I think many would go for the 3D printer service since they might not want to buy one if they only need it for a handful of items or don't have the funds for something they might not use a lot.
I think they chose the right 3D printer for having at their offline store. It looks cool and the price is reasonable, for a 3D printer.

I wonder - will this be able to print the Defense Distributed 3D printable handgun?

BigWarpGuy, yeah, Shapeways has done a pretty good job at offering 3D printed parts. There are lots of existing designs or you can submit one (and use it for yourself or sell it). It's worth a look at their site, if for no other reason than that it is sort of inspiring.
f8lee, yes, I am sure you could print the design, but not a working gun (unless you count a water pistol). Beyond that, you can probably buy all the tools used to make a normal, non-3D printed, gun for the cost of one of these printers (less if you get lucky on the second hand market) and the materials are only a little more - and if you're comfortable with the kind of gun that might come out of a 3D printer, you're probably fine using one made out of metal scrap.

you mean the one that destroyed itself after 6 shots..somehow I doubt it, but who knows.

The plastic LOWER RECEIVER ONLY portion of the AR-15 failed after 6 rounds through the gun because it was a direct copy of the factory one made out of an aluminum forging. Of course it was bound to fail, they just didn't know how long before mean time to failure rate would be reached. It was an exercise to get real world data on something new. They then went in and modified the dimensions of the part, adding more plastic to where it was needed, and VOILA!! It then went for 600 rounds and still no signs of failure. At the low expense of the part, just about anybody could afford to have several of them on hand as spares. How long will the upgraded plastic part go before MTBF? I don't know, but if you want to cover the cost of the ammo (currently quite high) I would be happy to find a unit to test and find out. It is when people who have less than a minimal amount of required knowledge about a subject trying to make intelligent comments about something, that we get stuff like this.
Randy

Why would you buy this to print guns when you can buy several high quality guns for what this printer costs?

I'm not terribly worried about someone spending $1300 dollars and building a zip gun with it.
I don't think this printer is going to make a working zip gun or AR receiver any way, it's a fairly low end model.
And as Phyzzi said, you'd be better off buying a CNC mill for that sort of thing anyway.

As I just commented on another Gizmag story, the fears of millions of 3D pistols appearing everywhere are virtually groundless, if people want a cheap gun they can make one anywhere. They would rather spend the cost of the printer (and plastic) on a stolen Glock or other gun or more ammunition for the one they made themselves.

Lovely - i hope Wilson feels great when people start dying when his guns proliferate. Here in the UK I'm all for gun control - it works!

The Skud,
Really? This story was about a low end 3D printer and you alone managed to insert a blurb about gun control. Bring PM home to the UK. Get him the hell out of here.