Canadian police forces last year seized around 100 untraceable homemade guns made with 3D printers: a growing threat, experts say.
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“These weapons are becoming more accessible and being printed by 3D printers and programmable machines,” Francis Langlois, a researcher at the Raoul Dandurand Chair and a specialist in the arms trade in the United States and Canada, told Richard Martineau’s microphone.
They are called “ghost guns” because these firearms are unidentifiable as they don’t have a serial number. Distributed in Europe and North America, they are handmade and sold online.
According to Mr. Langlois, some of these weapons are 100% plastic printed and more fragile, but there are also hybrid weapons made up of printed plastic parts and other metal parts that can be legally purchased or made yourself.
These hybrid weapons could be just as deadly and dangerous as factory-made weapons.
There is a whole range of semi-automatic or automatic models that are “quite easily” accessible online, the specialist reported.
How to fight this traffic
To combat this trade, it would be necessary to broaden the definition of what a firearm is, he estimated.
Because under the law in Canada and the United States, a firearm is identified by the serial number found on the stock.
In Europe some countries require you to have a license to buy certain parts and these have their own serial number.
Although planned, the ban on owning software or plans that allow the manufacture of weapons thanks to a 3D printer without applying “Stalinist” controls remains difficult, according to Langlois
However, this market remains a minority compared to conventional arms, which circulate legally and illegally.
According to Médéric Mazel, the founder of Web 3D Printing, in thirty years everyone will have a 3D printer at home and thus have easier access to making weapons at home.
The company makes industrial parts and various products for private individuals, but refuses to print firearms – even if an inquiry has already been made.
‘In the five years we have been in existence we must have had five requests,’ said Mr Mazel.
In his opinion, someone who wants to print a gun buys a 3D printer instead of hiring a company.
However, the law does not prohibit the manufacture of pistons or mufflers.