanese police do carry guns, Japan has very strict firearms control laws and few people possess guns or have ever come into contact with them.

 

[Captainbojanglesiii]

Idiot. If you're in a country that has strict gun laws, why would you think this is okay?

Also the potential of 3D printers may be a bit worrying in the future.

 

[Eusis]

Idiot. If you're country has strict gun laws, why would you think this is okay?

Also the potential of 3D printers may be a bit worrying in the future.

You just need to look at certain segments of America (if not human psychology in general really) to understand that: they'd want to do this EXACTLY because of attempts to control their firearms.

Though I wonder in this case if the guy also just wanted to show off neat 3D printing technology.

 

[Kinyou]

Terrible idea if guns are already almost forbidden in your country. What did he expect.

 

[way more]

The law is the law. Did he think that the law was not the law?

 

[Juice]

In countries with actual gun control, authorities must be really afraid of terror cells manufacturing their own guns with 3D printers.

All they would need is a VPN out of the country and they'd be virtually untraceable.

(Finally a movie terror plot that the US is immune from. Go USA!)

 

[Poltergust]

You just need to look at certain segments of America (if not human psychology in general really) to understand that: they'd want to do this EXACTLY because of attempts to control their firearms.

Though I wonder in this case if the guy also just wanted to show off neat 3D printing technology.

There are plenty of other neat things you can make with a 3D printer.

 

[BocoDragon]

You just need to look at certain segments of America (if not human psychology in general really) to understand that: they'd want to do this EXACTLY because of attempts to control their firearms.

Though I wonder in this case if the guy also just wanted to show off neat 3D printing technology.

Actually I would call it a tendency of America. Japanese aren't all "give me liberty or give me death" and will probably largely comply with a ban on 3D printing guns.

Yakuza will get away with it though.

 

[cameron]

Imura's lawyers argued that he did not know his acts were illegal, a notion that the court rejected.

Has ignorance about the law ever been a valid defense? Kinda weird the lawyers went with that.

 

[GorillaJu]

Actually I would call it a tendency of America. Japanese aren't all "give me liberty or give me death" and will probably largely comply with a ban on 3D printing guns.

Yakuza will get away with it though.

Yakuza will just smuggle actual guns from China, not single shot 3D printed pistols.

 

[Laekon]

Yakuza will just smuggle actual guns from China, not single shot 3D printed pistols.

And they'll shoot less people in one year then during a single hot summer weekend in Chicago.

 

[GorillaJu]

And they'll shoot less people in one year then during a single hot summer weekend in Chicago.

Yeah, Yakuza are basically business men who operate in seedy industries much more so than violent criminals these days.