Background Checks at Staples Coming Soon?

Soon it may be required to get background checks at Staples now that 3d printers are now available through them at least online for now. It has been reported that the stores will start carrying the printers around mid-year at around $1300, which is the same price online now.

The problem that I have read about these printers, which I really don’t understand a lot about them anyway, is that they can make virtually any type of object that the user desires. This even includes a working gun that one person made and stupidly posted online the schematic of how to create it. Apparently somebody else even created an assault weapon with this type of printer as well.

Does this mean that we should be worried that some idiot who doesn’t get approved to buy a real gun will purchase a 3d printer and “build” their own instead? My answer is most definitely. To make matters worse, these “guns” don’t need to be registered obviously nor do they have or need any identifiable serial numbers on them.

Even worse than that is that people could possibly get past TSA security with their weapons especially if they are unassembled, reassemble them on a plane and cause all kinds of havoc. The big reason why these guns may pass is that they may look like colored plastic toys and not dangerous weapons. I could imagine if a child got a hold of one of these and decided to play with it.

This all leads to my point of responsible technology. I believe that the printer companies should have some sort of registration program to upload anything to the manufacturer’s secured website before it is printed on the user’s printer. If the printer company finds something wrong with what it is about to be printed, the item won’t be printed. Of course, somebody would find a way around this, but if the printer would only work when “approved” items are to be printed then the threat of possible weaponry would be greatly reduced.

It should be the responsibility of the printer companies to have proper registration of the units, but stores like Staples should also act responsibly if they hear anybody wanting to use these printers in any way that could be dangerous or malicious. Given Staples past ability to act responsibly means that they may sell a lot of printers just for the purpose of weapons manufacturing. Staples probably would not care how many deaths could come from somebody creating something that they shouldn’t.

All we can hope for is that Staples won’t sell many of these printers just for the sake of safety.