this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2026
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I've never heard of 3d printed guns being involved in crimes or even really heard of them much at all.

This is just another way to remove peoples rights.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 126 points 6 days ago (8 children)

"might stop anyone from 3D printing guns"

I can guarantee you that it won't even do that.

[–] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 58 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It absolutely won't do that. You know how many millions of early generation Prusa and Ender 3 printers are in the US? Many of these models have no internet connectivity whatsoever and print from SD card.

What that means is they will also try to incorporate spyware into your CAD and/or slicer software, which is even more invasive.

This is a anti-privacy bill.

[–] evadersnack@sopuli.xyz 12 points 5 days ago

It won’t stop anyone buying or importing innocuous machinery parts like 2020 aluminium extrusions or GT2 belts either. There are mature generic 3D printer designs out there that outperforms RepRap i3 bedslingers.

E.g. https://vorondesign.com/voron2.4

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 7 points 5 days ago

I don't even understand how they imagine this will work. Most printers are certainly not powerful enough to do real 3d object detection. Even if they forced slicers to include this, just fork OrcaSlicer and take it back out. Actually a lot of printers run open source software as well, so we can just fork klipper of it ever comes to that.

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[–] FluorideMind@lemmy.world 36 points 5 days ago (2 children)

They act like we have this big problem with 3d printed guns. This is about control not safety.

[–] heartSagan5@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 days ago

It’s to neutralize “right to repair” work.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 4 points 4 days ago (2 children)

It's funny, I live in a country with very few privately owned guns, where ammo is tracked and everything.

No 3d printed gun murders have taken place here. Why would they happen in the US where anyone can just get a real gun?

[–] unitedwithme@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago

Murders aren't happening with Ghost guns, but big bro is scared and they came up with a scary name to scare the general public.

3D printed gun parts were actually from the makers community where they're not malicious, they're customizing grips and handguards and other parts for uniqueness and customization. Reproducing movie and game guns for fun. Capitalist daddy didn't like then making something "for nothing" vs spending Lots of money with retailers and manufacturers, so it slowly became a problem when it caught on and everyone stated making their own.

ONE thing caught attention, and that was 3D printed parts that basically jam a trigger mechanism in Glocks allowing them to fire multiple rounds with a single trigger pull. Now magically these people became awful criminals who are intentionally selling "ghost guns" by the masses that's a huge problem with 1000s being recovered by police... Only I completely made up that whole last part. See if easy to seem believable if there's the slightest credibility involved. I've not seen more than a few dozen maybe recovered guns with 3d printed parts. Most all of them are still regular manufactured parts with 3d "accessories" because you can't print the metal barrel (definitely not reliably) and other parts that would otherwise have a serial number you can now get away without a registration.

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[–] MangoPenguin@piefed.social 36 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Are 3d printed guns even a problem? This whole thing is just a way to destroy peoples ability to do anything on their own, or repair anything.

[–] RoddyStiggs@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 5 days ago

Not nearly as much of a problem as real guns that's for goddamn sure.

[–] umbraroze@slrpnk.net 10 points 5 days ago (2 children)

3D printing working, safe-to-handle and durable guns is a pretty complicated technical problem. Don't need to be a genius to figure out that making 100% plastic guns is asking for trouble. Tiny explosion = big plastic cracky.

Meanwhile, any monkey can bash together pieces of scrap metal and produce a durable gun that way. And that was a thing long, long before 3D printers existed.

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[–] grinning_serpent@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago

No. It's made up nonsense, like 99% of justifications for gun laws. The people writing the laws are rarely actually knowledgeable on the subject they're writing legislation for.

[–] AngryRobot@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Someone played Watch Dogs and got a-scared.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 66 points 6 days ago

This goes way, way beyond 'guns.' It is an assault on property rights and freedom of expression as concepts generally. It would fully outlaw Free Software firmware (which is what the entire 3D printer hobby, having started with the RepRap project, is based on!). It would cut the Maker movement as a whole off at the knees.

It's absolute tyranny in ways entirely unrelated to guns themselves.

[–] axh@lemmy.world 44 points 5 days ago

When you consider how many students were shoot with 3d printed guns... Oh wait, those were all manufactured by a proper business, carry on then, we don't want to interrupt big businesses.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 5 days ago

Wow, they are doing so much to stop guns from getting into the wrong hands. I'm really glad the everyday issue of 3d printed guns will finally be solved.

Wait until they find out that you can make a shotgun with some galvanized pipe and a nail.

[–] DigDoug@lemmy.world 59 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (4 children)

I'm no gun person, but you could easily make a gun on a lathe or a mill drill, too. Get a CNC one and you don't even need to know how to use them.

Are we going to start fitting them with "you might be making a gun" detectors, too? Of course not.

Edit: Turns out they are... I choose to blame my ignorance on the paywall.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago

Are we going to start fitting [CNC lathes and mills] with “you might be making a gun” detectors, too? Of course not.

I've got some bad news for you about just how fucked-up these proposed laws actually are.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 22 points 6 days ago

I'm pretty sure the law says any machine that takes sets of automated instructions, which includes CNC cutters and lathes

[–] Bad_Engineering@fedia.io 9 points 6 days ago (15 children)

You absolutely need to know how to use any machine tool. You can't just download a file to a CNC mill and have it spit out a gun. I worked as a machinist when I was in college, it takes a lot of skill and talent to setup a CNC to make parts.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago (9 children)

You can't load a file on a 3d printer and print a gun either...

