New York Bill Would Require a Criminal Background Check to Buy a 3D Printer
New York Bill Would Require a Criminal Background Check to Buy a 3D Printer
Supporters of the bill say it's necessary to thwart convicted felons who use 3D printers to develop untraceable "ghost guns."
I understand the intent, but feel that there are so many other loopholes that put much worse weapons on the street than a printer. Besides, my prints can barely sustain normal use, much less a bullet being fired from them. I would think that this is more of a risk to the person holding the gun than who it's pointing at.
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The New York Police Department has reportedly seen a 60% increase in ghost guns seized from city streets for the past two consecutive years. NYPD recently traced some online ghost gun sales to a “ghost gun printing operation” filled with 3D printers and firearms nestled within a daycare center.
I have no idea from this if the increase in ghost guns was attributable to 3D printing, or if the increase even represents a significant number.
It also seems like this would be really difficult to enforce. You can buy hardware or kits to build your own printer, or you can buy an old printer off someone else.
All that said, if it represents a reasonable concern and they figure out a way where it's not trivially circumvented (both of which seem unlikely), I really couldn't care less about a background check.
A big part of the increase in "ghost guns" is that New York's definition of "ghost gun" includes not only the scratch made guns that most people think of as "ghost guns" but also any gun without an easily read serial number. So regular guns with obliterated serial numbers count as "ghost guns" in New York.