3D printed guns

The world is fighting the scare of weapons for many years now. Unfortunately, the battle has entered a never-ending saga ever since technology took center stage. While many disruptive trends are being used to detect weapons, 3D printing is being used to make both legal and illegal guns. But with violence spearheading in many parts of the earth, and especially, in the United States, the time is ripe for governments to take immediate actions against 3D printed guns. 

Weapon manufacturing was a hectic task some years back. Making a gun from scratch required thousands of dollars of machining equipment and years of engineering expertise. But not anymore, thanks to 3D printing. A decade ago, no one was aware of 3D printing and 3D-printed guns. But many years since its debut, the government and people are still struggling to tackle the challenges they are posing. The worst part is that they don’t need any federally regulated components to function. For a front-running nation like the United States that has technology at its palm, making 3D-printed guns was very simple. But where did all these lead the country to? A hectic spot where over 100 people die every day of gun violence. Recently, US President Joe Biden has addressed the far unspoken topic ‘3D printed guns’ and signed a series of sanctions to regulate its manufacturing and usage in the country.

The basics about 3D printed guns

In layman's terms, a 3D printed gun is something that includes components manufactured from a 3D printing machine. But some of the 3D printing gun companies are making exclusive guns that are totally 3D printed. For example, Liberator follows that method. But some other companies use metal parts to finish the 3D-printed guns. 

The concept of making 3D-printed guns at homes started in 2012 when Cody Wilson revealed his plan to make the design of firearms open-source so that everyone could print it as per their wish. He even founded a defense distributed organization called ‘Defcad.’ In 2013, the very first Computer-aided Design (CAD) gun file became available online, which could be downloaded for free. This sparked wide controversy and prompted the US government to demand its removal.

Why is it controversial?

3D printed guns are turning to be controversial because most of them are illegal in many countries. Whereas, under the United States federal law, only lower gun parts need a federal background check to purchase from a licensed dealer. To subvert regulators, some people print lower receivers at home and finish their guns using parts that can be purchased without a background check like metal barrels. This makes them effectively invisible to law enforcement agencies. Henceforth, they are even called ‘ghost guns’ that are out of the traceable limit. Recently, many shooting incidents point 3D-printed guns at the center of the controversy. 

In recent years, many 3D-printed gun groups are emerging from every corner of the world. They are circulating free files to help anyone with a half-decent FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling) 3D printer and some hand tools to make a workable handgun. In 2020, a coalition of 20 states and the District of Columbia has sued the federal government in the US over the Trump Administration’s plan to let people share 3D printed gun blueprints online. 

Besides the fact that 3D-printed guns will let criminals and terrorists untraceable, they are also dangerous to people who use them. Many 3D-printed gun users experience a variety of glitches, causing defects in the items they make. At times, an object detaches from the platform it’s on while being made, ending up lopsided, broken, or otherwise damaged. There are high chances that it backfires at the user itself.

So, what is the development?

The Biden administration is taking initiatives to close the loopholes in the production of untraceable firearms with kits and 3D printing, following the mass shooting incidents. The president has signed a series of sanctions ordering the Justice Department to issue a rule to limit ghost gun proliferation.