On top of that, making a firearm is %100 legal.

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[–] ThatGuyNamedZeus@feddit.org 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

We can't depend on the government to protect us in dire situations.

We need guns. You know how I know that? If someone breaks into your house and starts threatening you with a knife, are they going to sit there and wait to be arrested just because you called 911?

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[–] TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 2 points 3 days ago

Wtf is the point in this in the US when you can just go and pick up a gun from the road or a bush or someone's desk or whatever?

[–] Cocodapuf@lemmy.world 28 points 5 days ago

New laws in California and New York might stop people from 3D printing guns

It absolutely, positively, will not do that. If someone wants to print a gun, no legislation is going to stop them. It could at best, slow them down by maybe an hour, as they find, download and install different firmware for their printer.

If you want to prevent people from printing guns, you'll need a different tactic, because that won't do it.

[–] Dookieman12@piefed.social 17 points 5 days ago

Gosh, if only it were illegal to manufacture and sell weapons without a license, then we wouldn't need all this.

[–] Marn@lemmy.dbzer0.com 21 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I rember in the US police had an event where in an effort that has had some success getting guns off the street is they were paying $200 per gun you turned in, including ghost guns no questions asked. Some legend heard about the event and quickly made quite a few working guns out of 2"x4"s, metal plumbing pipe, and a nail. He only used basic tools like a drill and angle grinder from what I remember. The police had to pay him too, but I think they changed the rules after

One problem the left especially the global left outside the US has when they talk about gun control they flat out do not understand how things work when so many people want something as much as people want guns in the US. Also how hard it would be to actually change the constitution. They were not able to stop people smoking weed or drinking alcohol either. It's going to have to be a major societal shift. I think there's a good chance we will see that in the next 50 years.

I support gun control wherever it's shown to actually work but a lot laws are being pushed by either someone with an alternative motive like the 3D printer laws, or have actually no clue and just want to put another law that sounds good to

The 3D printer laws are really a micro manufacturing and surveillance law that appears to be being pushed by a billionaire and a company in bed with palantir. It could kill open source 3d printers that are the only reason we have 3d printers in the first place. The guns people make with 3D printers require major components from actual guns that you can leagly buy because the parts are not considered a gun.

[–] grinning_serpent@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Please stop conflating Democrats with "the left."

Democrats are centrists or even center-right. Actual leftists tend to be just as gun-happy as conservatives. Both for protection from those conservatives, and because Marx was pretty explicit about the proletariat needing to revolt.

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[–] flandish@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

iirc some of the parts you need like the lower are considered guns, but your point still stands. the last paragraph, i mean. it’d just surveillance state horseshit with the added benefit of protecting corporate profits in an industry that was developed with public funds and innovation.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 10 points 4 days ago

I don't like these kind of restrictions. Don't allow ghost guns which means if your caught with one you can do time. Beyond that is overreach. You are not allowed to rob places but people can still try to do it and if caught go to jail (well maybe). Im not wild about preventing people from doing things as much as depending on them to either respect the law or face consequences from it.

[–] buzz86us@lemmy.world 20 points 5 days ago (1 children)

This is just the dumbest thing ever.. So I can't print a grip for a camera?

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 5 days ago

Uhhh nope. Palantir said so

[–] sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I've been telling people to arm and practice for more than 10 years.

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[–] BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago (17 children)

How big of a problem is this even? I've only heard one case of someone using a ghost gun in a murder and that didn't stop the police from finding the suspect.

[–] terranoid@lemmy.cafe 34 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

Guns are extremely simple devices. It's not something you can solve with 3d printing legislation... It's just people giving lip service to gun control IMO.

If you know how to 3d print a gun, you can easily find out how to make a zip gun with a bit of pipe, the kind you'd probably need to 3d print a "ghost gun" regardless.

Like ffs I saw a YouTube video or a dude getting two pieces of pipe, closing one end and putting a nail in it, then making a one shot shotgun out of cheap fucking material. You just need closed space and to hit the end of the fucking bullet. Guns are not magic. They're simple as fuck, and hard to regulate partially because of how simple they are.

These laws are probably more for surveillance than preventing ghost guns.

https://armamentresearch.com/luty-sub-machine-guns-past-present-future/

Famous examples that don't use 3d printing, the Luty guns he made as a crypto anarchist psycho trying to disseminate open source plans lol. The knowledge is very easily accessible.

[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 26 points 6 days ago

These laws are probably more for surveillance than preventing ghost guns.

They are, 100%. Watch Louis Rossman 's video on the New York law (if you can stomach his vlogs for that long) - it's had a shitload of money dumped into lobbying for it by none other than overly controlling industrialist Michael Bloomberg himself. They are trying to crush user ownership of manufacturing right off the bat.

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[–] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

Video series worth a watch from 3D Printing Nurd.

These videos talk about the additive printing bill and how it essentially looking to make any "uncertified" 3d printer or even CNC machines illegal.

Strictest 3D Printing Regulation YET! California AB2047: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ax9zW0w_gY

3D Printing in California Can Be Saved! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGvvEuIPJxA

The FINAL Hearing in California: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6fpPStIAsY

[–] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

A "ghost gun" is any gun without a serial number.

So you have to ban more than the 3D printer data files.

You will need to ban metal files as well. That's how real ghost guns are made.

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[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago (4 children)

This is just dumb people being bought by gun lobby groups...on top of all of this bullshit, guns are %100 legal to make. It's not illegal to make a firearm for personal use, even if you could 3d print one completely.

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