{"id":188,"date":"2026-06-17T12:10:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessmovingservicess.com\/?p=188"},"modified":"2026-06-17T12:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T12:10:31","slug":"this-man-wants-to-help-you-print-your-own-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessmovingservicess.com\/?p=188","title":{"rendered":"This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n<\/span>he two sheriffs approached the house slowly, hands resting on the grips of their pistols. They had backup parked nearby \u2014 a couple of cars lining the two-lane Appalachian road and idling in the driveway. After they knocked politely, they stepped sideways, moving away from the house\u2019s front door. This is a standard maneuver for police approaching a house for a very simple reason: Doors do not stop bullets.<\/p>\n

Read more The Surreal Spectacle of Trump\u2019s White House Cage Fights<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tInside the house, a 33-year-old amateur gunsmith who goes by the pseudonym Yeezy wondered what to do. He\u2019d had run-ins with the authorities before \u2014 an hourslong search by the TSA in an airport most recently. A solidly-built man with long, wild hair and a beard who partially hides behind an iridescent face mask online, Yeezy has amassed tens of thousands of followers across social media sites by posting a mix of far-left political memes and his related, but far more tangible hobby: 3D-printed firearms. For years, he\u2019d wondered when his combination of inflammatory commentary and weapon-making would bring the cops down on his head. It seemed like only a matter of time, as his most popular slogan was a direct challenge: \u201cThe Second Amendment Is for Shooting Cops.\u201d The officers didn\u2019t have a warrant \u2014 they\u2019d been by once before that day, but left before he\u2019d answered the door. This time, they were willing to wait. Yeezy checked his doorbell camera. The two deputies near the door wore black body armor over their uniforms. Another officer lurked farther away from the home.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe house behind him was full of weapons, many of them built from printed frames and untraceable parts with no serial numbers. Nothing in his house was illegal, technically \u2014 everything he made was for personal use, with the proper paperwork filed. Still, Yeezy was careful. Next to the front door, an AR-15 rifle made from unregistered parts and a hand-milled aluminum frame leaned against the wall, loaded with armor-piercing ammunition. Yeezy hoped he\u2019d never have to use it.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the deputies shone his light through the window and pounded on the door again.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cCan I help you guys?\u201d Yeezy replied.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe cops said they were there with paperwork, not handcuffs. Yeezy was being served a subpoena related to a civil lawsuit between two other gunmakers that otherwise didn\u2019t concern him \u2014 a mundane, bureaucratic interaction that rarely involves body armor. He stepped out, barefoot and empty-handed, standing on his doormat, which reads: \u201cDon\u2019t Let the Cat Out or the Cops In.\u201d After a short conversation, he took the stapled sheaf of paperwork inside. The deputies drove away. The AR-15 stayed by the door.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe Plastic Revolution\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tYeezy, which is a pseudonym based on his online handle, \u201cYZY PRINTS,\u201d is one of a growing number of amateur gunsmiths dedicated to pushing the limits of 3D-printing technology and America\u2019s gun laws. In the past half-decade, 3D-printed firearms have expanded from a niche hobby to a flourishing economy with thousands of participants across the world. In the United States alone, hundreds of hobbyists design, build, and test new gun designs at a staggering rate, iterating off one anothers\u2019 successes and often stress-testing designs by releasing them to online communities devoted to perfecting the art of the plastic gun. Yeezy is an amateur designer: He is quick to admit that he\u2019s not an expert engineer like many of his peers. But his designs have had instant impact: His calling card is a Glock handle that also functions as a bong, called, predictably, the \u201cGlong.\u201d He\u2019s also contributed to more-notorious designs. In one of our first messages online, he mentioned he had helped develop and test a design for a sound suppressor that was eventually used by Luigi Mangione, who allegedly used a 3D-printed weapon to kill healthcare chief executive Brian Thompson. (Yeezy had no contact with Mangione.)<\/p>\n

