Row over 3D-printed firearms distracts from US gun violence crisis | AI

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By Frank Swain

Lawmakers in the US are fighting to keep blueprints for 3D-printed guns off the internet – but how worried should we be about untraceable plastic firearms?

In 2013, law student Cody Wilson unveiled the Liberator, a plastic handgun produced on a 3D printer that could fire conventional ammunition. He posted the files online so that anybody could download them and, in theory, print their own pistol.

Soon afterwards, he added a second design that would allow people to mill a rifle part called a lower receiver from a block of …