Almost everyone has heard about the Texas law student, Cody Wilson, who made headlines in 2013 by 3D printing a plastic gun and posting the blueprints on the Internet.  The blueprints were downloaded 100,000 times before the U.S. government forced their removal from the server. But if it had not been Cody, it would have been someone else.  In fact, the ZigZag plastic gun was 3D printed in Japan shortly after Wilson printed his, and the maker went to jail.

In 2015, police in Oregon made arrests for the illegal possession of an AR-15 assault rifle. Its lower receiver—the key to what makes it a weapon—was believed to have been 3D printed.  A gun and 3D printing enthusiast called Derwood built the “Shuty” semi-automatic handgun partly from 3D printed parts.  The weapon fired at least 800 rounds.  More recently, a “Guy in a Garage,” as he calls himself, 3D printed the “Songbird,” which uses rubber bands for springs and a roofing nail for a firing pin, and fires multiple .357 rounds.

In August 2016, the TSA found a 3D printed revolver in carry-on luggage at the Reno-Tahoe Airport.  The gun appeared to have been detected because it was loaded with live rounds.

3D printed weapons need not be guns in the traditional sense, but may be just as dangerous.  A plasma railgun was made by an anonymous Imgur  user known as NSA_Listbot, who used a 3D printer and commonly available parts to make a handheld electromagnetic projectile launcher that fires rods made of Teflon/plasma, graphite, aluminum, and copper-coated tungsten at a speed of about 560 mph.

In police raids in Manchester, England, Brisbane, Australia, and its nearby Gold Coast, police discovered 3D printers and functioning 3D printed guns.

Gun-printing criminals are still thinking inside the box.  Although the plastic guns 3D printed to date are not very pretty, they still look like guns.  But there is no reason why a 3D printed gun might not look like a shoe or a hairbrush or a soda bottle, which presents obvious safety issues for police officers and others.

3D printers have dark-side applications beyond guns.  In raids in France, Sydney, Australia , Malaga, Spain and the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, Burgas, and Silistra, police seized 3D printers used to make sophisticated skimming equipment, including fake card slots for bank machines.  A criminal who calls himself “Gripper” makes a skimmer by the same name, which he sells online.

Michigan State researchers have shown that 3D printed hands and fingerprints can be used to bypass security devices that rely on such one-of-a-kind signatures, or to fake evidence at a crime scene.

The Bright Side

3D printing is also being used to help law enforcement by recreating crime scenes and accidents, footprints and fingerprints, and for making detailed models for planning raids and for courtroom use.

University of Florida researchers and police are using 3D printing to help identify the victims in nine cold cases; they are using 3D scanning and printing models of the victims’ skulls, which are then fleshed out with clay.  This same process was used by the Greene County Ohio Sheriff’s Office to try to identify the remains of a woman found in the woods near Dayton.  After releasing images of the model, the victim was positively identified.  The police investigation then shifted into high gear, resulting in suspects being identified, arrested, and charged a short time later.

Detectives and prosecutors in the UK used a combination of 3D scanning and 3D printing to obtain a conviction in the notorious “suitcase killing.”

Based on ongoing research, it will not be long before 3D printed fingerprints are used to unlock otherwise uncrackable smart phones.

Don’t Blame the Technology

As with many technologies, 3D printing can be misused, but not because the technology is inherently flawed.  People are flawed.  Although the size of the problem could be huge, this is only because the technology is so revolutionary and disruptive.  Governments, law enforcement agencies, and homeland security must assess the risks from the dark side of 3D printing and plan accordingly.

“By 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least $100 billion per year in intellectual property globally” – Gartner

Author of the award-winning book 3D Printing Will Rock the World, available on Amazon.

See John F Hornick’s videos:

“3D Printing and the Future (or Demise) of Intellectual Property”

“3D Printing State of the Art: Industrial”

“Breaking Chains and Shaking Foundations:  The Story of ZeframWD”

Follow my 3D printing tweets https://twitter.com/JHornick3D1Stop

John F. Hornick (firm profile) (LinkedIn)

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