How “smart” Americans use 3D printers to legally extort money from a gun buy-back program

The “Gun buyback” program is a program established to purchase firearms from individual users. Its aim is to reduce the number of illegally traded weapons, based on the promise that the citizens of a country can sell their private firearms to governments without risking prosecution. Programs of this type operate in several countries around the world, and the first, pilot editions date back to the end of the 1960s, when they were first tested in Philadelphia, USA. Now it turns out that you can legally make quite a lot of money with the gun buy-back program by reselling pistols and shotguns… printed on 3D printers!

In the last few months, such events took place in several cities in the United States – Philadelphia, Raleigh, Michigan, Northampton, Livermore, and Oakland. In August 2022, there was information about a man from Houston, Texas, who received over $ 3,000 after replacing 62 firearms printed in 3D printing technology. As reported by 3DPrint.com, a new “record” was recently set when another man received $ 21,000 from the resale of printed weapons in Utica, New York. A man calling himself “Kem” negotiated the sale of more than 110 small firearms with employees of the Attorney General’s Office in exchange for 42 gift cards worth $ 500 each.

Inspired by other people bragging on social media about using 3D printers to make weapons solely for the purpose of selling them through gun buy-back programs, Kem told local media that he decided to use the $ 200 3D printer he bought for Christmas to to print components for various types of firearms, which he then sold to the Utica police. During the interview, Kem also described the gun buyout as a fantastic way to show that the rules of the program are not working and that 3D printers are creating a perverse demand for weapons. People make weapons, sell them, and they don’t really reduce crime at all.

It is possible that after publishing this information in the media, this practice will be curtailed? The attorney general’s office in Utica decided to change the rules on weapons printed on 3D printers after the situation was publicized. Other cities have also changed their gun buyback rules to avoid wasting money. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said that during the second arms repurchase event on October 8, 2022, no private arms that were hand-produced, including those printed on 3D printers, were accepted. Unfortunately, also in this case, the decision was made only after the media publicized the issue of the above-mentioned purchase of the printed weapon for $ 3,000.

Source: www.3dprint.com