Actually if you have a woodworking shop you have everything you need to make a submachine gun that would make this "printed" hand exploder look like the toy it is. I am not saying it would be easy nor look good when you were done. It would however be full auto/select fire and hold as many rounds as you want (and be able to slap in more quickly). Metalworking is easy, fine metalworking, like fine woodworking is hard.

I know metal work and not plasctic forming but from what I have read and seen about 3d printing, not really no, it is not harder to build one from real materials. Where it gets a little odd is that if done right it is almost easier to make multiple sten type submachine guns at once as opposed to one. You know, cut out ten of these, ten of those, put tab "a" into slot "b" that sort of thing. And screw the 'You need a machine shop' stuff. Truth is the only tool that is handy to have above hand tools to make a sten type gun is a drill press. You can use a hand drill, but lining up holes is a pain in the arse by hand and eye. As for barrels, well, the thing is made to spray bullets not win olympic medals, you can 'wobble' in a barrel blank with press easier with a press than with a hand drill. If you know what you are doing, even a cheapo wood lathe could turn out a barrel better than what whats-his-name has "printed".

"The only part that I'm not sure of is how one would make brass shell cases or primers."

For the brass - the same way the big boys do - 20 ton press (also cheap from Griz).

"Seriously? have you covered only liberal and democrats in this survey?"
Because there aren't any liberal democrat gun owners, everyone knows that. /s

I worked at an NRC institute from 2002-2011. It was a fantastic place though it had faults. Each Institute was a mini-fiefdom in which the respective Director Generals held all the power. A lot of blue sky research was done, however in reality a lot of it would be considered "mental masturbation"; papers were published but never referenced. Or papers would be whipped up so people could attend conferences in nice locales . For too long NRC acted like an academic environment where money didn't matter: there was always a new bag of money next year.

Many Institutes had overlapping work with other Institutes but didn't collaborate. In fact the way the IT infrastructure developed was also very silo'd, it was next to impossible to work with other sites because of various local policies.

NRC has needed a good kick in the ass for a number of years. Previous presidents talked the talk but did nothing. In the end the Old Boys Club endured. The current president has been given his orders and is executing them. He's collapsing ~15 years of pain into ~3. Much of the blame for this should be put on the previous presidents.

That all said, I'm not a big fan of everything that is going on, but if you look at this as a soft reset for NRC, things will get better.

Bottom line: if anyone at NRC says things were Just Fine before, they are delusional or lying.

The three martini lunch is dead?

I've been happy with Wickr. No ties to the company, just a happy user. https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/wickr-self-destructing-secure/id528962154?mt=8

When our daughter was born I took a month off to be home. Coffee and sleep deprivation was the order of the day, but I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.

I was a bit surprised to see C and C++ but no Objective-C support.
If Blackberry is really hoping to get those "killer apps" ported over, supporting Objective-C would seem like a no-brainer.