\n\tMany of his designs can be found in massive, free online repositories, where anyone with an internet connection can download the design files necessary to print a weapon at home. In recent years, as well, 3D-printing technology has advanced significantly, with new machines capable of printing more durable, more precise weapons in less time than before. The technology has advanced so quickly, in fact, that its end result \u2014 untraceable weapons, assembled from spare parts and plastic frames \u2014 often confounds existing laws and presents a unique enforcement problem for authorities. In most states, it\u2019s legal for anyone to build a firearm for personal use. Only seven states have outright banned 3D-printed weapons. There are caveats, of course \u2014 America\u2019s gun laws are anything but consistent \u2014 but most 3D-printing gunsmiths operate within the letter of the law, carefully walking lines and navigating legal gray areas where applicable.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn the past, gunsmithing was a specialized skill. Creating a reliable, working firearm required years of technical study and access to complex machine shops. The plastic revolution has changed that, and law-enforcement sources and gun-control organizations maintain that 3D-printed weapons represent a new threat to public safety \u2014 extremists, criminals, or domestic abusers manufacturing traceless weapons with ill intent, children building functioning guns they see on social media, all with even less government oversight than America\u2019s traditional firearms market. Unserialized and homemade firearms, opponents say, could easily allow criminals to bypass red-flag gun laws, which aim to prevent domestic abusers and other violent individuals from obtaining firearms. Authorities in California and New York have already brought lawsuits and legislation against online repositories of gun files like the ones Yeezy contributes to, and sought to crack down on the physical manufacture of weapons in their jurisdictions. It\u2019s too early to tell if these measures will prevent what the authorities fear \u2014 but Yeezy and his compatriots are determined to keep printing regardless of the cost.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis technology isn\u2019t really driven by the street criminal,\u201d says Bonnie Seok, an assistant district attorney for Manhattan who works in the office\u2019s 3D-printed-gun unit. \u201cIt\u2019s driven by an ideology \u2014 they\u2019re dedicated to the Second Amendment and democratizing the process of being able to access your own guns. It\u2019s driven by incredibly smart people. They\u2019re always trying to defeat regulations. They\u2019re always trying to outsmart law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe creators in this ecosystem represent a wide range of political views, from the far left to the far right, but almost all of them share a maximalist interpretation of the Second Amendment, in which the gun is the ultimate symbol of liberty: a tool, a weapon, and an inalienable right. Traditional gun enthusiasts have waged a running battle with the Department of Justice\u2019s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for generations, but the 3D-printed revolution is a new, more polarized frontier. And some creators, like Yeezy, see their right to print guns as an essential bulwark against the darkest excesses of America\u2019s current government. On social media, Yeezy describes himself as a \u201cfar left trantifa extremist,\u201d combining the words \u201ctrans\u201d and \u201cantifa\u201d for peak provocation, even though he is not transgender.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn simpler terms, Yeezy believes everyone, regardless of their identity, deserves the ability to buy, build, or carry whatever armament they want. But in Donald Trump\u2019s America, Yeezy and many other creators, shooters, and activists no longer see that right as a given. Left-wing gun enthusiasts worry they may be the first to feel Trump\u2019s boot, as his administration has declared \u201canti-fascist\u201d groups to be domestic terrorists and stepped up efforts that may prevent specific groups, like transgender people, from owning firearms.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe solution, Yeezy thinks, is plastic: If the government tries to stop certain people from owning guns, 3D-printing technology means it is now easier than ever for them to just make their own.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tAn Arsenal in Appalachia\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tThe first gun Yeezy fired, he says, was an illegal machine gun. It was decades ago, and it belonged to a wayward relative. His family was poor, like so many others in the Appalachian Mountains. His mother was disabled, and at times got only $32 a month in food stamps. \u201cI watched the world around me slowly crumble,\u201d Yeezy tells me. His grandfather\u2019s house was foreclosed on; his mother got sick. Still, he \u201cdid the things [he] was supposed to do.\u201d In high school, he was a \u201cmediocre\u201d student, but excelled in computer-science classes. He enrolled in college, pursuing an engineering degree, but got crushed by the costs. He sold his car for tuition and slept on couches in the summer, technically homeless. After a year, he dropped out, moving back in with his parents to look for work. \u201cLook at how much we have to go through to get even a little bit of scraps,\u201d Yeezy says. \u201cI don\u2019t have a positive view of the American dream working out for someone like me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the fall of 2020, he printed his first gun, on a cheap 3D-printer he\u2019d bought early on in the pandemic lockdowns, after falling down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos and tutorials on DIY weaponsmithing. The feeling was liberating. Anyone who has fired a gun knows it is an immediate, tactile feeling of power. Yeezy had discovered that he could create that power in his own house.