Concern as 3D printer gun is test-fired and files go up online

Computer files to create a plastic handgun almost entirely from parts made with a 3D printer have gone online, alarming gun-control advocates after it was successfully test-fired by its inventor.

The single-shot .380-calibre Liberator bears a vague resemblance to its namesake, the FP-45 Liberator pistol that the US developed during the Second World War to be air-dropped to French Resistance fighters.

“Everyone’s seen the movie In The Line of Fire, where one of the great bad guys, [played by] John Malkovich, laboured at making a gun out of plastic and wood so it could get through metal detectors and he could assassinate the president,” US senator Charles Schumer said.

“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.”

Computer-aided design (CAD) files for the Liberator appeared on the website of Defence Distributed, a non-profit group that promotes the open-source development of firearms using 3D printers.

“We’ll build the trigger first... Next, we’ll build the hammer subassembly ... Next, drop the hammer into the frame...,” reads the accompanying set of instructions, which come in English and Chinese.

“Finally slide the grip on the frame and insert the grip pin. Your Liberator is now ready to go!”

For the Liberator to conform with US firearms law, the instructions call for an inch-big chunk of steel to be sealed with epoxy glue in front of the trigger guard, so that the weapon can be spotted by metal detectors. The only other non-plastic part is a tiny nail that acts as the firing pin.

Forbes posted a video of the Liberator being remotely test-fired outside Austin, Texas, last week, with a yellow string tied to the trigger of the toy-like white-and-blue handgun.

“The verdict: it worked,” Forbes reported, adding, however, that the Liberator exploded (“sending shards of white ABS plastic flying into the weeds”) when its inventor Cody Wilson attempted a second test using a rifle cartridge.

“I feel no sense of achievement,” the 25-year-old University of Texas law student told Forbes. “There’s a lot of work to be done.”

CAD files for gun parts have been available on the internet for some time, but the Liberator is apparently the first entire weapon ever to be fabricated almost exclusively with parts created with 3D printing technology.

Supporters of tougher gun laws in the US — where there are nearly as many guns (an estimated 300m) as there are people (about 315m) and more than 30,000 gun-related deaths a year — expressed alarm.

In the House of Representatives, Congressman Steve Israel is sponsoring an Undetectable Firearms Modernisation Act to outlaw plastic homemade guns.

“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,” he said.

No longer prohibitively expensive, 3D printers can now be bought for the same price as a top-end laptop. MakerBot markets its desktop Replicator 2 for $2,199 (€1,680) with delivery in a week.

After the Dec 2012 massacre of 20 children at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, MakerBot took down CAD files for semi-automatic rifle parts that gun enthusiasts had posted on its open-source 3D printing library.