Posted on 10/16/2025 5:30:41 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the “ghost guns” that have already flooded U.S. streets.
At a summit in New York City on Thursday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety will bring together policymakers, academics, 3D-printing industry leaders and law enforcement officials to confront the growing challenge. They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated — and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online — the U.S. could be on the brink of another wave of unregulated, homemade weapons that evade serial-number tracking and background checks.
Numbers collected by Everytown from about two dozen police departments show how quickly the problem is growing: A little over 30 3D-printed guns were recovered in 2020. By 2024, that figure had climbed above 300. While still a fraction of the tens of thousands of firearms seized each year by the nation’s nearly 18,000 police departments, the spike mirrors the early trajectory of ghost guns — build-it-yourself weapons assembled from kits that for years eluded federal regulation.
“We are now starting to see what kind of feels very familiar,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown. “It’s now at a small number of recoveries in certain major cities, such that it’s doubling or tripling year over year. We’re seeing this very familiar rate of growth and that’s why we’re getting this group together to discuss how to stop it.”
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imposed new rules in 2022 requiring serial numbers, background checks and age verification for ghost-gun kits, regulations upheld...
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
To the people who complain: The problem is not our guns. The problem is your sons.
Those guys are idiots.
Guns aren’t the problem.
It is the people that abuse
that tool.
Solution is simple.
Remove the irresponsible
people from our society.
Strike two and you are out!
Send them away to a place where they
can “Nurture” each other, but
are isolated from us.
Many states (like Florida and previously Colorado [until recently] where I have lived) have no requirement for a FFL check when selling gun between private individuals. A serial number becomes useless for tracking a gun after the first private sale.
Pretty much every word of this article is a lie.
Unregistered weapons, printed or otherwise, doesn’t much concern me.
Printed or otherwise homemade weapons that are poorly designed or unsafe is a more important concern. The current technology makes it easy to produce something not well thought out. (Ocean Gate for example)
On the other hand, it’s also a great way to encourage innovation. Suppressor technology has largely been driven by amateur inventors and experimenters.
Forensics is “on” this...
So? Many guns had no serial numbers before the democrats passed the 1968 gun control act into law. it was supposed to stop all crime!
“Today we begin to disarm the criminal and the careless and the insane. All of our people who are deeply concerned in this country about law and order should hail this day.”-— Lyndon Johnson signing the 1968 gun control act into law.
And Thomas J. Dodd, who wrote the 1968 gun control act using the 1938 Nazi Weapons Law as a pattern...
“No one can predict how many lives will be spared because of this bill, but, if the bloody record of our yesterdays is any measure, millions of future Americans will live to enjoy the promise of many peaceful tomorrows.
I am grateful to have had the opportunity to play a part in this great moment in our time.”— Thomas J. Dodd on passage of the 1968 Gun control act.
HOW DID THAT DEMOCRAT PROMISE WORK OUT FOR YOU AMERICA!
There were very few mass killings before the 1970s. I can recall three since 1949. Most mental hospitals were closed in the 1970s. When that happened mass murders took off like a rocket.
Instead of trying to “control” guns (which is impossible) these groups should be advocating for a culture that respects life and teaches people better ways to deal with their anger rather than rage, and helping those who need mental help.
But the agenda is the main thing. And the advent of 3D printing and gun kits further puts the lie that restrictive gun control on the law abiding citizens who do not misuse the guns is the answer into greater perspective.
There are hundreds of millions of unregistered, untraceable firearms in the United States. A few thousand more homemade guns will not make any significant difference.
Gun safety advocates who cannot state Cooper’s Four Rules (or similar)?
“these groups should be advocating for a culture that respects life and teaches people better ways to deal with their anger rather than rage, and helping those who need mental help.”
I applaud your approach, very compassionate.
It would be my first choice also.
Except it doesn’t work in a secular society run by Democrats. That is historical fact.
everytown.org
“Everytown is fighting to end gun violence. Donate and make a ... “
‘Gun safety advocates’, more like gun grabbers and concern trolls.
The manufacture of UNSERIALIZED firearms for personal use is 100% completely LEGAL.
Aren’t these the same people that celebrated the shooting of Trump and Kirk?
Oh I know that...I’m just stating what would actually help.
And pointing out how much more ineffective their claimed policy solutions are given these new ways of getting firearms that their “gun control” advocacy could not possibly effect, even theoretically.
...and the people who keep releasing their sons.
And those who seek to commit crimes with them wouldn’t care if it were illegal.
For the record, “Gun safety advocates” = anti gun anti Second Amendment liberal communist democrats.
“It is the people that abuse that tool.”
One of my pet peeves regarding that abuse is shooting up road signs. The 3 1/2 mile gravel road to our place has an assortment of speed limit and other signs, all full of bullet holes. It’s just wrong from so many perspectives.
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