That is why I think people are ignorinf reality when they think gun ownership prohibition would lead to a decrease in total gun ownership in the U.S. Besides 3D printing there are hundreds of thousands of Americans who know how to take spare parts and manufacture weapons. The effect would be equivalent to alcohol prohibition where the guns that are produced (like the alcohol) are less controllable and safe. Add this to the total number of current guns (which exceeds the American population), and less assume only 30% of people sell their guns back, and the net effect is a lower increase in ownership overall. But it would be guaranteed that the people who shouldn't have guns will be the ones who do.

Give a couple of years of jail without parole to anyone owning a non registered gun (thus the printed guns if any included), double if they carry one and you'll see how things will start to improve. And technically it wouldn't be prohibitionism since people are still allowed to own a gun if they satisfy the requirements (like for example not having any certified psychopath living at home).

still amuses me that some people think that by having guns taken away, people will stop wanting to hurt each other

More people having access to guns will help prevent future gun crimes. More police armed and ready to take out the bad guys.

I can see 3D-printing guns to become illegal and heavy fines be instituted to discourage people from trying.

You can't print gunpowder.

"But you can buy bullets!"

Newsflash you can fire a bullet without a gun at all, multiple ways, electrical charge, tapping the firing pin with a nail, heating it, etc.

All you need to regulate is the purchase of ammunition.

Edited the thread title to make it more helpful to those glancing by.

I think I'm with Tachikoma on this one, regulating ammunition makes a lot of sense since that would be by no means trivial to produce yourself.

There will always be ways to buy/find a gun.Controlling that will always be helpful, and putting a way to restrain their acess surely help, but this is more a problem of family education than anything.Parents/family need to educate their kids that doing these type of things is wrong, otherwise we would need to control everything.But it wont be always 100% effective, there will always be a kid that is mentally unstable that will unfortunaly do these kinds of things

canyou really print a gun able to shoot with a 3D printer?

Yes you can