Last night, Stephen Colbert talked about the Texas anarchist who has the specs to print a 3-D gun.
Despite the Senate's recent defeat of universal background checks, the gun control debate rages on. Will America be a place where anyone, anywhere, can get a gun, regardless of mental health or criminal record, or will we face the nightmare of not that?
Well, there's some good gun news coming from a very strange place — your USB port. Jim?
BROOKE BALDWIN (5/6/2013): Boot up your computer, download a file, build a working gun. This isn't a fantasy. This is real. This is a video here that actually shows the all-plastic gun being test-fired. It was made from parts created by this 3-D printer which can turn digital files into solid plastic objects.
That's right. Anyone with an inexpensive desktop 3-D printer can download a file, and print the parts of a working firearm in a few hours. Making it the fastest way to get a gun in America, next to opening a checking account in Texas.
Now folks, this uses the same 3-D printer technology I showed you when I hosted the developers of the MakerBot to demonstrate how a desktop computer could be used to print another legal weapon — my head. But don't worry, I never keep it loaded.
Printing up your own gun is a great idea, folks. Although, pro-tip, if you're printing them up for your entire mountaintop militia, be sure to check the Collate box. Otherwise, it'll print out 2,000 barrels, then 2,000 recoil springs, then 2,000 triggers; you'll be sorting and stapling guns all night! (audience applause) It's happened to all of us.
And the man with the golden plastic gun is 25-year-old University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, founder of Defense Distributed, a non-profit dedicated to protecting access to guns. And he is very clear why he wants to make plastic firearms and high-capacity magazines available online.
CODY WILSON (5/6/2013): That's a real political act, giving you a magazine, telling you that it will never be taken away. ... That's real politics. That's radical equality. That's what I believe in. ... I'm just resisting. What am I resisting? I don't know, the collectivization of manufacture? The institutionalization of the human psyche? I'm not sure.
Yeah, that's a real rallying cry. "What do we want? Guns! Why do we want them? I don't know." (audience laughter and applause at Stephen's faces)
Folks, this is a game-changer! And not just because it looks like it was made by Hasbro. Remember, kids, the bright plastic gun is daddy's. This kind of gun is so accessible to so many people, so quickly, that Defense Distributed is even calling a Wiki Weapon. Because like Wikipedia, it will also be used to settle bar bets.
Well, sad to say, no surprise, Uncle Sam goosestepped in last week and bootstomped our online freedoms, ordering Defense Distributed to remove the files that provided instructions for the 3-D printed gun, until it has examined them for legality.
Folks, this is chilling. The feds have pulled our worldwide weapons, and we all know, once something's been deleted from the Internet, it is as gone as Anthony Weiner's crotch. (audience laughter and applause) I certainly hope that was not loaded.
Well, Nation, I'm not going to stand for this. You may not be able to print out a gun, but if you head over to ColbertNation.com right now, you can download instructions on how to turn your printer into a gun.
It shoots 8 1/2 by 11 bullets, that can give intruders a nasty paper cut. And then you're gonna want to squeeze a lemon on them. We'll be right back.
Video below the fold.
Stephen also covered some more
batshittery from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) while questioning Attorney General Eric Holder.
He then looked at the news of
China offering a Middle East peace proposal.
Meanwhile, Jon talked about the media already talking about the
2016 presidential race, and with Larry Wilmore about having
another black President.
Jon then looked at some bad PR moves
Disney is making.
Stephen talked with Harvard professor
Daniel Lieberman, and Jon talked with journalist
George Packer about his interesting new book, which went long. Here's the unedited interview in two parts.
Part 1
Part 2