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis technology is driven by an ideology. They\u2019re always trying to defeat regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThe right to bear arms \u2014 it\u2019s innate to your humanity,\u201d Yeezy says.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn a sunny weekend in mid-April, I drive several hours from Columbus, Ohio, to meet Yeezy at his home, a small property deep in the Appalachian Mountains. We\u2019d been messaging online for months, and I wanted to see his work up close and understand the role it might play in the country\u2019s political future. When I pull up, Yeezy pops out of his garage \u2014 shorter than I expected, with a classic mountain man\u2019s wild hair and beard. His face is bare \u2014 the first time I\u2019ve seen it without the iridescent, full-face visor he uses in online videos \u2014 and he\u2019s wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with an image of a 3D-printed gun and the slogan \u201cIt Was Never About Hunting,\u201d referring to the Second Amendment. Online, Yeezy hides his identity to protect himself and his family from the threats and abuse he receives regularly from right-wing elements of the gun industry and \u201cthe brunch liberals\u201d; he requested a pseudonym for this story for the same reason.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe lets me in the door, watching carefully for any escape attempts by Boots, his mischievous tuxedo cat. Funnily enough, Yeezy\u2019s life now is kind of the American dream. He is reluctant to discuss anyone close to him \u2014 again, concerned for their safety \u2014 but from what I can see, he lives in a stable home and has a supportive and loving network of family and friends. Last year, he even left his well-paying day job as a commercial drone pilot for a mundane corporation, as his income streams from social media, merchandise sales, and a non-firearms 3D-printing business were enough to support him.<\/p>\n

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\n\tYeezy sells the \u201cHunting\u201d shirt he\u2019s wearing in an online shop for around $27. While he doesn\u2019t sell firearms or parts \u2014 all of his weapons were made legally for personal use \u2014 the rest of his online store is filled with other provocative designs. One popular item is a shirt that says \u201cAmerican Years of Lead,\u201d a reference to sectarian political violence in Italy from the 1960s to the 1980s. The back of the shirt puts that concept in uniquely American terms: \u201cThe Second Amendment Is for Shooting ICE.\u201d He sells a variant that replaces \u201cICE\u201d with \u201cCops,\u201d and stickers asking customers to \u201cChallenge Their Monopoly on Violence.\u201d One design, an image of a guillotine surrounded by the words \u201cDeny, Defend, Depose,\u201d is a nod to Mangione, who allegedly wrote those words on the bullet casings left at the scene of Thompson\u2019s murder. And yet, Yeezy says that violence is the last thing he wants. \u201cAs much as I like bloviating online about shooting cops,\u201d Yeezy says, \u201cthe idea of killing anything doesn\u2019t bring me joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of that work \u2014 printing guns and designing bumper stickers \u2014 happens in Yeezy\u2019s basement lab, which is a tinkerer\u2019s dream and a gun-control advocate\u2019s nightmare: two rooms of workbenches, idling 3D printers, wire racks stacked high with a rainbow of spools of the plastic filament that serves as the raw material for all of his designs. And everywhere, everywhere, there are guns: half-built plastic frames scattered across desks, an antique Soviet rifle hanging from a hook. A black and red toy-like 3D-printed .22-caliber rimfire rifle, several iterations of a 9 mm gun (both metal and plastic), a short-barreled shotgun, and what appears to be half of an AR-15 hung from a pegboard above one workbench, one corner of which was taken up by a large plastic bucket overflowing with live rounds of nearly every shape and size. \u201cWe call that ammo salad,\u201d Yeezy says. Yeezy\u2019s favorite rifle, a custom-built version of an AK-47, hangs on a wall mount above an expansive PC workstation, with wrap-around monitors, a podcast mic, and several strips of LED lights, programmed to glow in a techie shade of neon purple. At one point, I move a hat sitting on a stack of Rubbermaid storage bins and find a loaded handgun underneath.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe real stars of Yeezy\u2019s workshop are the printers. He has three, all told, but two that he uses regularly. Minutes after we arrive, we get to work. From the gaming PC, which is bumping \u201cHandlebars\u201d by Flobots when we sit down, Yeezy downloads a CAD \u2014 or computer-assisted design \u2014 file containing the schematics for a homemade version of a 9 mm pistol called the \u201cModMac.\u201d He fires up the printer\u2019s software and loads in the design, tweaking various settings in a complex, but not unintelligible set of menus he explains along the way. After a quick check that the printer is loaded up with filament and calibrated correctly, he clicks print. The machine whirs to life, the smell of hot plastic slowly seeping into the air. In about 24 hours, it will produce a gun.