The New York legislature is in the early stages of considering a bill that would require people who buy certain types of 3D printers to pass a background check.
State Assembly Bill A2228 states that “any retailer of a three-dimensional printer sold in this state that is capable of printing a firearm, or any component of a firearm, is required and authorized to request and receive criminal history information.”
The state would then have 15 days to sift through the buyer’s information, look for weapons charges or other disqualifying criminal history, and make a decision. This, in effect, means that anyone who buys a 3D printer capable of printing any piece of firearm (which is quite a few 3D printers) would have to pass a criminal background check.
We live in a world where anyone with access to some 3D printers, the right digital documents, and some practical knowledge can print and assemble an untraceable gun. It is likely that Luigi Mangione, the killer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, used a 3D printed card. Glock style pistol to hit his target. Governments around the world have struggled to deal with the problem of widespread, homegrown, unregistered firearms spreading across the planet on demand.
A2228 is one solution, but I have a hard time imagining Amazon or other online retailers requiring people in NYC to pass a background check to buy a 3D printer online. But strange things have happened.
Democratic State Sen. Jenifer Rajkumar is the lead sponsor of A2228, which was proposed on Jan. 15 and is still in committee. Rajkumar tried it first pass similar legislation in 2023, but died in committee.
“Three-dimensional printed guns are growing more prevalent every year. There were 100 taken off the streets of New York City in 2019. That number has reached 637 in 2022. Concurrently, ghost gun shots have risen 1,000% across the nation .Currently, three-dimensional companies allow people to make, buy, sell and use untraceable guns without background checks a background check so that 3D printed firearms do not get into the wrong hands,” Rajkumar said in a memo attached to the 2023 bill.
NY state bills can take comments from the public, which are public on the legislature’s website. “I strongly oppose the proposed legislation requiring background checks for the purchase of 3D printers,” said one commenter. “While I understand the intent to address concerns about the misuse of 3D printing technology, this measure raises significant issues related to overreach, effectiveness and unintended consequences.”
State laws governing 3D printed firearms are all over the place. In California, the state treat them like regular firearms. Meaning that a person must be legally allowed to own a gun, that the gun must be “legal” and that it must have a serial number. There are similar laws in Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and outright bans in other states.
To date, there is no federal 3D printed gun law. The Biden White House passed an executive order aimed at regulating people who sell 3D printed gun assembly kits. But, like California, Biden’s EO is an attempt to regulate 3D printed guns as if they were normal guns.
The truth is that someone who 3D printed a gun at home probably wasn’t interested in putting their homebrew gun into a federal database in the first place.
https://gizmodo.com/app/uploads/2025/01/GhostGuns.jpg
2025-01-17 18:25:00
