Dexter Taylor Redux? New York Man Faces Years in Prison for 3D Printed Guns

Dexter Taylor, the Brooklyn man who’s currently serving a ten-year sentence in a maximum security prison for the “crime” of making his own firearms without first obtaining permission from the New York government, may soon have some company. 

Last week 37-year-old Jonathan Diaz, a mechanic at LaGuardia Airport, was taken into custody and charged with multiple felonies after police searched his home in pursuit of his own 3D-printed firearms. 

“It’s just a hobby, 3D printing,” Diaz said, according to the criminal complaint. “They’re over there in the top drawer,” while he gestured his head towards a computer desk. The illegal firearms were then recovered from a filing cabinet located beneath his computer desk. His electronic devices and his computer were also seized.

Diaz was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey on a complaint charging him with 21 counts of weapons possession in varying degrees and unlawful possession of pistol or revolver ammunition.

“This defendant, according to the complaint, amassed a collection of ghost guns and parts in his Queens home,” [District Attorney Melinda] Katz said. “Working with our partners at the NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force, New York State Police, Homeland Security Investigations New York, Port Authority Police Department, [and] Nassau County Sheriff’s Department, we are committed to finding and removing illegal homemade weapons from our communities.”

It doesn’t appear that Mr. Diaz was selling guns on the black market, and the “unlawful possession of pistol or revolver ammunition” stems from the discovery of a whopping nine rounds of 9mm ammunition. All told police seized four 3D-printed Glock-style handguns, eight 3D-printed receivers, a 3D printer, and 14 spools of filament used in the printer. There were actually more law enforcement agencies involved in investigating Diaz than the number of complete firearms that were recovered from his home. 

Diaz’s small collection wouldn’t raise an eyebrow in much of the country, but in New York it amounts to an arsenal, and Diaz is facing up to 15 years in prison if he’s convicted of violating New York’s gun laws. 

Since August 2021, the DA’s Crime Strategies & Intelligence Bureau has conducted investigations that have led to the seizure of 453 firearms, including 294 ghost guns, as well as 1,190 high-capacity magazines, 338 additional firearms lower receivers, 13 3D printers and more than 140,500 rounds of ammunition. In 2024, Queens had the most ghost gun recoveries in New York City for the fourth year in a row.

“We will continue to investigate the assembly and sale of these untraceable firearms to get an upper hand in our fight against gun violence,” Katz said.

Again, just like with Dexter Taylor, there’s no indication at this point that Diaz ever sold any of the guns he’s accused of making, or that any of them have been used in a crime. Right now Diaz stands accused only of non-violent possessory offenses, but he’s still looking at a decade or more behind bars for daring to believe he could exercise his right to keep and bear arms without getting a Second Amendment permission slip from the NYPD beforehand. 

While guys like Diaz and Taylor are vigorously prosecuted, some violent offenders are getting the kid glove treatment by these same D.A.s. As the New York Post reported last November, juvenile crime is spiking, and the perpetrators are often well known to police and prosecutors. 

One of the Big Apple’s most notorious criminals this year has been arrested two dozen times in less than two years, yet remains free to walk city streets — because he’s just 14 years old.

Another young thug, just 12 years old, has already been busted six times, but also roams the streets at will after being cycled through a state juvenile justice system that is handcuffed by lax laws and inadequate resources — and there’s nothing authorities can do about it.

“We are arresting juveniles at the highest level than we have ever seen before,” NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Michael Lipetri told The Post. “We are seeing juveniles commit five, six, seven robberies. Most of them get dealt with under the Family Court statutes. 

“If they get arrested with a gun we know a quarter of that population will be involved in a shooting in [some] way, which means a victim, which means a perpetrator, which means that they were at the scene as a witness — a quarter of that population,” the chief said.

“Why? Because there’s no consequences right now,” he added. “We already have 15 juveniles murdered this year by a gun. I’m talking about being murdered by a gunshot. It wasn’t even close in prior years.

No consequences for juveniles committing violent crimes, but severe consequences for adults who merely possess a gun without a permit. That seems backward to me, but I guess if the goal is to prevent lawful adults from keeping and bearing arms (and not, say, protecting the public from violent offenders) the system is working perfectly.