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThis is the type of shit I stay up all night doing,\u201d Yeezy says, while wrestling with a hunk of plastic. The work is tactile, delicate, and all-consuming: Beads of sweat roll down his face as he scrapes out a gun part with a file, his fingers black with oil and plastic dust. \u201cIt\u2019s so satisfying. I can\u2019t wait to shoot this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaking that weapon operational, however, is another process. Like any good baking-\u00adshow host, Yeezy has prepared a batch of parts before we arrive: a slightly different gun modeled after the famous German-made MP5. Plastic comes out of the printer in an almost unrecognizable state, covered in oddly organic-looking tendrils of plastic called supports. These thin plastic branches are designed to break off after supporting the main architecture of the print while it forms. Yeezy tears into them with pliers, slowly cleaning up the gun\u2019s frame. He pulls up a YouTube video by the gun\u2019s designer, a creator who goes by IvanPrintsGuns, and carefully follows the instructions over the next several hours, slotting metal parts into the frame, and carefully inserting the delicate trigger components into the lower receiver.<\/p>\n

\n\tPrinted guns are a bizarre combination of high and low tech: it\u2019s not uncommon to see a state-of-the-art, factory-made scope mounted on a weapon held together by a common garden-hose clamp. But when you pull the trigger, the result is the same: 3D-printed guns shoot the same bullets used for factory-made firearms.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeezy works into the evening, hacking at jagged spurs of plastic and tapping away with a special brass gunsmith\u2019s hammer. His fingers are nicked and scarred from pinches and scrapes. \u201cOften, these things demand blood,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s surprising, too, how easy it all is. There is plenty of patience, expertise, and elbow-grease needed, but the general process of 3D-printing a gun has been distilled down to the \u201cpoint where an idiot would be able to build it,\u201d Yeezy says. Most designs follow the same general concept: a printed frame known as a lower receiver onto which a user can then install real, factory-made gun parts like the barrel, slide, and bolt assembly. The lower receiver of a weapon is often the only part that the ATF technically classifies as a \u201cgun\u201d \u2014 on factory-made weapons, it\u2019s where the serial number is usually engraved. That little idiosyncrasy of the law means you can buy a \u201cparts kit\u201d for most guns \u2014 everything except the lower receiver, basically \u2014 for a heavy discount with zero paperwork, background check, or serial number involved. In most states, you can get as many kits as you like delivered right to your front door.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cI know of people who have shipping crates of AR-15s,\u201d Yeezy says. \u201cBut I have reason to believe they\u2019re watching my mail \u2014 if I were to buy 75 [kits], I bet you anything, Homeland Security would be here in an instant.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYeezy has some evidence to back this up. In January, when he was headed to Las Vegas for the annual SHOT Show \u2014 call it Coachell\u00ada for gun nuts \u2014 he was pulled into an hourslong security screening by TSA as he attempted to board his flight. After a long interrogation and two separate searches, he was allowed to fly \u2014 but the experience left him shaken, and even more convinced that his online activities had raised flags on some level of federal law enforcement.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe Fight Against Printed Guns\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s true: Cops are obsessed with 3D-printed guns. In February, the California attorney general\u2019s office brought a massive civil lawsuit against several gunmakers and the Gatalog Foundation, which operates one of the many online repositories of firearm designs, alleging that Gatalog\u2019s operators were \u201caccountable for promoting and facilitating the unlawful manufacture of 3D-printed firearms,\u201d as the website was accessible in California, where it is illegal (the Gatalog Foundation is incorporated in Florida, where printing weapons is legal).<\/p>\n

