Sen. Ed Markey: ‘3D Printer Cartridge as Deadly as a Gun Cartridge’

While speaking with fellow Senate Democrats against 3D printed guns, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) described 3D printer cartridges as being “as deadly as a gun cartridge.”

Markey referenced firearms without serial numbers — calling them “untraceable firearms” — then referenced “purely plastic firearms,” which he described as “firearms … [that] will pass through metal detectors without a blip, a buzz, or a bell that it is going on.”

He said the “online availability of downloadable firearms is a public safety crisis.”

“We now live in a world where a 3D printer cartridge has become as deadly as a gun cartridge,” @SenMarkey. “It’s the ultimate gun loophole. Why buy them if you can print them at home instead?” #tictocnews pic.twitter.com/5ejpad2nyE

— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) July 31, 2018

The description of “purely plastic firearms” passing through metal detectors is a revival of the very same arguments Democrats made against Glock handguns in the 1980s. They made these arguments even though Glocks have a metal slide, metal internal parts, and metal strips in stress points in their polymer frames.

Nevertheless, the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 was passed, outlawing any gun that is capable of passing through a metal detector without detection.

So the creation of the type of gun Sen. Markey describes is already illegal.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.