14-Year-Old Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Sell Guns He 3D Printed

"It's scary for everyone. At that age, do they have the ability to know right from wrong?"

Stop the Presses

A teenager in Detroit was arrested after his house was raided in a 3D-printed gun sting, CBS News reports, amid a federal crackdown into illegal weapons parts produced with consumer fabrication tech.

The culmination of a joint investigation with the Department of Homeland Security, the Detroit Police Department Organized Crime unit executed a search warrant at the house on Wednesday, uncovering evidence of an illegal operation.

Among the confiscated items, according to authorities, were 3D-printers, twelve 3D-printed handgun "lowers" — the lower half of a handgun frame — and five rifle lowers. The big ticket item, though, was a 3D-printed Glock "switch," a small device that converts pistols of the popular brand into fully automatic weapons.

The arrested teenager, a 14-year-old, is facing felony weapons charges. According to CBS, the teenager will likely face federal charges as well, due to Homeland Security's involvement in the arrest and investigation.

Smoking Gun

Generally, 3D-printing guns and gun parts isn't illegal in the US, though this can vary from state to state, and also depend on the specific parts that are being made. Printing them with the intent to sell them, however, can get you into serious trouble.

The arrest was made after investigators intercepted a package from China that contained the Glock switch, after which they allowed it to be delivered to the house.

However, it's unclear how the authorities determined that the teenager intended to sell the gun parts. Ryan Connor, commander of the Detroit Organized Crime Unit, said that they are currently investigating whether any of these gun parts actually hit the market.

"It's scary for everyone. At that age, do they have the ability to know right from wrong?" Connor said on Wednesday, as quoted by CBS. "What are their intentions with these weapons? Do they have the maturity? There's a lot that goes through our minds about those crimes."

Plastic Piece

The 3D-printed Glock switch is part of a broader category of highly illegal weapon parts called machine gun conversion devices. These are outright illegal to own or create — not just sell.

Just days before the raid, the Justice Department, at a Washington gathering of other federal law enforcement officials, reemphasized its crackdown on MCDs by calling on the 3D-printing industry to "identify solutions in this fight."

"More and more of these devices were being sold over the internet and on social media, and more and more they were actually just being printed by inexpensive 3D printers in homes and garages everywhere," Steve Dettelbach, the director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agency, told the Associated Press.

According to ATF figures cited by the AP, there was a 570 percent increase in the number of MCDs confiscated by police between 2017 and 2021.

Considering that 3D-printing is easier to pick up than ever, cheaply-made MCDs won't be an easy thing to stamp-out. Evidently, even kids are getting into this burgeoning black market these days.

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