\n\tIn New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has also made them a priority. In May, I visited Bragg\u2019s office in the middle of a statewide push for new legislation on 3D-printed guns. In a conference room, Bragg and his staff lay out the contents of several evidence lockers in front of me \u2014 at least a dozen different printed guns and several seized printers from busts around the city. I pick up and fiddle with some of the printed guns, unsure if I should admit that I had shot most of the designs on the table a few weeks earlier at Yeezy\u2019s. Two detectives from the NYPD\u2019s ghost guns unit sit quietly in the back of the room, keeping custody over the brightly-colored plastic paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI became a prosecutor in 2003 \u2014 I\u2019m used to the iron pipeline,\u201d Bragg says, referring to the flow of weapons into New York City from states with looser gun laws. Guns are heavily restricted in New York City, and New York state\u2019s laws require manufacturers to stamp any parts they create with trackable serial numbers, something not required in many states. \u201cBut the sort of potential ubiquity of this \u2014 that you can just do your dishes, watch ESPN, and, like, print a gun at the same time \u2026 I mean, it\u2019s scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Read more An Alabama Court Halted Nitrogen Gas Execution. This Reverend Hopes Other States Will Follow<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tBut combating ghost guns is a constant, shifting battle. As Seok, the Manhattan assistant district attorney, tells me, creators are constantly finding ways around the system. In Manhattan, Bragg\u2019s office has petitioned 3D-printer manufacturers like Creality to take down user-submitted gun designs on their official libraries \u2014 but they have had little jurisdiction over the many open-source, third-party websites publishing CAD files online.<\/p>\n

\n\tBragg and Seok\u2019s latest hope is a set of new provisions in the New York state budget that add criminal, not civil, penalties to the act of even printing a gun in the city. Such a law is likely to be challenged immediately in court, as New York has an active community of litigation-happy gun-rights advocates who have won several landmark decisions in recent years. Later, in Seok\u2019s office, I ask if it ever feels like she\u2019s fighting a losing battle.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt doesn\u2019t feel futile to me, or to the team,\u201d Seok says.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf someone is going to attack me because of my identity, i can\u2019t trust them to just stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cIn terms of the legislation \u2014 it gives us tools to be able to grapple with this problem. We\u2019re always trying to stay ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut despite all of the attention, it\u2019s hard to exactly pin down how big of a problem this is on the street. The NYPD claims that of the 438 ghost guns from crime scenes in 2024, 109 of the weapons were allegedly 3D-printed. (The term \u201cghost gun\u201d can apply to any kind of weapon with an unclear origin and no serial number, including guns constructed from premade kits, home-milled metal, or polymer kits, as well as 3D-printed weapons.) Some of the 3D-printed weapons recovered by New York authorities came from large, notable busts \u2014 an arsenal on the Upper East Side belonging to the brother of actress and model Julia Fox that was uncovered in March 2023; a case where a man in Harlem was printing weapons at his apartment and test-firing them in Central Park (both the manufacture and test-firing are not legal in New York City); and the 2023 bust of a group of minors and adults who were 3D-printing guns at a daycare center in Harlem.<\/p>\n

\n\tA few weeks later, I dropped by One Police Plaza, a grim brick complex in downtown Manhattan, to meet the head of the NYPD\u2019s ghost guns unit, Chief Courtney Nilan. After passing through several metal detectors, an aide leads me up to the unit\u2019s offices on the second floor, where Nilan, a wiry woman with a scraped-back bun of blond hair, gets straight down to business.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll the stats you get for ghost guns and 3D printing \u2014 I think it\u2019s completely underreported nationwide,\u201d Nilan says. What she can prove, she says, is limited: Thompson\u2019s shooting is the only murder thus far in her jurisdiction that definitively included a 3D-printed weapon. \u201cBut do I think there have been [more killings with 3D-printed guns]?\u201d she says. \u201cOne thousand percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn many shootings, Nilan says, the weapon used is never recovered. And even when it is, she says, the officers cataloging evidence have to know what to look for. Good 3D-printed weapons, particularly handguns, can often be somewhat indistinguishable from factory-made firearms: I saw several of them myself in Yeezy\u2019s shop. A big part of Nilan\u2019s unit\u2019s responsibilities includes training other units on what to look for. Security teams, for instance, can often miss 3D-printed guns in metal detectors \u2014 even at government facilities (though the guys downstairs at One Police Plaza, she says, know exactly how to spot one).<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat worries her is where the technology is trending. In the early 2020s, she says, her team was busting mostly hobbyists \u2014 people who were printing guns but had no intentions of using them. That describes, she says, the vast majority of the \u201c3D 2A\u201d community \u2014 Second Amendment ideologues like Yeezy, in other words.