A legal loophole allowing criminals to build their own untraceable guns at home is to be closed after police warned they are powerless to stop domestic firearms “factories”.
It follows the murder of US healthcare executive Brian Thompson, who was allegedly killed with a gun made partly by a 3d printer.
These can be bought for as little as £300 and can create working firearms using detailed instructions available online. A plastic gun made this way might be usable only once but can be lethal.
The firearms cannot be traced and are sometimes known as “ghost guns”. Police are usually able to track the history of conventional weapons, including where they were manufactured.
The alarm was raised by Graeme Biggar, director general of the National Crime Agency, who told MPs in 2023: “At the moment, the possession of the blueprint to make that firearm is not unlawful, so we can go in and see there is a firearm there, and we can see it is a factory that is making these weapons, but we cannot do anything about it.”
It is already an offence to possess a gun however it is made, but owning the means to create a 3d pirinter firearm is not a crime.
Laws backed by the Government to be debated in Parliament on Monday will make it an offence punishable by up to five years in prison to own the instruction that is fed into the 3d printer allowing the gun to be made, known as a template.
According to the National Crime Agency, there were 25 seizures of 3d-printer firearms components or related equipment in 2023. The agency said in a report: “Criminals also resort to using improvised/homemade firearms (including those with 3D-printed components) and previously obsolete-calibre firearms. There were no confirmed criminal discharges using 3D-printed firearms in 2023, although it is highly likely that criminals have a growing interest in hybrid 3D-printed firearms.
“In 2023, there were 25 cases involving the seizure of 3D-printed firearm component parts, or items associated with 3D-printing of firearms (such as printers or blueprints) during targeted police searches. This is an increase on 17 cases in 2022. Five of the cases in 2023 involved the seizure of a complete firearm, with only one of these confirmed through testing as a viable 3D-printed firearm. In the remaining 20 cases, only 3D-printed parts were recovered.”
US police say Luigi Mangione, the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson in December, apparently used a gun containing components manufactured with a 3d printer.