FGC-9 and more, all the details on 3D printed firearms. The NYT report
Homemade firearms are spreading faster than governments can keep up. For many weapons designers, this is the idea, writes the New York Times
Homemade guns have existed for centuries, but the appearance of 3D-printed firearms a decade ago has revolutionized the way weapons are acquired and distributed on a global scale, writes the New York Times .
The investigation focuses on the growth of one weapon in particular, the FGC-9, which according to the competent authorities is by far the most widespread in the world.
But this gun is just one of many variations of the 3D printed firearms phenomenon.
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO BUILD A GUN WITH A 3D PRINTER?
It's getting easier, but it still requires a lot of technical expertise.
Those unfamiliar with guns and 3D printing might imagine a futuristic printer that produces a fully realized firearm with the click of a button. The reality is a little different. Three-dimensional printing makes it much easier for the average person to quickly and relatively cheaply build a weapon's receiver or some of its components. The receiver is similar to the weapon frame.
Other parts, including the bolt, recoil spring, and barrel, are usually made of metal and are therefore much more difficult to build with a 3D printer. Some websites sell barrels and bolts, so you can buy these items and print the rest, almost like a lethal Lego set. This was what some of the early iterations of 3D printed guns allowed. People could print rifle receivers, particularly for AR-15-type rifles, and integrate them with standard parts.
In some states and countries, this type of construction requires a firearms license to be legal, said NR Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services, a consultancy specializing in firearms research.
And because key internal components are commonly regulated and monitored by international law enforcement agencies, many of these homemade weapons are not entirely unknown to governments.
But now there are some changes. People can build the FGC-9 without purchasing additional components (though it requires metalworking skills and tools).
WHO HAD THE IDEA?
The people in the field of 3D printed firearms are largely separate from the big companies. They refine their designs, share them on social media and chat applications, and troubleshoot other people's processes.
This collective frequently improves and modifies designs.
In 2013, a group called Defense Distributed posted online plans for the “Liberator,” one of the first 3D-printed weapons, a rudimentary single-shot model that used a nail as the firing pin.
Today, one of the best-known groups is called Deterrence Dispensed, which released plans for the FGC-9 in 2020. The gun was designed specifically to circumvent gun laws and equip people with a weapon that the state can't keep track.
IS IT LEGAL?
In the United States, where the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, the laws regulating 3D printed firearms in each state are different.
The Biden administration wants to regulate homemade weapons components as firearms. The Supreme Court says it will evaluate whether it is a choice compatible with the Constitution.
The proliferation of homemade weapons has particularly concerned international law enforcement officials. We have monitored FGC-9 in 15 countries. These governments typically have strict gun laws and little history of American-style gun libertarianism.
“It's not just a gun. It is also an ideology,” Kristian Abrahamsson, an intelligence officer at the Swedish customs police, told us.
In Britain, possessing and sharing the FGC-9 instruction manual can be considered a terrorist offence.
WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?
As homemade weapons become easier to build and more reliable, they appear more and more often in criminal investigations. And traditional forensic investigative methods are not always reliable when it comes to tracing the bullets that fired them.
Law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the spread of weapons with the ability to fire automatically. This means that one pull of the trigger can fire multiple projectiles at high speed, like a machine gun.
The United States has made legal ownership of fully automatic firearms a complicated and laborious bureaucratic process. But 3D printed devices, known as switches, are gaining popularity. They can be mounted on pistols to allow them to fire fully automatically.
(Extract from the eprcomunicazione press review)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/fgc-9-e-non-solo-tutti-i-dettagli-sulle-armi-da-fuoco-stampate-in-3d-il-rapporto-del-nyt/ on Sun, 15 Sep 2024 14:11:25 +0000.