No doubt. That's why we bought them at gun shows. While my buddy was machining himself a 9mm smoothbore, we were passing on Finnish anti-tank cannons for $1500. My uncle didn't like guns in the house, so my cousin experimented. My buddy Matt's parents didn't like guns in the house, so Matt experimented. Meanwhile, I could go plinkin' any time I wanted with 3 SKS, an AK-47, 2 AR-15s, an M1 garand, an M1 springfield, an AR-7, a .357, a .45 and my personal favorite, the 12-gage/30.30 over-under "bear gun." The thing that has changed the most since then is the cost of ammo. I used to get Chinese steel-core for 2 cents a round - then that asshole who makes the Thomson Contender decided 7.62x39 was a great pistol caliber so suddenly it became import-banned. Then all the crazy 'wingers decided Obama was going to take their guns so the ammo industry started gouging. Frickin' 5.56 - the Prepper round of choice - is now over a buck a bullet. Trust me, I know - I bought the limit (10 boxes of 20) for a buddy at Stockpile Defense. The 3d printer thing is a red herring, same as the "glock panic" back in the '80s.Right I understand that, but it's still a difficult task to build a reliable and functional semi-automatic weapon from scratch.
Yeah, the price of ammo is getting crazy expensive. Now our 5.45x39 surplus is getting banned too. It's a good thing I haven't bought an AK74 yet or I would be pissed. You still can't even find .22, which makes shooting for cheap pretty much impossible these days. I should mention I am against the semi-auto bans, but it's always being considered by some politicians, and if it does ever come back I wouldn't doubt if a few politicians would want to go after 3d printers too. I think you're right it's a red herring, but that doesn't mean it won't be all over tv with people pushing for regulation.