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEven though they\u2019re loud [online] \u2014 they\u2019re not committing any crimes,\u201d Nilan says. \u201cNeither are the beta testers, everyone in the design rooms \u2014 it\u2019s once that design is perfected and put out on the open web, that\u2019s where it\u2019s hitting those who have nefarious purposes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNilan says that anecdotally, the technology seems to attract extremists: A 2024 bust in Queens brought in a pair of brothers who had put together a hit list that included cops, judges, politicians, and \u201cbanker scum,\u201d who they planned to attack with an arsenal of 3D-printed weapons and improvised explosives, as well as two recent raids where \u201cthe people have been, I know this sounds crazy, like, Satanists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThese, she says, are her unit\u2019s actual targets. Opportunists like the daycare group, which was selling weapons, and extremists \u2014 not the hobbyists. Nilan says ghost-gun cases often play out more like financial-crimes investigations than weapons deals, as so much of the evidence is online and through electronic and paper records. \u201cOur biggest partner is Postal,\u201d she says, referring to the U.S. Postal Service police. (I immediately think back to Yeezy saying that he was certain they were watching his mail.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe ghost guns unit \u2014 whose unit insignia reads \u201cIf You Build It We Will Come\u201d \u2014 has seven members, in a police force that employs roughly 35,000 cops. It feels like we\u2019re on the precipice of something that will revolutionize the way people \u2014 criminals and civilians alike \u2014 arm themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d heard of the Liberator [the first famous 3D-printed gun],\u201d Yeezy says. \u201cI remember seeing that, and I was like, \u2018Oh, this is going to change the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut now, it\u2019s still a marginal problem \u2014 one that only a department as big as the NYPD can really afford to focus on.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think it [the ghost-gun problem] is growing slowly,\u201d Nilan says. \u201cIt\u2019s not in its infancy stages, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s blown up how it\u2019s gonna blow up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\tThe Years of Lead and Plastic\t<\/h2>\n

\n\tBack in the workshop, Yeezy\u2019s printer continues to churn out a new gun. Over the years, he estimates, he\u2019s printed around 100 frames and receivers and assembled 30 to 40 functional firearms. While the printer works, we take the fully assembled MP5 out to his backyard shooting range for its first few test shots. After slotting in a factory-made 30-round magazine loaded with 9 mm rounds, Yeezy slaps the bolt forward, turns toward his target, and lets loose: Bang bang bang bang bang.<\/em> He rips through the entire magazine on semiautomatic fire, the hard-polymer gun jumping up and down in his hands, sending a stream of lead downrange. As far as the government knows, this gun doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter the first magazine, our printed weapon runs into trouble. When we fire a few test shots through a printed suppressor (that Yeezy filled out the proper paperwork for and legally owns), the gun starts having issues cycling in a new round. He thumps the butt of the gun, taps it on the side of his quad bike, jiggles the bolt, and tries to coax it into action with lubricant. Nothing works \u2014 the gun is seized up, the bolt sticking on some unforeseen burr of filament as the plastic slowly breaks in. Yeezy is frustrated, but we have plenty of other guns to shoot: his regular carry pistol, a 3D-printed Glock clone; a shotgun, and a few other surprises.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sense I get in Yeezy\u2019s basement is that 3D-printed weapons are a genie that is impossible to entirely force back into the bottle. In a competent gunmaker\u2019s lab, it doesn\u2019t matter which side of the legal battle over printed weapons is \u201cahead.\u201d It doesn\u2019t matter if the major websites of CAD files are taken down, or even if printers come uploaded with firmware designed to stop them printing weapons. There will always be workarounds. One of the first mass-produced 3D-printed firearms, designed by a legendary engineer known as \u201cJStark,\u201d was dubbed the FGC-9. The initialism stands for \u201cFuck Gun Control,\u201d the nine for the 9 mm rounds it shot. FGC-9s have been built by underground designers in the most firearms-restrictive countries in Europe and churned out by rebel groups in Myanmar.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe possibilities of 3D-printed weapons are rapidly expanding, too. \u201cThe diversity of creations is incredibly impressive given the limited resources of developers,\u201d says \u201cWirb,\u201d who runs a group that helps 3D-printed designers produce and market their products legally. His clients include designers working on everything from drone munitions to 3D-printed rocket launchers. (He requested a pseudonym to protect his and his clients\u2019 privacy.) \u201cThere\u2019s been, offhand, grenade launchers, hand grenades, claymores, mortars, and even 37 mm howitzers, though those are apparently very experimental right now,\u201d Wirb says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is all taking place in the best-armed nation in history. There are somewhere around 500 million guns in this country \u2013 more firearms than people, more than homes, more than cars. \u201cWe don\u2019t live in a world where there just aren\u2019t guns,\u201d Yeezy tells me. \u201cNo matter how you feel about it, they\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
