this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
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On today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how WIRED was able to legally 3D-print the same gun allegedly used by Luigi Mangione, and where US law stands on the technology.

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[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unless you keep the gun I guess.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (5 children)

How do you mean? You 3D print something with no serial and it’s untraceable. Even if they find it they can’t definitively say your firearm shot the bullets. Unless of course you’re on video doing it and admit to it.

[–] taladar@sh.itjust.works 3 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Unless of course you’re on video doing it and admit to it.

Something tells me not doing that part is going to be harder for a significant portion of today's population than getting a weapon.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago
[–] seathru@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 day ago (5 children)

You 3D print something with no serial and it’s untraceable.

Except for all the metal parts they used a debit card/paypal to buy.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Those would hard to teace and yu can pay cash. How many stores sell metal pipe withthe same inner diameter as a 45 caliber. It would be lole tracing meth lab by ammonia sales.

[–] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Depends. He used a printed glock, not an FGC2.0. The FGC uses parts like you describe but printed glocks just take glock parts.

That said, it's still fairly trivial to acquire those glock parts anonymously.

[–] magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

The only regulated parts (I know of) are:

  • receiver (considered the actual gun, this is the bit they print)

  • suppressors (not printable but you can make these homemade, though not as good and definitely not as reliable.)

  • autosears (or anything else that makes your gun fully automatic, or even act like it, usually these are super basic and printable)

  • big magazines (not federal but a lot of states have laws on em' Usually states with these laws will allow big ones to be sold with rivets, so they can usually be converted with a drill and new spring. Also they're just boxes w/ springs so you can print one.)

They're also starting to Anodize rifling into barrels using cheap 3D printed jigs, so some of the metal parts are now getting homemade too.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 2 points 1 day ago

autosears

Autosears themselves are not actually regulated. It's the action of fully automatic fire that is. Which is kind of ridiculous because it's not terribly uncommon to have a gun do it by accident on worn out parts.

Wild. I suppose, thinking about it, it's also way quicker to iterate on, test, and improve too.

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Yeah, you can’t easily print an entire gun, but the parts you buy don’t necessarily tie you to the gun.

[–] Ulrich@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The components aren't traceable either. They don't have serial numbers on them. Typically only the lower receiver does. This is why that's the part that's typically 3D-printed.

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip -2 points 1 day ago

Which is obviously why you buy them with Monero instead.

[–] iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

In the age of AI deepfakes, I don't even think that's conclusive enough.

[–] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

gotta count how many fingers it took to pull the trigger

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Haha it’s better than that now. You have to see them eating.

[–] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

never forget will smith spaghetti

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Haha you’ll know you’re old when people don’t get the reference

[–] toy_boat_toy_boat@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

that's one i genuinely wonder about though. it was the embarrassing early years of generative ml. will it care to keep it for us? eww, i just got those terminator chills again

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Depends if next gen AI has a sense of humor

[–] RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

really easy to tell if an image is AI or not still it's not that good yet

[–] just_another_person@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Didn't Luigi get caught with the weapon in his backpack? The title picture on this article is literally him. If it's untraceable by printing, it seems you'd want to not have it on you if apprehended.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

Common plan for professional hitman is to drop the gun at or near the scene. With a ghost gun what could tgey trace back

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 29 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Factually, they illegally searched his bag without a warrant at the mcdonald's, repacked the bag, put the bag in a police vehicle and drove to the police station without bodycam, and then turned bodycam back on to search the bag again and instantly "find" the ghost gun in his bag, which, without a serial number, is conveniently impossible to prove it was not planted.

https://www.wtaj.com/news/local-news/new-photos-show-luigi-mangiones-arrest-defense-argues-for-evidence-to-be-suppressed/

The motion goes on the state that once that officer’s body cam footage resumes, it shows her immediately re-opening and closing the backpack compartments she already searched and then opening the front compartment of the backpack “as if she was specifically looking for something. Instantly, she ‘found’ a handgun in the front compartment.”

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au -1 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Funny that they never deny the gun was his, just that the search was unconstitutional.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Almost like the lawyer thinks "they didn't follow procedure" is an easier legal argument than "the police dept is trying to frame my client".

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au -3 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

The gun isn’t the only evidence. All they’re doing is drawing attention to the fact that it was his gun by not denying it was his and trying to get it excluded from evidence. Even if they win this argument and get the gun excluded, they’ve basically confirmed that the gun was his in doing so.

[–] elephantium@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

his gun

Is that a fact? Are you sure? Will you recant if it comes out that the police did, in fact, plant it?

Nitpick the lawyer's phrasing all you like; it won't actually change any of the facts of the case, whatever they may be. Myself, I'm not going to jump to "why bother having a trial? The police arrested him; he's clearly guilty as sin" based on a Lemmy comment!

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 0 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

There's no reason to deny invalid evidence

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au -2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

It does if you want people to believe the gun wasn’t yours. The gun isn’t the only evidence, and not denying it’s yours but trying to get it excluded from evidence confirms that it was yours and you’re trying to hide it. It screams guilty.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 3 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (1 children)

Good thing that's not how evidence or the justice system works 😝

Your username is ironic lol

[–] FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au -1 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

That’s how peoples opinions work, and no matter what any judge says, people can’t just forget and disregard that they know the gun was his just because a judge tells them that they are not supposed to know it was his.

My username is randomly generated, but also not ironic in this situation. Freedom has nothing to do with this.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago
[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Yeah but they have video of him too. Idk the case well enough but I assume the gun itself wasn’t enough to prove he did it.

[–] bluGill@fedia.io 0 points 1 day ago (2 children)

when you fire a gun scratches are left on the bullet that are enough of a unique fingerprint to trace to the gun.

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Forensic "science" like bullet marking analysis is actually pseudo-science and is not supported by peer reviewed scientific evidence or study. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.302.5651.1625

[–] venusaur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yeah but is each 9mm unique from the next?