How authorities monitor the spread of unauthorised weapons has become more complicated as technology enables new manufacturing methods.
The manufacture of guns using three dimensional (3D) printing technology has been a growing concern to law enforcement authorities since thefirst plastic 3D-printed gun was successfully fired in Texas in May 2013.
3D printing of the first metal gun was reported in California six months later. The gun successfully fired at least 50 rounds.
What are 3D-printed guns, and how common are they? ABC Fact Check investigates.
How does 3D-printing work?
The World Intellectual Property Organisation, a United Nations agency, explains that 3D printing involves creating a digital blueprint of an object using a Computer Assisted Design (CAD) file.
The CAD file is sent to a 3D printer at home, or to one of a growing number of online printing services. The printer builds up an object layer by layer from its base, depositing material in liquid, powder or filament form.
The Australian Federal Police told a recent Senate inquiry that plastic gun parts and assemblies can be created using 3D printers bought for as little as $500, due to the increased availability of 3D printers and global access to electronic CAD files via the internet.
But manufacturing a gun using 3D printing is not as simple as "click, print and fire," according to Nicholas Jenzen-Jones, the Director of Armament Research Services, an arms and munitions consultancy.
"You cannot simply download a file, hit print on your computer and come out with a functional firearm... There is a level of technical expertise," he told the inquiry.
"It is not distinctly different from people being able to go to the hardware store, purchase components there and assemble them in their backyards."
Even if a person successfully assembled a plastic gun using 3D-printed parts, it is unlikely that the gun would fire ammunition as intended.
The AFP told the inquiry most 3D-printed guns are made from thermoplastics and result in "catastrophic failure" when fired, because the plastic cannot cope with the pressures created by the propellant gases that launch the bullet out of the barrel of the gun.
The AFP tested one 3D-printed plastic gun, which failed when fired.
Although 3D-printed metal guns are more effective than plastic guns in firing ammunition, the technology required to print 3D metal objects is so expensive that in Australia it has only been used for industrial applications, such as aerospace, the AFP said.
The prevalence of 3D-printed guns in Australia
The Australian Crime Commission told the inquiry it is not aware of any discoveries of 3D firearms being used or made by criminal entities in Australia.
"3D fabricated firearms will probably pose a low threat for at least the next two years," the commission said in its submission.
But Roderic Broadhurst, a professor of criminology at ANU, told Fact Check 3D-printed guns are quickly becoming more common.
"I'd be surprised if they weren't being produced already. I know we thought a few years back it was a bit of a joke, because it was a very clumsy sort of tool... What's around now is infinitely more sophisticated and more robust, and that's going to present a major problem," he said.
Queensland Police told the inquiry about the discovery of 3D-printed weapon parts, including the receiver, trigger assembly and cylinder/barrel, at a recent property search.
"The defendant admitted he had constructed and test fired one of the weapons, indicating it had worked and discharged a .22 calibre round."
The defendant had reinforced the cylinder with metal tubing, meaning the weapon could have been reloaded and repeatedly used.
The threat posed by 3D-printed guns
Professor Broadhurst said 3D-printed guns are a genuine concern because the technology is becoming more affordable.
"For a good working second hand [3D printer] you'd be paying under $2,000. And that's capable of producing a crude, single shot weapon. But for several thousand you can get a metal centre that will produce you a reasonably robust tool," he said.
New South Wales Police manufactured a plastic gun for $35 using a basic $1700 home 3D printer in 2013, after downloading CAD files from the Internet.
The gun exploded when fired.
"The technology at present is not producing firearms that are reliable, and really they present a much greater risk to the person who wants to fire them than to others," Assistant Commissioner Julian Slater, the National Manager of Forensics at the AFP, told the Senate inquiry.
Mike De Souza, CEO of the Australian 3D Manufacturing Association, told the inquiry reliable 3D printed guns remain too expensive for criminals.
"You would need several million dollars, several very clever designers, employees, engineers, scientists to be able to create a genuine weapon that would be effective," he said.
A 2014 United Nations report said it would probably be easier to steal a gun or buy one on the illicit market than to manufacture one using 3D printing.
"But this could change: once production costs decrease and quality increases, 3D printing may become a lucrative alternative for small-scale illicit weapon manufacturing and sale in the future," the report said.
Regulation of 3D-printed guns
There is currently no Australian legislation specifically addressing 3D printers, but the Senate inquiry heard that existing firearms laws would apply equally to 3D printed guns.
How criminals get access to illegal guns has been a source of division among Senators overseeing that inquiry. Fact Check has looked into the source of illicit firearms in Australia and found there's no comprehensive information on the origins of illegal guns, including 3D-printed weapons.
Catherine Smith from the Attorney-General's Department told the inquiry the "importation, manufacture or possession of a 3D printed firearm, without a licence, would be illegal in Australia," just as it would be for other guns.
But new technology is expected to make it increasingly difficult to apply traditional regulations to 3D printed guns.
"There are no standards around the manufacture of these weapons," NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said in a press conference in 2013.
He said 3D guns cannot be traced because they do not have serial numbers, and plastic parts are not detectable by metal detectors. It is also "almost impossible" to stop electronic trafficking of CAD files over the internet.
"Not only are these things undetectable, untraceable, cheap and easy to make, but they will kill," he said.
Abc
Página web diseñada con el fin de hacer conocer las noticias mas importantes a nivel nacional como internacional.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon