GunsOfficials increasingly worried about 3-D-printed gun technology

Published 2 September 2014

State and local government officials are debating how to address the growing accessibility of 3-D-printed gun technology. Recent actions by government agencies have signaled that officials are concerned about the increasing availability of printed guns. In December of last year, the U.S. Senate extended the Undetectable Firearms Act for an additional ten years. Additionally, municipalities such as Philadelphia have also moved to ban 3-D-printed guns on the local level. Yet, despite these measures, the technology continues to proliferate.

State and local government officials are debating how to address the growing accessibility of 3-D-printed gun technology.

As Government Technology reports, recent actions by government agencies have signaled that officials are concerned about the increasing availability of printed guns. In December of last year, the U.S. Senate extended the Undetectable Firearms Act for an additional ten years. Additionally, municipalities such as Philadelphia have also moved to ban 3-D-printed guns on local level.

Yet, despite these measures, the technology continues to proliferate. Blueprints for the Liberator, a 3-D gun created by a Texas designer and capable of firing .380 caliber bullets, are estimated to have been downloaded 100,000 times within two days. At the moment, designs like that one can be found throughout torrent and file sharing sites.

Even more startling is the fact that 3-D metal printers are also coming into development. The company Solid Concepts has used industrial printers to create a fully functioning Browning 1911 pistol — though the technology is far from public and commercial use.

Others note, however, that while the technology is being circulated, the final products rarely compare to the real thing.

“Our firearms technology people have looked at it,” said Earl Woodham, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “and we have not yet seen a consistently reliable firearm made with 3-D printing.”

The bigger danger, according to Hod Lipson, the director of Cornell University’s Creative Machines Lab, is a lack of experience with weapons and construction as 3-D printing technology becomes more widespread.

“Weapons experts will tell you these guns are a joke and not that serious,” he said. “But that’s exactly the problem. Plastic guns are easy to fabricate, they can be used just a few times and you can make guns that don’t look like guns…the real danger is kids and teenagers and hobbyist who will attempt to make these.”