this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2024
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I find that kind of unlikely. If they wanted to frame someone just to have a killer, they wouldn't be talking about a "3D printed ghost gun", but just use a regular gun. I, for one, haven't known that it's possible to 3D print a pretty well working, and silenced, gun. And that might inspire someone - acquiring weapons is the harder part of any such murder, assuming you don't want to get caught, and the fact that you can get it without anyone knowing about it makes it way easier.
They know the guy is a engineer. They came up with the 3D printed gun because it fits with the character, and gives politician an excuse to ban 3D printers all together, "for our safety!".
I'm speculating and being a conspiracy theory, but in theory this could make sense. Nobody will ever find out the truth, I'm afraid.
People misunderstand 3d printed guns. We use mostly normal gun parts bought anywhere, but legally the pistol handle is considered the gun, and the most popular commercial ones have been plastic for decades. So 3d print that glock frame and put a glock slide on it and you've got a cheap glock (and outside of like 3 States, that's totally legal).
There's fairly large 3d printing gun communities, mostly because it's just fun to build things.
3d printed silencers are much more rare / fragile because those are illegal to make without ATF approval and silencers need to withstand heat and pressure, so the typical plastic can't withstand prolonged use.
Just yesterday this video of Mike Shake popped in my feed: https://youtu.be/tHzuz09l41U
Essentially a sniper rifle with compressed air able to propel a 3d-printed bullet at sub-sonic speeds able to break a simulated skull. And it penetrated hard enough to for sure cause major complication for the target. Not to mention that lead slugs can easily be made DIY without much complications and skill. Lead can be melted pretty easily so lol.
Not much to do besides being able to cut a pipe, make a release mechanism and compile it all with a projectile to shoot. Done is your makeshift weapon.