Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

3-D Printed Guns May Get Jammed Up in City Council

By Ted Cox | November 26, 2013 3:35pm
 A woman looks at a gun constructed from a 3-D printer in London earlier this year.
A woman looks at a gun constructed from a 3-D printer in London earlier this year.
View Full Caption
Oli Scarff/Getty Images

CITY HALL — Aldermen are trying to jam up guns made with a 3-D printer before they prove to be a problem.

Aldermen Edward Burke (14th) and James Balcer (11th) proposed a new ordinance Tuesday banning creation of plastic guns using a 3-D printer and possession of such guns, which can be slipped through metal detectors.

"These types of stealth weapons simply have no place in our society," Balcer said in a statement.

Earlier this year, the Texas company Defense Distributed made blueprints available online for a device called the Liberator, a gun that can be made out of plastic using a 3-D printer. According to Burke and Balcer, the blueprints were ordered taken down by the U.S. State Department, but not before 100,000 copies had been downloaded.

The only metal parts in the guns are the bullet and firing pin, making them capable of being slipped through less-sensitive metal detectors.

Philadelphia adopted a ban on guns made with 3-D printers last week.

"Chicago should follow suit and enact a similar ban," Burke said. "The general public has no business manufacturing weapons at home that are capable of defeating security checkpoints."

Violators would face fines of $1,000 to $5,000 and prison terms of 90 to 120 days.