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\n\tFor Yeezy, having a gun means having power. \u201cLiberals ultimately believe that at some point the government will do something for them,\u201d Yeezy says. \u201cI believe in seizing the means to own your own life. You don\u2019t get to offer nothing of value to my life and also exert so much control over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, I reported on a growing trend of left-wing, predominantly LGBTQ+ activists who were forming armed collectives to defend their communities from right-wing militias and hostile police. Many of the people I talked to lived in Texas, a state where lawmakers have passed laws that restrict the rights of gay and trans people. Members of those communities saw guns as a necessity in the face of constant threats from right-wing groups, who they claimed were often ignored or even enabled by the police. Online, as well, organizations like Arm the Dolls focus on education and resources that help trans and marginalized people purchase and familiarize themselves with guns.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf someone is going to attack me because of my identity, I can\u2019t trust them to just stop at some point,\u201d says Nell, the founder of Arm the Dolls. \u201cAttacking a person for who they are is a crime of passion. I have to assume lethal intent. That means pepper spray may not be enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLast fall, Yeezy invited several trans members of his online community to his house for a basic firearms training course. Over the weekend, he taught around 20 people, mostly trans women, how to shoot, and explained the basics of 3D-printing guns. The latter point was important, because there are signs that for trans people, the right to bear arms may soon truly be infringed. In May, the Department of Justice\u2019s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives proposed a new rule that anyone filling out federal firearms paperwork must indicate their biological sex on the forms. Trans people whose government identification is affirming \u2014 reflects their chosen gender \u2014 would have a mismatch with the forms, a bureaucratic snag that Nell and other activists say could, in some cases, restrict transgender Americans from purchasing weapons. The ATF\u2019s proposed change is one of many small encroachments activists like Nell have been tracking for years. The solution, Yeezy says, is a 3D printer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow bad do you want [a weapon]?\u201d Yeezy says. \u201cIf you want it bad enough, you can figure it out. It just comes down to willpower.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYeezy wants it bad enough. And based on the arsenal I saw, he has a lot of willpower. His reasoning for it is simple: Every experience he\u2019s had in his life has convinced him that the government will never be on his side.<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut if he\u2019s right, if that\u2019s where we\u2019re headed, it\u2019s a deadly future, because the brutality of American life taught Yeezy and others like him that the only way to live was by reserving the power to kill.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018The View\u2019 Hosts Did a Better Job Grilling J.D. Vance Than Most Actual Journalists<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\tSenior staff writer JACK CROSBIE interviewed Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White for the June issue of Rolling Stone.\t<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some believe everyone should be able to 3D print their own firearms \u2014 but there are government forces trying to shut them down<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rs-reports"],"yoast_head":"\nThis Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun - Business Moving Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessmovingservicess.com\/?p=188\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun - Business Moving Services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some believe everyone should be able to 3D print their own firearms \u2014 but there are government forces trying to shut them down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/businessmovingservicess.com\/?p=188\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Business Moving Services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T12:10:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"27 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/fea0d2fc6c4997d7397c8e2f526719f0\"},\"headline\":\"This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-17T12:10:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188\"},\"wordCount\":5312,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/956452ba45ed21a00722e4b78842337b.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"RS Reports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/businessmovingservicess.com\\\/?p=188\",\"name\":\"This Man Wants to Help You Print Your Own Gun - 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