The Effects of 3D Printed Guns on Gun Control

John Michael DiDonato

April 23, 2014

Recent mass shootings have spurred and ignited a gun control debate within both
American politics and society. Facilitating this debate are pro-gun and anti-gun advocates who
have passionately and unequivocally expressed their viewpoints on this divisive topic.
Conversations and proposed solutions on how to decrease gun violence in the United States are
often focused on statistics, emotions, and constitutional rights. These talking points relay the
traditional concerns and viewpoints of Americans; however, they fail to account for all of the
necessary and modern facets of the gun control debate. Due to advancements in technology, the
field of 3D printing has become an integral part of the polarizing discussion of gun control. Both
policymakers and the public at large would do well to familiarize themselves with 3D printing
and its potential implications on gun control since doing so will give them a better understanding
on gun control as a whole. Achieving such an understanding will reveal that due to both the
current gun landscape in the United States, as well as the potential implications of 3D printed
guns, gun control is limited, though not incapacitated, in its ability to affect gun violence.
Gun Violence: An Important Issue

Source: Gun Stats.org, 2011
1

Regardless of individual perspectives on gun control, gun violence in America is an
undeniable truth. In 2011, 8,583 homicides were committed using a firearm. This number was
more than two-thirds of the total homicides in the United States that year. In addition, it is
important to note that gun violence does not only affect those injured or killed, but has
detrimental consequences on the environment in which shootings take place. The threat of gun
violence pays a negative toll on the economic vitality of an area. Businesses are less likely to
take root and thrive in places where shootings are frequent, limiting those living in such locations
from employment and other potential financial opportunities. Another, though often overlooked,
evidence of gun violence appears in suicides. Over 50% of the 38,264 suicides that took place in
the United States in 2010 involved a firearm
2.
Evident in both statistical records of homicides and
suicides, as well as other harder to quantify impacts such as environmental consequences, it is
clear that gun violence is both prevalent in the United States and is an important issue that
demands the publics attention.
The Effect of Mass Shootings
With sixteen mass shootings occurring within the calendar year, 2012 sparked an ongoing
debate in the country over gun violence and the policies that can prevent it. The national
headlines began in July when James Holmes shot and killed twelve people and injured another
fifty-eight during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. They
ended in December with the equally tragic Sandy Hook shooting. Out of the twenty-six killed at
Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty were children
3
. The young
and innocent victims, coupled with the previous year of mass shootings, caused this shooting in
particular to have a profound effect on many individuals within the U.S. government and the
public. For many, Sandy Hook was the straw that broke the camels back, and it became the
rallying cry to those who sought to create policies that could prevent such violence. These
policies almost exclusively dealt with gun control. Within a short period of time, a renewed gun
control debate erupted across the nation.
Mass shootings like those in Aurora and Sandy Hook receive much publicity from the
media and subsequently are most often the events that turn the publics attention towards gun
violence and gun control. This occurrence is very likely an indication that the publics perception
of gun violence is largely influenced by such high profile mass shootings. Though mass
shootings are both horrific and tragic, they comprise but a small percentage of total gun violence.
In 2012, over 80 people died because of mass shootings in the United States. This number was a
historic high, yet it only made up around 1% of all homicides that involved firearms that year
4
.
Therefore, any policy including gun control aimed at reducing gun violence should take into
account all those affected by gun violence and not just those affected by mass shootings.
An Overview of Gun Control
Gun control is a controversy issue for a number of reasons. For some, gun control -
starkly opposes and infringes upon an individuals constitutional rights guaranteed in the 2
nd

