Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. has set his sights on eliminating 3D printed “ghost guns”, which are firearms illegally manufactured with the use of a 3D printer and lack serial numbers to allow tracking or registration. This has caused Thingiverse, the world’s largest platform for hosting 3D models for printing, to institute new restrictions in an effort to combat designs that can be used to manufacture ghost guns. We spoke with Thingiverse about its new policies and how it plans to enact them.
Ghost guns have existed long before 3D printing came along, and could be made from simple metal pipes and springs by a talented metalsmith. It should be noted that in the United States, the Second Amendment allows citizens to possess and manufacture many types of firearms for personal use without the need for background checks or registration of the completed weapon. Firearms made for sale fall into an entirely different category and must be properly regulated, tracked, and registered.
As we reported earlier, New York investigations have triggered a crackdown on 3D printed gun files at Thingiverse, the world’s oldest and largest 3D file-sharing site.
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We reached out to Thingiverse to find out how the company planned to keep 3D-printed firearms off the platform. “At Thingiverse, safety and creativity go hand in hand,” said Rob Veldkamp, the VP of Thingiverse, in a statement emailed to Tom’s Hardware. “We’re reinforcing our long-standing ban on sharing designs for functional firearms, critical gun parts, or accessories that boost lethality while keeping cosplay props, airsoft models, and toy replicas welcome.”