Fantastic plastic: one of the parts found by Greater Manchester Police (Image: Greater Manchester Police)

Police in the UK this morning claimed to have seized parts of a 3D-printed gun, but it looks as if they may have jumped to the wrong conclusion. 3D-printing experts say the parts are actually components of a 3D printer.

Greater Manchester Police found the 3D printed parts during a raid in Manchester, UK. The police say they are examining the two parts, identified as a trigger and a clip for holding bullets, to determine whether they could be fitted together to make a viable gun.

“If what we have seized is proven to be viable components capable of constructing a genuine firearm, then it demonstrates that organised crime groups are acquiring technology that can be bought on the high street to produce the next generation of weapons,” said detective inspector Chris Mossop in a statement.


A man has also been arrested on suspicion of making gunpowder, although whether he also owned the 3D parts is not known – Greater Manchester Police could not be reached for comment before this article was published.

If the police have linked the production of gunpowder with the 3D printed parts, they may be mistaken. The “trigger” identified by police appears to be part of a MakerBot 3D printer designed to extrude 3D-printing plastic to make an object, and the “clip” looks like a part intended to hold spools of plastic.

Don’t believe the hype

“It does look like the MakerBot part,” says Stuart Offer of 3D-printing firm 3T RPD in Newbury, UK. “These 3D printed guns seem to have hit the headlines, but I’ve no idea why they take off so much,” he says. “A little engineer in his shed with a mill down the bottom of the garden could make a proper metal barrel capable of firing a high-velocity bullet.”

The Liberator 3D printed gun designed by Defense Distributed (Image: Jay Janner/statesman.com/AP/Press Association Images)

The first fully 3D-printed handgun was fired earlier this year by Cody Wilson of Defense Distributed, an organisation based in Austin, Texas, that aims to make firearms available to all.

Wilson uploaded to the internet the files that a printer needs to make the gun, but was forced to remove them by the US State Department – a largely symbolic move, as the files are still available on various file-sharing websites. The parts recovered by UK police do not seem to match any components of Wilson’s gun, but designs for other 3D-printed guns do exist.

All 3D-printed guns made so far don’t work for long, because after a few shots, the pressure produced by firing weakens and breaks the barrel. Wilson’s gun uses changeable barrels to allow someone to fire the gun again. Would-be gun-printers must also use regular ammunition, because it is not yet possible to print bullets.