The ‘Ghost Gun’ Linked to Luigi Mangione Shows Just How Far 3D-Printed Weapons Have Come

“It just goes to show how easily you can do it,” Wilson said. “He doesn’t have to be an expert in 3D printing guns or shooting for this to all work.”

Although law enforcement and others describe the FMDA 19.2 simply as a “3D-printed pistol,” only parts of the FMDA 19.2 are 3D-printed. This makes it fundamentally different from fully 3D-printed firearms such as the Liberator, the first single-shot 3D-printed pistol debuted by Wilson in 2013.

Instead, guns built with designs such as the FMDA 19.2 are constructed from a combination of commercially produced parts (sometimes sold in kit form) such as barrels, slides, and magazines, and homemade frames. Since the frame, often referred to as the “lower receiver” or “lower receiver,” is the regulated main body of the firearm, 3D printing the part or otherwise creating it at home could allow DIY gunmakers to bypass gun controls law, Build a ghost gun There are no serial numbers, no background checks or waiting periods to obtain.

The FMDA 19.2 model was released by a group originally known as Deterrence Dispensed, which was originally inspired by Wilson’s Defense Distributed but is now widely regarded as a competitor and features the use of commercially available “rails”, metal parts to guide the gun The upper part of the gun (called the slide) retracts each time a shot is fired, resetting the trigger and loading a new round into the chamber. (In a widely circulated video of the Thompson murder, the gun allegedly fired by Mangione did not appear to have semi-automatic functionality. The gunmaker said this was because a suppressor attachment prevented its reloading mechanism.)

The FMDA 19.2’s relatively simple tweaks (using commercially produced metal rails instead of homemade rails) resulted in a model of the gun that was considered the most practical and reliable 3D-printed Glock design when it was released three years ago. “There were early Glocks, but the internal rail components were not as refined,” Mr. Snow Makers said. “It’s the perfect combination of a 3D printed frame and precision rails.”

Deterrence Dispensed, the organization behind the design of FMDA 19.2, has changed its name to “Gatalog”. But the group’s original website still features the libertarian gun-rights slogan that sums up its ideology. “All individuals have the right to use this utility to defend their humanity,” the site writes. “Gun control has failed. You can’t stop the signal.