Amendment of the Bill of Rights. For others, the 2
nd
Amendment remains ambiguous and
therefore controversy come forth from different interpretations of it. Yet for others, gun control
is a simple and logical policy. However, regardless of the dissenting ideological stances, gun
control in practice is a controversy on its own.
Gun control is any government regulation over the manufacturing, sale, ownership, or use
of firearms. Currently, there are several federal laws that exist dealing with gun control. The
National Firearms Act of 1934 prohibits the ownership of fully automatic weapons as well as
short-barreled shotguns and hand grenades. The Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibits the selling of
firearms through the mail, mandates those selling firearms to be federally licensed, and prohibits
selling firearms to anyone who has a criminal record, minors, or to those with known mental
health problems. The Brady Handgun Prevention Act of 1993 requires those federally licensed to
sell firearms to conduct a background check of an individual before selling to them; however
individuals selling amongst themselves do not need to conduct such background checks. In
addition, this Act explicitly prohibits, due to concerns about privacy, the creation of a national
registry of gun owners
5
.The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 is a federal ban on all firearms
that are not detectable by metal detectors or x-ray scanners
6
. Another, noteworthy piece of gun
control legislation is the Federal Assault Weapon Ban which lasted from 1994 to 2004. During
these years, it was illegal to purchase semi-automatic weapons and militaristic accessories, such
as large-capacity magazines. In addition to these federal laws, each state retains the right to enact
stricter measures of gun control, and many states choose to do just that
7
. California,
Massachusetts, and New Jersey are considered by many to have the strictest gun laws in the
country
8
. The effects of the gun control measures outlined are controversial, as many dissenting
opinions exist regarding the effectiveness of these measures.
In the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting, those from across the entire political spectrum
offered up solutions on how to deal with the problem of gun violence in American society. In
response to the incident at Sandy Hook grade school, the National Rifle Association, the largest
pro-gun organization in the country, proposed that the federal government should equip every
school with an armed police officer to ensure the schools safety
9
. On the other end of the
spectrum, President Barack Obama proposed increased measures of gun control. President
Obama became an ardent and outward supporter of gun control and proposed several measures to
Congress. These measures included expanding the Brady Handgun Prevention Act of 1993 so
that all gun purchasers, including those involved in private transactions, would be subject to
background checks, effectively making background checks universal. Other proposals included a
renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban and explicitly limiting the capacity of magazines to ten
cartridges
10
. Obamas efforts bore little fruit as the only gun control focused bill created, the
Manchin-Toomey Background Checks Bill, failed to pass Congress. Although to date no major
changes have occurred to gun control, there are many in Congress who are still trying to pass
some degree of reform. In addition, many states have passed stricter gun control laws in response
to the mass shootings of 2012
11
.
Prevalence of Guns in the United States
One of the central tenets of gun control is to limit the number of guns in use. Several
different methods have been either proposed or are in effect that are designed to achieve this
goal. Background checks are designed to prevent those who should not have access to guns the
ability to obtain them. Increased sentence length of those who break gun laws are meant to deter
people from obtaining guns and encourage those who do own guns to use them responsibly.
Outright bans of either automatic or semi-automatic weapons are designed to limit the number of
guns available to the public. The logic follows that if the number of guns in use is decreased then
the amount of gun related violence will also decrease. An interesting variable to this equation
that particularly affects gun control measures that outright limit the manufacturing and sale of
particular weapons is the prevalence of guns already in existence. There is an estimated 310
million guns in America. This number roughly equates to a gun per every U.S. citizen. The
United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the entire world
12
.These facts beg the
question whether gun control measures aimed at limiting the availability of newly manufactured
guns would have any real effect on gun use at all since the U.S. is already heavily flooded with
guns. A technology that has the potential to further the prevalence of guns in the United States is
3D printing.
Source: Fisher, 2012
13
An Overview of 3D Printing
Hailed as the invention to kick start the third industrial revolution, three-dimensional
(3D) printers have an almost limitless potential in the type and range of products that they can
produce. 3D printers employ a process known as additive manufacturing. Additive
manufacturing uses designs from digital models to produce products in a systematic layer by
layer sequence usually using specially made plastics as the primary material. The benefits of this
type of manufacturing include flexibility, as every object produced can be infinitely customized
by changing the digital model of the object. Such customization does not affect any of the costs
associated with production, which contrasts the current factory production model where all
products are equally identical to each other in order to lessen the costs of manufacturing
14
. Other
benefits of this production method include increasing rates of prototyping and reducing the
wastes of manufacturing. Although 3D printing has been around for decades, only recently has
this technology decreased in costs enough to become a more economically feasible method of
production. The drop in costs of 3D printings has help spawn developments and advancements in
the technology itself and has also lead to a more widespread use with individuals purchasing
privately owned 3D printers for their homes
15
. In early 2014, patents that were largely accused of
stunting the further technological development of 3D printers expired. Many experts predict that
with the expiration of these patents that the costs of 3D printing will continue to decrease and
that the materials available to use in 3D printing will expand more rapidly. These developments
will grow the mainstream acceptance and use of 3D printing, which will change the current
manufacturing landscape forever
16
. The implications and consequences of such a paradigm shift
in manufacturing remain largely unseen, however 3D printed guns offer a glimpse of the future
challenges that can be expected from 3D printing technology.
The Number of Personal 3D Printers Sold in the U.S.

