pbs高端访谈:3D打印手枪引发安全担忧

 　　RAY SUAREZ:More about this technology, the man behind the project and the questions this all raises from Andy Greenberg of Forbes. He's been covering this story and was in Austin when Cody Wilson first tested the gun.

　　And, Andy, now that this threshold has been crossed and we know it can be done, I guess the first question is whether it's hard for regular people to do.

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　　ANDY GREENBERG, Forbes: I think it is actually pretty difficult for now.

　　The machine that Cody Wilson and his—his cohorts used was an actual—was an $8,000 dollar used very high-tech¹ Stratasys 3-D printer. So this isn't the kind of $2,000 dollar MakerBot, like the kind of Apple tool of 3-D printers that people are getting excited about today. This is a more industrial machine.

　　But this is really—the story is about the future. It's only going to be a couple of years before what Wilson is doing is affordable² for regular people.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Well, you were there. You watched it being used. It didn't blow up in his hand or shatter into plastic shards³.

　　Is this a sturdy, reliable, reusable firearm, or a one-and-done kind of weapon?

　　ANDY GREENBERG:Well, it actually does seem to be fairly durable⁴.

　　I have watched videos of a 3-D printed barrel being fired 10 times without cracking. And I did see Cody Wilson fire his Liberator⁵ handgun twice, once with a remote trigger pull with the string and once by hand. And it didn't explode or crack those times either.

　　But it's unclear whether this is, you know, a durable weapon. I think the key thing to remember, though, is that it has a barrel that can be swapped⁶ out. So, you can print a new barrel in just a couple of hours. And he showed me that he had kind of a case full of barrels. It would be really simple to kind of print out four or five of these and have them ready to go.

　　So, even if the barrel of this homemade weapon is deformed⁷ and doesn't work, you can -- you always have another one ready. That's part of the danger of this gun.

　　RAY SUAREZ:If you remember the last big round of speculation⁸ about plastic weapons, it really focused a lot on their indetectability in magnetometers and other kinds of screeners.

　　But this time, it's the do-it-yourself-at-home aspect that's getting more attention, isn't it?

　　ANDY GREENBERG:I think that—I think that that's warranted.

　　The fact that Steve Israel and Chuck Schumer, these two congressmen, are focused on the undetectability of the weapon I think kind of misses the point. They're trying to renew the Undetectable Firearms Act to prevent this. But, in fact, it's not the fact that this gun is plastic and can't be detected by a metal detector¹⁰ that makes it dangerous. It's the fact that anyone can create it in the privacy of their garage with a couple of clicks and some software and a download from the Internet.

　　Anywhere that there's a computer and an Internet connection, there's the promise of a gun. That's exactly what Cody Wilson said to me. He's focused, as the name of his group implies, on the distributed nature of this weapon, the fact that it circumvents¹² gun control, not that it circumvents metal detectors¹³.

　　RAY SUAREZ:So, what exactly is his motivation? You touched on it briefly¹⁴, but does he want more people to have guns? Is his problem really with the attempt to know who has them and who doesn't? Where does he come from?

　　ANDY GREENBERG:I think that Cody would be happy to see more guns in Americans' hands.

　　But his ultimate goal, I believe, and he has told me, is the dissolution of the U.S. government and governments around the world. He's an anarchist¹⁵ and a radical¹⁶ libertarian. And I think he sees this exercise of making a gun printable as kind of a demonstration¹⁷ of ways that the technology can circumvent¹¹ the law, can circumvent—to make the government irrelevant¹⁸, until it just kind of disappears, or at least kind of he wants to carve out a kind of space where technology prevents the states' hands from controlling what people do.

　　And I think he's on his way with this gun.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Well, from what you have seen, the fact that it's makeable by the user, it's got no serial¹⁹ number, it's got no known signature to law enforcement, no background check necessary, is he living out his dream just by making this Liberator?

　　ANDY GREENBERG:I think he's on his way.

　　Just a couple of months ago, Defense²⁰ Distributed, this group, was focused only on creating magazines, ammunition²¹ magazines, which are basically a box with a spring inside, or components²² of rifles. Now they have created an entirely²³ 3-D printed gun.

　　And we only know what—we can only speculate what they will do next. And I think that this gun is going to become more resilient, more usable over time, and more easily accessible by regular people with just a click and a couple of swipes of a mouse.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Well, he's inserted a piece of metal to make it comply with current law. But isn't that something of a fig²⁴ leaf? Does this kind of weapon, minus that piece of metal, which becomes optional if you're making it at home, make gun laws obsolete²⁵?

　　ANDY GREENBERG:Well, Cody is very clever.

