NSW Police take aim at 3D-printable guns

NSW Police has warned residents they could face at least two criminal charges if they try to make guns using 3D printers.

The warning comes after digital blueprints for the world's first 3D printable gun were made available freely online earlier this month.

The state's Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said anyone who produced such a weapon in NSW would be "committing at least two crimes: manufacturing a firearm and possession of an illegal firearm".

"Make no mistake, these things are firearms," he said. "You do not need bullets to make it a firearm."

Commissioner Scipione said he had attended a demonstration "in a controlled environment in which a 3D-printed gun was fired".

NSW Police recently purchased a $1700 desktop 3D printer and $35 of materials to create the 3D gun known as The Liberator. It created and tested two 3D-printed weapons using blueprints from The Liberator’s US-based owner Defence Distributed.

Though Scipione did not go into detail, he indicated that firing a 3D-printed weapon could also injure the user.

"[The demonstration] showed the effect it can have on the gun handler and the victim," Commissioner Scipione said.

"3D guns do not have any of the safety standards, quality control or protection for the user that commercially-produced firearms have."

He said 3D printing technology should be "harnessed to do good, not evil", citing medical, scientific and industrial uses for the printing technology.

US Defense authorities moved quickly to remove the blueprints from public view. However, the CAD files were downloaded at least 100,000 times from Kim Dotcom's Mega site, until they were also taken down from there.