3D printed shotgun slugs suck. Who knew?

Honestly, I'm surprised it wasn't tried sooner...

  bOing bOing is carrying a blurb about printed shotgun slugs. Apparently, they're terrible. They're made of ABS plastic, they take 30 minutes to an hour to print, and they require a lead ball to be inserted into them anyway. Hell, I never figured plastic printed ammo would be any good - the medium just isn't a good material for projectiles.

  The comments, however, led me to this gem: Silly Putty as shotgun ammo. Now THAT is kind of terrifying.

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Gun safety - it's not a theoretical subject, it's a skill.

I was going to get to this topic eventually, but now seems like a perfectly cromulent time to do so.

  Last week, a firearms safety instructor accidentally fired a pistol during a class - fortunately, no one was harmed. The gentleman reportedly retired from firearms training over the incident, and I can imagine that his buddies won't let him live it down. Ever.

  The cold, hard truth that needs to be faced is that guns are dangerous. They aren't toys (in the sense that Tonka trucks and Barbie dolls are toys), they are tools that produce a destructive force. Safe handling isn't a guideline, or a recommendation, or something that poncy little jerks do. Each and every person who interacts with guns needs to be fluent in gun safety - it needs to be as natural as breathing. If I had my way, *everyone* would get gun safety training at a young age.