Airsoft Gatling Pistol

thingiverse

I designed this toy gun about a year ago, but before posting it, another school mass shooting occurred and I didn't feel good about contributing to our culture of guns with even a toy design. Instead of posting the design, I shared a photo along with an explanation for not wanting to post it, which was not meant as a protest but rather to start a conversation. The conversation began and many people from across the country and world expressed their views thoughtfully on both sides of the issue, gaining insight from each other's comments. One person from northern Europe, whose relative is a police officer, had never seen a gun before, while someone in the US who grew up with guns realized that many people view them as foreign. However, things took a turn for the worse when two distinct threads emerged. Some accused me of using clickbait to lure readers into discussing my political viewpoint. I was somewhat guilty of this, but hoped that with over 100 popular designs, I would be given some leeway. Others were upset because I didn't give them the toy gun design outright. A second wave of criticism came from those who just wanted the design and were angry when they didn't receive it. They had been teased with a cool-looking Thing and then left empty-handed. This sense of entitlement to free things is not unique to Thingiverse, but also exists in the world of open-source everything. Some people expect new features without contributing anything in return or dismiss developments that aren't completely open-sourced. I deleted my original post because it was met with criticism rather than conversation. What I didn't see much of was people raging about their views on guns and vilifying others, which is what I feared most. This gives me hope that the 3D printing community may be more civil than average. A year later, I've decided to post the design because confrontation rarely works out well. Please use it responsibly and don't pollute.