Source: Wohlers Associates, Inc., 2012
17

3D Printed Guns
In May of 2013, a nonprofit organization known as Defense Distributed released to the
public on their own website, defcad.org, a computer-aided design (CAD) file for the Liberator ,
the worlds first fully 3D printed gun. The file was freely available to anyone with internet
access and enabled those with 3D printers to create a fully functional firearm within the comfort
of their homes simply by downloading the file and sending it to their 3D printers. Cody Wilson,
the founder of Defense Distributed, envisioned his organization to be a place where open-source
weaponry products like the .380 caliber Liberator as well as silencers and lower receivers could
be freely and digitally published for public consumption. Since its publication on defcad.org, the
Liberators CAD file has been downloaded over 100,000 times and continues to exist on
popular peer-to-peer file sharing websites such as The Pirate Bay
18
. Cody Wilson, through his
organization, Defense Distributed, was the first to publish a fully functional and freely accessible
digital gun file designed for 3D printing and has consequently been marked as the poster child
for 3D printed guns and other dangers associated with 3D printing. Still many others have
followed in Wilsons footsteps. The internet is populated with other CAD files of gun designs,
some better than others. One of the most impressive exhibitions of the power of 3D printed guns
was revealed in a YouTube video where a Canadian man used a 3D printed rifle called the
Grizzly 2.0". The Grizzly 2.0 is better than the Liberator in almost every way,
demonstrating that 3D printed guns can go far beyond Cody Wilsons Liberator and that 3D
printed guns has developed into a movement that continues to grow and improve
19
.
The Liberator 3D printed gun

