APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – While the government is sorting out the possibility of blueprints becoming available for how to make 3D-printed guns, local professionals are talking to FOX 11 about how practical it is.
A Texas company was set to post a how-to-guide online Wednesday, but a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday, preventing those plans from being revealed.
Although many people have safety concerns, supporters say sharing the plans is protected under freedom of speech.
From making trinkets as a hobby to producing professional prototypes, the popularity of 3D-printing is growing.
“Really it is whatever your mind has, there is no limit,” said Tony Vander Pas, the owner of Rapid 3D Inc.
Rapid 3D Inc. does large-scale 3D-printing for businesses throughout Northeast Wisconsin. The company purchases 3D filament from Coex in Appleton, one of only a handful of companies in the country that manufactures it.
“There is a lot of folks selling it on the internet, but very few are actually manufacturing it,” said Bob Rutten, the Director of Sales and Operations for Coex.
While blueprints to make guns could soon be available online, those we spoke with in the local 3D-printing industry believe making them will be difficult.
“You’d have to understand how an actual firearm works,” said Vander Pas. “You need to understand there is a firing mechanism, there is a pin.”
You also would need the correct printer.
“For your cheap $120 to $500-$600 printers, they can’t,” said Vander Pas. “So, you would need higher end equipment. I think the cheapest you might be able to find is $1,500.”
3D-printed guns have been nicknamed “ghost guns” because they don’t have serial numbers and are untraceable.
Defense Distributed, the group with the blueprint, uses all parts from a 3D-printer, except for a metal firing pin for its gun, called the Liberator.
“And it’s become kind of culturally edgy in the gun world to have your own ghost gun,” said Cody Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed. “People want to know they have at least one or two that nobody knows about.”
Former police officer and current NWTC Public Safety Training Coordinator Jason Weber says he would never shoot a 3D-printed gun.
“Invariably, you’re going to get some injuries, if not fatalities with this,” said Weber. “People creating this, not knowing what they’re doing and then using it.”
Federal law allows you to make a gun at home, as long as it’s detectable to metal detectors or X-ray machines.
Eight Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit yesterday to block the federal government settlement that would have allowed for the plans to go online.
Wisconsin wasn’t among the states, but Attorney General Brad Schimel said Tuesday morning that he wanted to look at the allegations in that suit.
