How simple is it to create a 3D-printed "ghost gun," similar to the one allegedly used by Luigi Mangione to kill UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson? Journalist Andy Greenberg was curious, so, at a Louisiana gun range, he did just that and wrote about it for Wired, churning out a Glock-style handgun using a 3D printer, then finishing it off with parts he bought online. Guided by a masked gun-printing enthusiast known as "Print Shoot Repeat," Greenberg finished his gun and added a 3D-printed silencer, legally made by the range owner with the appropriate license. When test-fired, the weapon struggled to operate smoothly, but it still discharged more than 50 rounds. In terms of price, meanwhile, it cost just under $1,150 to make, counting the printer and all other needed parts—Greenberg notes that the printer alone cost $3,900 a decade ago, in today's dollars.
Ghost guns, which lack serial numbers, remain legal to build for personal use in most states. Federal restrictions still mostly target easily finished "80 percent" kits like the one Greenberg used, not fully home-printed frames. Gun kit sales may decline following recent Supreme Court action on the matter, but experts simply predict a shift toward 3D-printed alternatives, citing ATF figures that indicate some 70,000 ghost guns surfaced at US crime scenes between 2016 and 2022. After the experiment, the author surrendered his printed frames to local police. The cops "already knew exactly what a ghost gun was," Greenberg writes. "I wondered what their reaction would be in another 10 years. By then, perhaps, partially and even fully 3D-printed ghost guns will be commonplace." More here. (This content was created with the help of AI. Read our AI policy.)
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