It’s not quite a snap, yet, to make a working plastic gun using a 3-D printer.
But the technology behind homemade plastic guns that use standard ammo and can slip past metal detectors is improving rapidly and getting cheaper — just as a nationwide ban on the stealthy guns that contain no metal parts is about to expire.
Hoping to muzzle the trend, Sen. Charles Schumer on Sunday called for renewal of the Undetectable Firearms Act before it expires on Dec. 9.
Plastic guns, introduced in May, burst back into view last week when the ATF posted videos of a 3D-printed model called The Liberator being test-fired in a government lab. Of the two tested weapons, one literally exploded — and one worked perfectly.
That was one too many for Schumer.
“We are looking at a world in which anyone with a little bit of cash can bring an undetectable gun, that can fire multiple bullets, anywhere — including planes, government buildings, sporting events and schools,” he said.
The Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act, co-sponsored by Schumer, would extend the ban to any gun that doesn’t show up in a metal detector or X-ray machine — like The Liberator, the 3-D-printed pistol introduced with a bang back this spring by a tech-savvy Texas gun lover.
The State Department forced the inventor, Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed, to pull his software and instructions off the Internet. But more than 100,000 people had downloaded the open-source files by then. They’re still not hard to find online.
Wilson’s polymer piece has fifteen components, and the only one made of metal — besides the bullet — is an ordinary household nail that functions as a firing pin.
Wilson also built a slot into the gun’ s body to house a small metal cube that has no mechanical purpose — it just makes The Liberator legal by giving it one bulky metal component.
3-D printers that can turn out complex objects like firearms cost upwards of $2,000. But prices are dropping. Observers of this emerging field say industrial-grade 3-D printers will soon go for less than $1,000.
“3-D printers are a miraculous technology that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing,” said Schumer. “But we need to make sure they are not being used to make deadly, undetectable weapons.”