How Threat of 3D-Printed Guns Is Overhyped

3D printers are one of the most fascinating bits of consumer technology I’ve seen in my lifetime. The idea that I can buy something on Amazon that can then be used to make dozens of household products, as well as create new things for my various hobbies and interests, still sounds like something out of science fiction. It’s not the replicator from Star Trek, but it’s a lot closer than I’d have thought we get when The Next Generation came out.

And yeah, you can make guns with it. That’s just awesome, too. Why? Because guns are awesome. So awesome, in fact, that a typo earlier today that turned “pro-gun” into “pro-fun” might have been the most accurate way to frame firearms and defending the Second Amendment.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think this technology needs controls on it. After all, they note, they’re turning up at crime scenes more and more.

However, let’s understand how the supposed threat is overhyped, because it most definitely is. In this piece, the focus is on how lawmakers are trying to pass legislation that requires software blocks on gun parts, but in order to do that, lawmakers have to justify it to the media and the people.

Three-dimensional printers have become increasingly common over the past couple of decades.

Since 2012, the number of 3D printers worldwide has grown from an estimated 30,000 to over 3 million while the industry’s value has multiplied from around $2 billion to $26 billion annually, said Bill Decker, executive chairman of the Association of 3D Printing. Though high-end printers cost thousands of dollars, some 3D printers now can be bought for as little as several hundred dollars.

The devices can make toys, prosthetic limbs and even airplane parts. They also can make firearms — or the pieces necessary to assemble them — using digital designs available online. Homemade guns that lack serial numbers often are called “ghost guns,” because they are hard for law enforcement officers to trace.

Firearms made with 3D printers are increasingly being used in crimes, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report released last year. The number of privately made guns recovered in crimes and submitted to federal authorities rose from about 1,600 in 2017 to nearly 27,500 in 2023, though the report didn’t specify how many came from 3D printers.

Let’s put this in perspective for a moment. While it’s kind of difficult to get a firm number of total guns used in crime, the ATF conducted 322,000 gun traces in 2017. In 2023, according to the ATF, they traced–based on the type of gun–almost 513,000 guns, though some of those may have been counted twice.

In other words, even the supposedly massive jump in recoveries hasn’t been enough to make so-called ghost guns more than a blip on the radar.

Plus, a study not all that long ago tried to argue that “ghost guns” were tied to suicides, but they acknowledged that an increase in recoveries of such guns didn’t correlate to an increase in homicides. That’s not particularly surprising when you recall that, on average, so-called ghost guns translate into about 242 homicides annually. While the averages are skewed down by some years and upward by others, there’s a reason we use averages on a regular basis. 

Oh, and the UnitedHealthcare CEO was allegedly killed by Luigi Mangione, who was not a prohibited person, but reportedly opted to use a 3D-printed gun for his assassination. He could have purchased a traditionally manufactured firearm, but opted for a “ghost gun” for some reason. My own hypothesis is that he didn’t really know what gun tracing is and thought him shooting Brian Thompson would lead to the bullet being traced to him or something.

Regardless, the charges against Mangione kind of illustrate one big part about the hysteria, and that’s how many of the criminals who have these guns are criminals who would likely have gotten a firearm anyway, even if 3D printers had never been invented.

All of these numbers are scary when taken in isolation, as they’re typically presented, but when you drill down, you see that this is a nothingburger that’s been spun to terrify the masses and justify regulations.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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