3D-Printable Handgun Panned by Lawmakers (+Video)

3D-printable handgun criticized: A man who created “The Liberator,” a 3D-printable handgun, and the company seeking to distribute it, were criticized by lawmakers.
3D-Printable Handgun Panned by Lawmakers (+Video)
Jack Phillips
5/6/2013
Updated:
7/18/2015

3D-printable handgun criticized: A man who created “The Liberator,” a 3D-printable handgun, and the company seeking to distribute it, were criticized by lawmakers.

Cody Wilson, who founded Defense Distributed, is slated to release the nearly plastic handgun via the Internet later this week, reported Forbes.

The Forbes report prompted a swift reaction from New York Rep. Steve Israel and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer.

“Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations will do little good if criminals can print plastic firearms at home and bring those firearms through metal detectors with no one the wiser,“ Israel said on Friday. ”When I started talking about the issue of plastic firearms months ago, I was told the idea of a plastic gun is science-fiction. Now that this technology is proven, we need to act now.”

Israel called on legislators to pass the Undetectable Firearms Modernization Act that extends a ban on plastic firearms and plastic magazines.

Schumer also panned the creators of the “Liberator.”

“Everyone’s seen the movie ‘In The Line of Fire,’ where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, labored at making a gun out of plastic and wood so it could get through metal detectors and he could assassinate the president,” Schumer said last week, reported the New York Post.

He added: “But that was only a movie, and just this week, it has become reality. We’re facing a situation where anyone -- a felon, a terrorist -- can open a gun factory in their garage and the weapons they make will be undetectable. It’s stomach-churning.”

Forbes said the “Liberator” was created inside of an $8,000 Stratasys Dimension SST 3D printer with 15 of its 16 pieces.

The gun, which has a single metal firing piece, is capable of firing a .380 caliber round. 

“You can print a lethal device. It’s kind of scary, but that’s what we’re aiming to show,” Wilson told Forbes. “Anywhere there’s a computer and an Internet connection, there would be the promise of a gun.”

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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