Source: Jones, 2013
20
Today, nearly all 3D printed guns are composed almost entirely of plastic material.
Although proven functional, 3D printed plastic guns are not nearly as durable or reliable as their
metal counterparts. The continual decrease of 3D printing costs does promise to offset at least
some of these drawbacks. If costs continue to decrease to the point where frequently printing
new guns is comparable to the costs of purchasing traditionally manufactured guns, then the
drawbacks of using plastic firearms is almost entirely marginalized. In addition, advancements in
3D printing and specifically the materials available to print offer the best solution on how to
counter the drawbacks of using plastic firearms. Recently, the first metal 3D printed gun was
produced. Also, researchers are already experimenting with artificially produced materials that
can be used in 3D printing
21
. Such advancements indicate that the problems associated with
using plastic as a base material for 3D printed guns will certainly be solved in the future. The
only question remains is how long will finding these solutions take.
The Implications of 3D Printed Guns on Gun Control
Many of those who favor strong gun control measures are seriously concerned over the
potential implications of 3D printed guns. According to the Gun Control Act of 1968, individuals
are legally allowed to manufacture certain firearms without owning a manufactures license as
long as the firearm is meant for their own personal use and that the firearm created is not a non-
sporting semiautomatic rifle or shotgun
22
. This fact legally permits the self-manufacturing of 3D
printing guns for personal use, assuming that those guns are made in accordance with the
Undetectable Firearms Act which will be evaluated later. The main difference between
traditional self-manufactured guns and 3D printing guns is that 3D printing drastically reduces
the barriers to production
23
. The traditional barriers of machining skills, resources, and time
naturally limit the quantity of self-manufactured guns produced. 3D printing knocks down these
barriers and makes it easier for individuals to self-manufacture legal firearms from the comfort
of their homes with a click of the mouse. For this reason, many gun control advocates are fearful
of the implications that 3D printing guns can have on the ease of access to firearms and
consequently the effectiveness of gun control
24
.
Another potential implication that 3D printed guns can have on gun control deals with the
fact that plastic printed guns are undetectable by x-ray scanners and metal detectors. This
directly defies the law outlined in the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988. Some gun file
creators, such as Defense Distributed, have found a loophole in this law. Defense Distributed and
others include somewhere in their design a small piece of metal that is large enough to be
recognized by metal detectors. Although clearly against the spirit of the law, the small metal
addition allows the designs to adhere to the Undetectable Firearms Act and therefore be lawful.
Gun control proponents are weary of this clear circumvention of the law. They cite that these
metal components are easily removable, and they also point out that not all digital designs found
on the internet include such additions. It is obvious that gun control legislation aimed at detecting
guns through metal detectors and x-ray scanners are at risk of being seriously undermined by 3D
printed guns
25
.
Current Policy and Limitations of Policy
Currently the only policy aimed at addressing the challenges presented by 3D printed
guns, is a recent 10-year extension to the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988. However, as
previously outlined, this law does little to limit against the use of 3D printed guns. Such guns can
easily abide by the law through the inclusion of a small piece of metal that would be recognized
by a metal detector. U.S. Senator Schumer and Representative Israel wanted to address this clear
loophole in the law by proposing a law that mandated all plastic firearms to contain metal pieces
that if removed would render the gun unable to function. However, this measure was not passed
through Congress. In addition, for those uninterested in following the law, the fact that 3D
printed guns are self-manufactured, normally within the confines of a persons home, make it
almost impossible for the government to enforce such a measure. The only current policy in
place to control 3D guns is the Undetectable Firearms Act and as demonstrated this measure is
largely limited in the scope of its effectiveness
26
.
Within two days of being posted on defcad.org, the U.S. State Department requested that
the file for the Liberator handgun be removed by Defense Distributed. The State Department
cited that the files violated U.S. export controls on arms. However, it is largely interpreted that
the U.S. government used the apparent violation as a cover to provide themselves with more time
to figure how to approach dealing with 3D printed firearms. Defense Distributed complied with
the governments request and the files were promptly taken off their website. Defense
Distributed claims that the CAD file was downloaded over 100,000 times from their website.
Despite the U.S.s well intentional decision to intervene, they were too late. The Liberator file
has been shared endlessly across the internet and can be easily found on many file sharing
websites. As previously mentioned, the Liberator file is just one of the many digital firearms
design files that can be found on the internet, and if debatably the most powerful government in
the world cannot control the distribution of one of these files, then it is hopeless to imagine that
these sort of files can be controlled in any sort of way. This reality questions the effectiveness of
any sort of gun control aimed at controlling the distribution of gun design files
27
.
Recommended Policy
Although there are not many implemented policies aimed at 3D printed guns, there are
plenty of circulating policy suggestions on how to deal with this technology. One of the strongest
proposed polices that would limit the potential negative role 3D printed guns can have on society
would be to regulate 3D printers themselves. By controlling the manufacturing of 3D printers,
the people that are using them, and the objects that they can produce, the U.S. government has
the best chance of mitigating the negative role 3D printing technology can have whether it be
through guns or other dangerous objects. However, such a policy cannot be recommended
regardless of whether such a policy is even capable of being implemented or not. 3D printing has
the potential to fundamentally revolutionize the manufacturing process both in the United States
and around the globe. This reform would stifle innovation and stunt technological growth in 3D
printing and would eventually cause significant harm to the United States when America failed
to compete with rival world leaders
28
. Policies like this need to be avoided at all costs, as they
may cause more problems than solve.
Due to challenges faced with regulating the distribution of gun files on the Internet, the
root of gun control concerns is that 3D printed guns will increase the number of guns in
circulation in the United States today. Gun control advocates fail to recognize however, that the
U.S. is already saturated in guns. The United States has the highest gun ownership rates in the
world, and any influx of 3D printed guns, no matter how large, will do little to change the
already saturated gun landscape of the United States. Even if some of these 3D printed guns will
differ from the current guns in America today, as many more will be undetectable by metal
detectors, the larger impact of 3D printed guns is that they will cause the number of guns in
America to increase. Due to the already high gun levels and the relative ease of access to guns in
the United States, 3D printed guns pose to have but a marginal effect. It is in countries where gun
controls have been historically strict and where guns are difficult to obtain that 3D printed guns
offer to have their greatest impact. It will be in these countries that the realities and limitations of
controlling 3D printed guns will be revealed. The U.S. therefore should not focus on introducing
new policies to combat 3D printed guns, but work on reforming and adding to their existing
policies that target decreasing gun violence.
A recommended policy would be for the U.S. to realize that it cannot significantly
decrease the number of guns in circulation in the United States today. Realizing this fact will
guide gun control measures to limit the ability of harmful individuals from obtaining guns rather
than limiting the number of guns themselves. The U.S. should escape the mindset that the only
way to combat gun violence is through gun control and should explore different measures such
as reforming policing strategies and initiating community building programs to decrease the
amount of gun violence in the United States
29
. This is not to say that gun control measures
should be abandoned. However, it is important to realize the realistic limits of gun control both
here in America today and in the future as 3D printing technology advances.
End Notes
1
GUN STATS.ORG. "Recent Trends in Homicides and Gun Related Deaths." GUN STATSORG.
N.p., 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
2
Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)."
The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
3
Zornick, George. "Sixteen US Mass Shootings Happened in 2012, Leaving at Least 88 Dead."
The Nation. N.p., 14 Dec. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
4
MacBradaigh, Matt. "Mass Shootings Are Responsible For Less Than 100 Out of 12,000 Annual
Homicides in the US." PolicyMic. N.p., 12 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
5
Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)."
The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
6
Mead, Derek. "Congress's Plastic Gun Ban Left a 3D-Printed Loophole." Motherboard. N.p., 10
Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
7
Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)."
The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
8
Hartvigsen, Matthew. "10 States with the Strictest Gun Laws | Deseret News."
DeseretNews.com. Deseret News, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
9
Associated Press. "NRA Calls for Armed Police Officer in Every School." Los Angeles Times.
N.p., 21 Dec. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
10
Knox, Olivier. "Obama Unveils Sweeping Plan to Battle Gun Violence." Yahoo! News. Yahoo!,
16 Jan. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
11
Blake, Aaron. "Manchin-Toomey Gun Amendment Fails." Washington Post. The Washington
Post, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
12
Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)."
The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

