Mangione's ghost gun: Are 3D printed weapons turning America into the Wild West?

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Source: USA Today

Published 5:14 a.m. ET Dec. 12, 2024 | Updated 10:23 a.m. ET Dec. 12, 2024


For decades, America's detectives have made breakthroughs in crime using gun traces. A homicide investigator typically uses ballistics and serial numbers of weapons checked via a vast network of gun shop records, manufacturer IDs and crime databases. But those sleuthing tactics are fast becoming old-school science as a new era of weapons increasingly hits the nation's streets: untraceable 3D printed guns and silencers like the ones found this week on suspected killer Luigi Mangione. And as the price of 3D printers continue to drop - Amazon sells some models for $300 or less - their availability will attract more and more attention from possible criminals, experts told USA TODAY.

The 'ghost gun' and silencer found in the suspected United Healthcare CEO killer’s backpack at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s were made using a 3D printer plus readily available metal parts, according to Altoona Police. “It was only a matter of time before one of these was used in a high-profile shooting,” said David Pucino, legal director at the gun violence prevention group Giffords Law Center. Mangione’s homemade firearm - which prosecutors linked Wednesday to shell casings at the scene of Brian Thompson’s murder - is just the latest example of a troubling and growing trend around the nation of criminals using 3D-printed guns.

The weapons, just a novelty a decade ago, have become an untraceable menace in the crime world. Arrests related to 3D-printed guns have tripled in recent years; federal officials recovered more than 25,000 homemade guns in 2022 alone. And as the quality of 3D printers rise as prices fall, the trend shows no signs of stopping, threatening to make America a veritable Wild West of untraceable weapons, according to experts, ex-police officers and the White House.

Most of the laws regulating ghost guns are a patchwork of state-by-state rules, although President Joe Biden pledged earlier this year to change that. Biden established an Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force with an executive order in September that is aimed assessing and combating the dangers posed by unregistered 3D-printed guns.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/12/12/mangione-ghost-gun-3d-printed-united-healthcare-ceo-shooter/76898175007/