UK Police Warns 3D Printing Guns Are Threatening

Reference News Network reported on November 17 According to the BBC website on November 12, British police revealed last month that they had seized a large number of 3D printing gun parts during the operation.

On October 7, the police of the special crime headquarters of the London Police Department found a "suspected temporary 3D printing gun factory" in a residence.

According to the police, this shows that "the new threat of 3D printing guns continues to evolve".

At the same time, relevant experts have been warning about such threats.

3D printing gun (AFP data picture)

The reliability of 3D printing guns in the initial version is relatively poor, all of which are single shot guns. The National Anti Crime Bureau told reporters that these guns are now "both reliable and usable".

Matthew Perfeckett of the National Anti Crime Bureau said that the latest 3D printing weapon is "something you definitely don't want to see on the streets of Britain".

"These are automatic weapons, which can be fired repeatedly," he said

Pfeickett said that at present, such 3D printed parts can only be part of a gun, accounting for 80% to 90% of the weapons at most. Key metal parts, such as the barrel, are also made using traditional methods, and the gun still needs ammunition.

Therefore, Pfeickett believes that such guns can still be found by "normal security procedures". It is very difficult to smuggle guns across borders during the COVID-19, which may be the reason why criminals use 3D printing to manufacture guns.

Dr Rajen Basra, a researcher at the International Research Center on Extremity at King's College London, said that what happened in Britain reflected the trend of the whole Europe.

"We have seen such things in Spain, Sweden, Germany and Britain," he said

He said that most of these cases belong to far right organizations, and other terrorist organizations seem not interested in this technology.