Queensland Police recovered three handguns, thought to have been manufactured using a 3D printer, during a raid on a house at Mudjimba on the Sunshine Coast. Officers also discovered false driver’s licences and credit cards allegedly made using a card printer and scanning equipment.
“The three handguns and various weapon parts seized were allegedly produced by a 3D printer over the last two months and capable of being fired,” according to a police statement.
A 27-year-old Mudjimba man was arrested on a number of charges including possessing dangerous weapons, supplying dangerous drugs, fraud and possession of equipment for the purpose of committing an offence.
Police did not identify the brand and model of the 3D printer but released a photo (above), along with a photo of a HiTi CS-320 desktop printer (right) that was allegedly used to print fake credit cards.
Detective Senior Sergeant Daren Edwards told The Courier-Mail the weapons appeared close to completion and were missing only a handful of metal parts, including a firing pin.
Earlier this month, the US Department of Justice ruled that blueprints to print and build 3D guns could be re-uploaded to the internet, following a four-year court battle between the State Department and Defense Distributed - the company that designed a 3D handgun called ‘The Liberator.’ The US gun lobby hailed the decision as “a victory for free speech.”
Plans for the handgun were downloaded more than 100,000 times in two days after they appeared online in May 2013, before the US government ordered their removal. Later that year, NSW police spent $35 on materials to create a Liberator in 27 hours, using a $1700 desktop 3D printer. The only metal parts used where the firing pin, created with a nail, and a .380 ACP calibre cartridge. In 2015, police in Queensland recovered “a loaded handgun allegedly created by a 3D printer” in a raid on a meth lab.
Police say the all-plastic body of 3D handguns means they are difficult to detect during security screenings.