　　He's a law student at the University of Texas. And his strategy has been what he calls over-compliance. He wants to do what he's doing in an absolutely legal way, and yet enable people to do illegal things. So, he's kind of untouchable. And his strategy has been to insert this chunk²⁶ of steel into the prototype.

　　That's the one he's been testing. But, in fact, if you print it at home, there's no guarantee that—or there's no need for you to put that metal in it. It serves no purpose. There is a steel nail in the gun, but that's—you can buy that at any hardware store.

　　There's this other chunk of—the six-ounce chunk of metal that he inserted only to kind of make it comply with the Undetectable Firearms Act. But, as you said, that's a fig leaf. Anyone who prints it at home has no requirement to include that metal in the gun and render it detectable⁹ by metal detectors.

　　RAY SUAREZ:Andy Greenberg of Forbes magazine, thanks for joining us.

　　ANDY GREENBERG:Thank you very much.

1 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

2 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

3 shards   

n.（玻璃、金属或其他硬物的）尖利的碎片( shard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyewitnesses spoke of rocks and shards of glass flying in the air. 目击者称空中石块和玻璃碎片四溅。 来自辞典例句
• Ward, Josh Billings, and a host of others have survived only in scattered shards of humour. 沃德、比林斯和许多别的作家能够留传下来的只是些幽默的残章断简。 来自辞典例句

4 durable   

adj.持久的，耐久的

参考例句：

• This raincoat is made of very durable material.这件雨衣是用非常耐用的料子做的。
• They frequently require more major durable purchases.他们经常需要购买耐用消费品。

5 liberator   

解放者

参考例句：

• The best integrated turf quality was recorded in Ram I、Midnight、America、Connie、Liberator, which could be adopted in Shanxi. RamI、Midnight、America、Connie、Liberator综合质量表现均衡且分值较高，是山西省推广应用的重点品种。
• It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old. 这是一部新世界的发展史，是一部后浪推前浪的历史。

6 swapped   

交换（工作）( swap的过去式和过去分词 )； 用…替换，把…换成，掉换（过来）

参考例句：

• I liked her coat and she liked mine, so we swapped. 我喜欢她的外套，她喜欢我的外套，于是我们就交换了。
• At half-time the manager swapped some of the players around. 经理在半场时把几名队员换下了场。

7 deformed   

adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的

参考例句：

• He was born with a deformed right leg.他出生时右腿畸形。
• His body was deformed by leprosy.他的身体因为麻风病变形了。

8 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

9 detectable   

adj.可发觉的；可查明的

参考例句：

• The noise is barely detectable by the human ear.人的耳朵几乎是察觉不到这种噪音的。
• The inflection point at this PH is barely detectable.在此PH值下，拐点不易发现。

10 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

11 circumvent   

vt.环绕，包围；对…用计取胜，智胜

参考例句：

• Military planners tried to circumvent the treaty.军事策略家们企图绕开这一条约。
• Any action I took to circumvent his scheme was justified.我为斗赢他的如意算盘而采取的任何行动都是正当的。

12 circumvents   

n.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的名词复数 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的第三人称单数 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行

参考例句：

• It is a living, powerful river that easily circumvents all obstacles. 生活就是如此，强有力的激流才可以轻易的绕过所有的阻碍。 来自互联网

13 detectors   

探测器( detector的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The report advocated that all buildings be fitted with smoke detectors. 报告主张所有的建筑物都应安装烟火探测器。
• This is heady wine for experimenters using these neutrino detectors. 对于使用中微子探测器的实验工作者，这是令人兴奋的美酒。 来自英汉非文学 - 科技

14 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

15 anarchist   

n.无政府主义者

参考例句：

• You must be an anarchist at heart.你在心底肯定是个无政府主义者。
• I did my best to comfort them and assure them I was not an anarchist.我尽量安抚他们并让它们明白我并不是一个无政府主义者。

16 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

17 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

18 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

19 serial   

n.连本影片，连本电视节目；adj.连续的

参考例句：

• A new serial is starting on television tonight.今晚电视开播一部新的电视连续剧。
• Can you account for the serial failures in our experiment?你能解释我们实验屡屡失败的原因吗？

20 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

21 ammunition   

n.军火，弹药

参考例句：

• A few of the jeeps had run out of ammunition.几辆吉普车上的弹药已经用光了。
• They have expended all their ammunition.他们把弹药用光。

22 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

23 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

24 fig   

n.无花果(树)

参考例句：

• The doctor finished the fig he had been eating and selected another.这位医生吃完了嘴里的无花果，又挑了一个。
• You can't find a person who doesn't know fig in the United States.你找不到任何一个在美国的人不知道无花果的。

25 obsolete   

adj.已废弃的，过时的

参考例句：

• These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了，在市场上卖不了高价。
• They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。

26 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。