13
Fisher, Max. "What Makes Americas Gun Culture Totally Unique in the World, in Four
Charts." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 15 Dec. 2012. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
14
The Economist. "A Third Industrial Revolution." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 21
Apr. 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
15
Castro, Daniel. "Should Government Regulate Illicit Uses of 3D Printing? | The Information
Technology & Innovation Foundation." The Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation. ITIF, 16 May 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
16
Hornick, John, and Dan Roland. "Many 3D Printing Patents Are Expiring Soon: Here's A Round
Up & Overview of Them - 3D Printing Industry." 3D Printing Industry Many 3D Printing
Patents Are Expiring Soon Heres A Round Up Overview of Them Comments. N.p., 29 Dec.
2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
17
Wohlers Associates, Inc. "The Number of Personal 3D Printers Sold in the U.S." Wohlers
Associates. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
18
Walker, Rob. "Why Cody Wilson Released His 3D-Printed Gun Plans to the Public." Yahoo!
Tech. N.p., 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
19
Kaplan, Jeremy. "As 3D-printed Rifles Get Real, Are Changes to Gun-control Laws Coming?"
Fox News. FOX News Network, 09 Aug. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
20
Jones, Jonathan. "Note to the V&A: A 3D-printed Gun Still Kills People." Theguardian.com.
Guardian News and Media, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2014.
21
McGowan, Scott. "World's First 3D Printed Metal Gun Manufactured by Solid Concepts - Solid
Concepts Inc." Solid Concepts Inc. N.p., 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
22
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "Top 10 Frequently Asked Firearms
Questions and Answers." ATF.gov. ATF, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
23
Castro, Daniel. "Should Government Regulate Illicit Uses of 3D Printing? | The Information
Technology & Innovation Foundation." The Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation. ITIF, 16 May 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
24
Castro, Daniel. "Should Government Regulate Illicit Uses of 3D Printing? | The Information
Technology & Innovation Foundation." The Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation. ITIF, 16 May 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
25
Mead, Derek. "Congress's Plastic Gun Ban Left a 3D-Printed Loophole." Motherboard. N.p., 10
Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
26
Mead, Derek. "Congress's Plastic Gun Ban Left a 3D-Printed Loophole." Motherboard. N.p., 10
Dec. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
27
Holpuch, Amanda, Ewen MacAskill, and Charles Arthur. "State Department Orders Firm to
Remove 3D-printed Guns Web Blueprints." The Guardian. N.p., 10 May 2013. Web. 23
Apr. 2014.
28
Castro, Daniel. "Should Government Regulate Illicit Uses of 3D Printing? | The Information
Technology & Innovation Foundation." The Information Technology & Innovation
Foundation. ITIF, 16 May 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.
29
Stray, Jonathan. "Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)."
The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 04 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.